The Taming of the Shrew :: The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew Shrew--1Free, Mary. â€Å"Hortensio’s Role in Closing The Taming of the Shrew’s Induction,† RenaissancePapers 1999 (1999): 43-53.1Laurie E. Maguire, â€Å"Cultural Control in The Taming of the Shrew,†Renaissance Drama 26 (1995): 83.2Larry S. Champion, The Evolution of Shakespeare’s Comedy: A Study inDramatic Perspective, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), 38. 3David Bevington, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, updated 4thed. (NewYork: Longman 1997), 110.Hortensio’s Role in Closing The Taming of the Shrew’s InductionThe minor characters in The Taming of the Shrew receive little critical attention and to anextent rightly so. As Laurie E. Maguire points out, â€Å"To say that Shakespeare’s [play] is. . .abouttaming is to state the obvious: the ‘wooing’ of Katherine by Petruchio, perhaps more than anyother main plot in Shakespeare, dominates performance and criticism.†1The minor charactersserve primarily, according to Larry S. Champion, as "comic pointers" to the main plot's action oras dupes to the more clever.2To relegate Hortensio to either of these categories, however,ignores his centrality as motivator of the main plot, and although David Bevington findsHortensio â€Å"laughably inept†3--he functions, in fact, as the main plot’s lynchpin. Hortensio isthe first to draw our attention to the shrewish Katherine, and it is he who seizes the opportunity S hrew--2Free, Mary. â€Å"Hortensio’s Role in Closing The Taming of the Shrew’s Induction,† RenaissancePapers 1999 (1999): 43-53.4See Martha Andrensen-Thom, â€Å"Shrew-Taming and Other Rituals of Aggression:Baiting and Bonding on the Stage and in the Wild,† Women’s Studies 9, no. 2(1982): 121-143; Ann Barton, Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew, in TheRiverside Shakespeare, 2d ed., gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton,1997),138-41; Emily Detmer, â€Å"Civilizing Subordination: Domestic Violence inThe Taming of the Shrew,† Shakespeare Quarterlyâ€Å" 48, no. 3 (fall 1997): 273-294; Jean E. Howard, Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew, in The NortonShakespeare, gen. ed. Stephen Greenblatt (New York: Norton, 1997), 133-141;Natasha Korda, â€Å"Household Kates: Domesticating Commodities in The Taming of theShrew,† Shakespeare Quarterly 47, no. 2 (summer 1996): 110-131; and Murray J.Levith, Shakespeare’s Italian Set tings and Plays (New York: St. Martin’s,1989), 46-53.5See Richard A. Burt, â€Å"Charisma, Coercion, and Comic Form in The Taming ofthe Shrew, Criticism 26, no.4 (fall 1984): 295-311; and Jeanne Addison Roberts,â€Å"Horses and Hermaphrodites: Metamorphoses in The Taming of the Shrew,†Shakespeare Quarterly 34, no.2 (summer 1983): 159-171.to suggest Katherine as a wife for Petruchio. More important to my purpose, however, isHortensio's function in the play's final two acts. While several critics–Martha Andrensen-Thom,Ann Barton, Emily Detmer, Jean E.