Class: Shakespeare Authority in Marriage in the play the taming of the shrew and the wife of Bath First. Introduction Marriage is an important element in the play “The Taming of the Shrew” which indicates that woman should obey her husband, her lord, in order to lead a successful marital relationship. In other words, woman is simply a commodity belongs to her husband with no autonomy while man controls everything from economy to freedom of thinking and speaking. However, one of the best-known tales of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales “The Wife of Bath” also plays with the same marriage theme and discusses about the authority in marriage but provides a contrast opinion. The wife of Bath indicates that woman should hold back sex in order to gain authority in marriage.
This suggests that in the court women are seen as the possession of men, they are the possession of their father until they marry the man her father deems suitable, then the ‘burden’ is passed unto the husband. This shows that in the court women have no power and that the men rule over them. Theseus also says if Hermia refuses to marry the man she will “either to die the death, or to abjure forever the society of men”. This shows the consequences there are if one goes against the hierarchy and rules of the court. It also shows how much more important men are to women as it says “either to die the death”, which suggests that
Rubin maintains that in order to change the mentality of such a society, its character must be modified. Thus, the sex of women is not the issue; it is the social construction of gender that is responsible for a woman becoming "a domestic, a wife, a chattel, a Playboy bunny, a prostitute, or human dictaphone in certain relations” (533). The traffic of Janie begins when Nanny hurries to marry her off to an acceptable suitor when it becomes apparent that Janie is feeling the urges of womanhood. Nanny fears that Janie will be taken advantage of by an undesirable man, so she marries her off to Logan Brooks. By doing this, Nanny hopes to prevent men from exercising their advantage that she thinks they possess in society.
(2) Marriage creates families and promotes social stability. But there is a weakness in his argument such as: (1) Decision to marry belongs to the individual not the government and if tradition were the only measure, most states would still limit matrimony to partners of the same race (para. 6). Stoddard is making an argument, offering a thesis: Reasons gay marriage should be legalized. He begins his successful argument using the appeal to emotion
Brady uses irony in her essay by saying she wants a wife when she already has a husband. This is ironic because women usually want a husband and men are the one’s asking for a wife. She was also being ironic by saying she wanted a wife when she could have just asked for a maid. Of course if she used maid instead of wife it would have defeated the purpose of the essay, but it is still ironic. Brady’s tone seems to be sarcastic.
Jocasta isn’t really known for being deceiving or manipulative in this play, but she does try to convince her husband that all of the prophecies are not true at all. The prophecy with Oedipus is that he was supposed to kill his father and marry his mother, when Jocasta and her late husband Laius found out the prophecy of their new born son, they casted him out of Thebes to die. But in fact that baby did not die because he was taken in by king Polybus and queen Merope of Corinth. Then later on in the play Oedipus gets word of his father’s death in Corinth and then finds out in fact that Polybus was not his biological father at all. When all of the takes place and Oedipus gets back to Thebes, Jocasta realizes that the prophecies could be true and she tries to convince Oedipus that they are not because she and Laius’s son died after they got word of the prophecy that was foretold to them.
Jason says “Cypris was alone responsible,” meaning Medea’s falling in love wasn’t natural but wholly caused by a goddess. Jason identifies and applauds Medea’s reasonings of the “attack on [his] wedding,” to persuade her to believe that his getting married to the princess could end happily for everyone. He tries to explain his reasonings of leaving Medea by first listing the reasons he is not leaving her, followed by a shift, and then telling why he is leaving her and how it could be a benefit to not only himself, but to her and the children also. Jason wisely uses logical placements of sequencing words throughout his speech. “Firstly,” “secondly,” and “next” help his argument because they give his speech some order.
The repression of women and the suspicions of a patriarchal society lead to rebellion and hysteria. Suppression prevents female character developing. Miller portrays women as weak, it seems that he uses his own view of women and presents it in the crucible. Hale shows authority over Abigail: ‘You can not evade me Abigail’ here he expresses his control and power, Hale puts pressure onto Abigail to tell the truth; is she lies he knows that she will be believe over him because of his male dominance. The use of ‘evade’ tells Abigail that he cannot be overcome and therefore she cannot overcome god like she has taken control of the Girls.
The marriage was representative of the relationship between the two families chosen. The marital contract was between the father of the bride and the groom, while the new bride’s dowry was given to the groom’s father’s brother. This helped insure the fact that if the groom were to ever pass, it would be the brother’s duty to find the widow another husband. Athenian women were objectified. They were sold off into marriage; they had no say in who they married.
Hortensio tries to persuade Petruchio to marry Kate, “And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favored wife? Thou’dst thank me but a little for my counsel...I’ll promise thee she shall be rich...But thou’rt too much my friend, And I’ll not wish thee to her” (Shakespeare 53). He acknowledges his dislike for her rough personality and this quote makes it evident that money is the only reason Kate is useful.