To Wed or Not To Wed

It is often wondered if Shakespeare wrote his characters based on people whom he knew in his life, because the characters are so vivid and so diverse that no two are anything alike. It’s his female characters that especially stand out. Take for example Kate from Taming of the Shrew and Miranda from the Tempest, who are as opposite as can be: Kate is outspoken and often speaks her mind, while Miranda is mindful and listens to everything her father says.  Kate dislikes Petruchio when they first meet, but Miranda falls in love at first sight of Ferdinand.  Kate is forced to marry Petruchio, where Miranda is in agony to watch Ferdinand suffer in order to prove his love for her. Despite the two female characters being so very different, their fathers want what's best for them: good marriages to men who will provide for them.

First, the women of the two plays are as different as night and day as one is straightforward in speech while the other is heedful.  Kate from Taming of the Shrew is seen as being too outspoken and is the reason for the play taking on the name 'shrew.'   When Hortensio finds out that Petruchio is looking for a wife, he begins telling Petruchio about Kate, but describes her as "intolerable curst,/ And shrewd and froward so beyond all measure" (I.ii. 70-71).  True to form, when we first see Kate, she doesn't hold her tongue at all and speaks plainly what's on her mind. In her first scene, Kate says to her father, "I pray you, sir, is it your will / To make a stale of me amongst these mates?" (I.i.57-58). She mocks him outright, showing that she is disagreeable by nature, but she is not wrong.  Instead of standing there quietly while Baptista basically pimps out his daughters to suitors, she demands to know his intentions.  It is forward and unbecoming of a woman to speak out in front of would-be husbands and to speak so abruptly to her father, and thus makes her look like the shrew everyone calls her.  Whereas in the Tempest, Miranda's first scene shows her hanging on to her father's every word, listening and obeying him completely. Prospero, explaining her heritage, keeps making sure she's paying attention, "Sir, most heedfully" (I.ii.79) and “O, good sir, I do” (I.ii.89) is how she responds to him.  Miranda is completely taken by the story that her father tells to her and listens as an obedient child should. She behaves just as an obedient daughter should behave unlike Kate of Taming of the Shrew.  Kate is outspoken while Miranda is not.

Next, we see the differences in the two females even further upon their reactions of meeting their intended fiancés within the plays.  The audience is shown that Kate does not like Petruchio when they first meet in the second act during the exchange between the two to be wed.  Kate says to Petruchio to be gone, "Moved,” in good time. Let him that moved you hither/Remove you hence. I knew you at the first/You were a moveable" (II.i. 190-191).  However, Petruchio insists on calling Katherine Kate in his ploy to subdue the terrible shrew, to which Kate replies, "Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing./They call me Katherine that do talk of me" (II.i.177-178).  At her first opportunity, she's already correcting Petruchio and being as obstinate as possible. All throughout the next several lines, she contradicts him at every point, insisting that she is not his and that she does not love him, "Too light for such a swain as you to catch,/And yet as heavy as my weight should be" (II.i.198-199).  However, with Miranda, she has a very different take on her future husband. She sees him at the behest of her father and instantly thinks him handsome and falls in love. When Miranda first sees Ferdinand, she says, "I might call him/A thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble" (I.ii.413-414). She admits to herself aloud saying that she has feelings for Ferdinand almost immediately, "Why speaks my father so ungently? This/Is the third man that e'er I saw, the first/That e'er I sighed for. Pity move my father/To be inclined my way!" (I.ii.440-443). So, while Kate tries to dismiss Petruchio, Miranda falls head over heels for Ferdinand and wants nothing more than to be with him.

The final major difference is indeed the fact that both women have opposite responses to whom they are to marry: while Kate refuses, Miranda is eager to hers. Petruchio explains in no uncertain terms that she is to be his wife, whether she likes it or not, "setting all this chat aside,/Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented/That you shall be my wife, your dowry 'greed on,/And, will you, nill you, I will marry you" (II.i.258-61). Kate continues to refuse, even to the point of wishing him dead, "I’ll see thee hanged on Sunday first" (II.i.289).  At this point in the play, Kate still refuses to change and to stay the shrew, still expressing herself, no matter how difficult everyone finds her.  However, in the Tempest, Ferdinand professes his love directly to Miranda saying, "Oh, if a virgin,/And your affection not gone forth, I’ll make you/The queen of Naples" (I.ii.445-46).  Prospero proceeds to try to make life miserable for Ferdinand, to which Miranda begs him not to, "O dear father,/Make not too rash a trial of him, for/He’s gentle and not fearful" (I.ii.469-70). The only time that it appears Miranda has a backbone is when she’s singing of her love’s virtues and praising him to her father in order to keep him from torturing Ferdinand.  However, it is merely a test in order to determine if Ferdinand truly loves Miranda and is not just taken over with lust by her beauty and innocence.  Miranda even goes so far as to say she will do Ferdinand's work for him, "If you’ll sit down,/I’ll bear your logs the while. Pray, give me that./I’ll carry it to the pile (III.i.23-25).  Of course Ferdinand refuses, to which Miranda expresses that she's just as able to do his work as him, "It would become me/As well as it does you, and I should do it/With much more ease, for my good will is to it/And yours it is against" (III.i.29-30).  But Miranda is willing to do what she can for Ferdinand and he is willing to do the same, they both will work hard to be with one another.

In conclusion, even though the two female characters in Shakespeare's plays are so very different, they both end up the same way: married.  Kate does eventually bend to her husband's will, while Miranda finally escapes the island to which she and her father were banished to with her husband. Do they live happily ever after? Well, the audience can decide for themselves. In the end, it didn't matter that Kate was obstinate and outspoken, nor did it matter that Miranda was naive and obeyed without fail. Because in the end, they both got what each father wanted for them, and that was to be married and taken care of for the rest of their lives.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Illinois: World Library Inc., 2010. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Web. 26 Jan 2014.