Save Face

Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew starts out in a very
powerful way. The play opens with a tavern hostess and Christopher Sly
having a conversation. The hostess that is putting up with Christopher
Sly tells him that she will put him in the ‘stocks’ is he doesn’t
change his ways towards her. She follows up her threat by calling him
a ‘rouge’ (a very bad thing during Shakespeare’s times). The hostess
does not seem to care that she is a woman and Sly is a man. She is
intent on putting Sly in his place no matter what.
Sly’s comment back to the hostess is a derogatory one and so a main
motif in Shakespeare’s well-known comedy is born. Domestication. The
hostess wants to tame Sly by publicly binding and humiliating him.
Sly’s quick comeback is as simple and as sexist as they come. By
calling the hostess a ‘baggage’ or a ‘whore’, Sly is thinking on his
feet. He is using the most direct form of speech that will insult any
women. A small threat to his manhood and he punches below the belt.
Sly is hoping to gain control and power over the hostess by calling
her an insult intended only for women. Sly is trying to domesticate
and tame an unruly woman who has just threatened his manhood. This is
how this comedy begins. In just the first two lines of the play, this
sexism sets the stage (literally) for the rest of the play.
      In 1.1.14 we are introduced to the Lord. The Lord plays with this
idea of domestication while he speaks about his dogs. The Lord names
the dogs and discusses which one will be best to train. He talks about
‘leashing’ the dogs. He uses words like ‘esteem’, ‘better’, and
‘deep-mouthed’. The Lord’s choice of words lets the reader know that
he is familiar with these dogs. They are a product of his training,
his domestication. The Lord seems to know the unique personalities of
these hounds and is proud of them. We have not seen the Lord interact
with anyone other than the huntsman, but can assume that he is a man
who is set in his ways. With his first speech, he is a man who thinks
what he does and how he acts is correct. He has a title a Lord and
seems to abuse that. The reader knows much about the Lord and his
position in the play just by reading his first speech a few lines in
to the play.
      The characters in The Taming of the Shrew display the need to control
someone or something. This control comes across as forced
domestication in Shakespeare’s play. This domestication leads to the
feeling of power. The hostess wanted to show Sly her power and control
when she told him she would put him in the stocks. Sly exhibited the
need for control when he called the hostess a ‘baggage’ (whore). The
Lord shows his need to be in control and exude power when he explains
his fleet of dogs. Shakespeare shows us that the need for
domestication in The Taming of the Shrew knows no sex or status. Power
comes from the ability to control and tame other people, or animals.
The first three characters we meet set up this common threads that run
through Shakespeare comedy. Had it been the Lord and three of his
underlings I think the message would pack less of a punch.