THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

The Taming of the shrew.

When watching The Taming of the shrew in lesson with Sharon, i thought the film would be rather boring and not relevant. Having said that, i more than take that straight back, the film portrayed several references throughout the film of Queen Elizabeth I. 

Starting with Shirley Hendersons attitude throughout the film is a great examples for one of the several references, Queen Elizabeth was extremely powerful and you see this in the film with the main actress Katherine Minola (Shirley Henderson). Both Katherine and Queen Elizabeth, were asked to marry to improve her public apperance and to be seen as a powerful politican as for Elizabeth the as a Queen. Katherine's Sister 'Bianca is the exact opposite, she is a gorgeous female who loved to be pictured. During the film you see Bianca's apartment, where she hung portraits of herself on walls and cabinet tops. This evoked me of Elizabeth and how she loved to be in control of how she looked/portrayed in her images to the public. 

During The taming of the shrew, you see Katherine wears a lot of black, this enforces she is wealthy, Katherine's family wore black, white, beiges and fur pieces of clothing. Eventually you are introduced to Bianca's Agent, in the begining of the film he is seen to be wearing bright and colourful garments this in seen as someone with little money, as in the Elizabethan age people with colour worked on the land and was exposed to sun. During the end of the film when he is ready to marry Bianca's mum he is seen in fur. Katherine's mum is seen to be wearing jewels, colourful jewels infact, this refreshes images of Queen Elizabeth wearing jewels and pearls which we're a symbol of her position if the Queen. 

Overall the film inspired me to think more into what actually was Elizabethan reference and how to come about them, It taught me to research more into the Elizabethan era and not to pick the first thing you see, as i would of never picked up on the taming of the shrew without watching in it in Sharon's lesson. I really enjoyed the film and would recommend into anyway studying the Elizabethan era.

The Taming of the Shrew – Shakespeare Retold (no date). Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Available at: http://www.shakespearefilms.com/the-taming-of-the-shrew-shakespeare-retold/ (Accessed: 6 December 2014).