Shakespeare’s Realities

  

Shakespeare’s Realities

             Critics of the 18th century perceive Shakespeare as a realist because of the aliveness of his characters and their similarity to people of everyday life. Creative use of language is amazing that makes one fully understand the realities and principles of human nature. Shakespeare's living characters and the language they used creates reality. In many of Shakespeare’s plays, the theme of appearance and reality is prominent. The appearances are deceptive and conceal reality. We will find ultimate realities like death in his plays. Other realities that he focuses on in his plays include the reality of human nature. The reality of common social life and the realities of human relationships and domestic matters. He explores love, marriage, social structure, and gender roles. The universality of themes and deep understanding of human nature make his plays more realistic.  Each character’s sense of reality has been created and shaped because of their relationship to language. Shakespeare has a variety of perceptions of realities; Reality around us in nature and society. Reality is created in our imagination. A suggested or speculated reality of something beyond death that can be the subject of contemplation. The Taming of the Shrew raises social issues, especially gender issues.

            In the comedy, “The Taming of the Shrew” William Shakespeare explores the relationship between love and money. In the play, Hortensio says, “I will be married to a wealthy widow”. There are realistic details of the sixteen-century world as courtship and marriage are based on wealth. The most common interest of people is money. The aim of Shakespeare is not to show the mores of society, but to highlight values as well. In the Taming of the Shrew, there are three practical marriages and all-female characters end up married. Marriage is seen as one of the major conditions in society. Shakespeare’s heroine, Kate, in the play refuses to abide by these Renaissance ideals of womanly submission. Her self-confidence and independence, which the male characters disparage by calling her a “devil,” threaten the hierarchical organization of Renaissance society in which women were believed inferior. The price of Kate’s resistance is summed up in Hortensio’s taunt, “No mates for you unless she were of gentler, milder mold”. In the end, the shrew has tamed means that Kate has transformed into a kind and gentlewoman. Bianca and the widow refuse to do their husbands’ bidding at the very moment Kate has learned to obey. In the play, the gap between Renaissance ideals of submissive femininity and the realities of women’s behavior is wide. Generic models and conventions, both popular and elite depict the way Shakespeare portrays the characters and actions. Each character in the play occupies a specific social position that carries with it certain expectations about how that person should behave. A person's social position is defined by things such as his or her wealth, gender, profession, parentage, and education; the norms governing how each of them should behave are harshly enforced by family, friends, and society as a whole. For example, Lucentio occupies the social role of a wealthy young student, Tranio that of a servant, and Bianca and Katherine the roles of upper-class. The play shows, in reality, that Kate wants nothing to do with her social role and her rudeness results directly from her frustration concerning her position. She does not live up to the behavioral expectations of her society, she faces the disapproval of that society, and, due to her alienation, she becomes miserably unhappy. Shakespeare's plays depict the realities and portray a realistic society.