Master's Thesis
“’My Remedy is Then to Pluck it Out’: The Early Modern Humors and the Curing of a Shrew" by Alisha A. Geary
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has been a troubling play for many audiences in its performance history. Many view it as misogynistic, violent, and dangerous. Others see it as a classic love farce that portrays the bawdy and lusty road to true love. However, in the context of early modern medicinal beliefs, humoral discourse defines Petruchio's actions toward Kate as a cure for a troubling medical problem, an imbalance in humors. Petruchio becomes a physician figure whose “remedy” allows Katherine to control her psychological and physiological state, and take on the roles prescribed to women in a patriarchal society. In the play, Petruchio teaches Kate to regulate her body temperature, her diet, and her bodily functions. By reading the play this way, it becomes a socially conservative text that presents control of women’s bodies as benign and also curative. |