The Taming of the Shrew Lesson Plan

Discuss Katharine's final monologue.

The crux of most negative criticism of The Taming of the Shrew is this final monologue. Indeed, it is hard to accept such lines as these: "Such duty as the subject owes the prince, / Even such a woman oweth to her husband; / And when she is forward, peevish, sullen, sour, / And not obedient to his honest will, / What is she but a foul contending rebel / And graceless traitor to her loving lord?" How are modern audiences to take such a blatant affirmation of sexism, of female subjugation before the male "lord"?

But perhaps we need not take the speech at face value at all. A strong current of irony runs through it. To consider first...