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A review by josiahdegraaf
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
3.0
I'm beginning to wonder if I should just stop attempting to read Shakespearean comedies (as opposed to watching them) since I don't really find them all that humorous, and a large part of that may be due to what is lost when you're simply reading a script.
I wasn't entirely sure what to make of this infamous play. Petrarchio's work to "tame" Katherine is presumably supposed to be humorous? But even though Katherine is really not a great person at the beginning of the play, I wasn't sure that watching someone abuse an abuser to teach that abuser not to be abusive is really the type of humor I want to be laughing at.
I'm aware that there's a lot of debate about how straight/ironic to be reading Katherine's conversion. I haven't read enough of the commentary to be able to engage meaningfully with all the perspectives. For now, though, whether it be due to issues with the premise or the fact that I read this on paper, I only found the play to be mildly entertaining and didn't see all the humor I presume other readers found in this work.
Rating: 3 Stars (Okay).
I wasn't entirely sure what to make of this infamous play. Petrarchio's work to "tame" Katherine is presumably supposed to be humorous? But even though Katherine is really not a great person at the beginning of the play, I wasn't sure that watching someone abuse an abuser to teach that abuser not to be abusive is really the type of humor I want to be laughing at.
I'm aware that there's a lot of debate about how straight/ironic to be reading Katherine's conversion. I haven't read enough of the commentary to be able to engage meaningfully with all the perspectives. For now, though, whether it be due to issues with the premise or the fact that I read this on paper, I only found the play to be mildly entertaining and didn't see all the humor I presume other readers found in this work.
Rating: 3 Stars (Okay).