Aspects of comedy: example student response band 4, Paper 1B, Section B

Here's an example student response to a Section B question in the sample assessment materials, followed by an examiner commentary on the response.

Sample student response: band 4

'If the audience find the ending of The Taming of the Shrew funny then they are the intellectual equivalent of the drunken tinker, Christopher Sly.'

To what extent do you agree with this view?

Remember to include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare's dramatic methods.

Although The Taming of a Shrew is a comedy it is a very dark comedy and one that in the end is not very funny. I agree with the statement that if an audience were to find the end funny then they would have no sharper intellect than Christopher Sly.

Shakespeare uses an induction in this play to create the comic duping of Sly and certainly we can laugh at the events at the play's beginning. Sly is stupid and a fool. He is a drunkard who is happy to believe that he is actually a lord who has a wife (who is actually a cross dressing page). He is also very sexist and is rude to the hostess. Given his attitudes then it is likely that he will also enjoy the play which the troupe of players put on for his benefit. It is likely too that he will enjoy Kate's suppression at the end. But what real theatre audiences see at the end is not very enjoyable and it is not easy to praise what Shakespeare has done here. Petruchio promises to master Kate ('I will be master of what is mine own', calling her his 'goods' and his 'chattels') and this is what he does. Not only that but he also boasts about what he has achieved, 'an awful rule and right supremacy'.

Some people might think that there are other things that an audience can find funny at the end of the play, like the fact that Bianca and the Widow do not obey their husbands, but they are not really important characters and the play is not really about them. The title is about Kate and the ending of the play is really about Kate. Her speech is the longest in the play and in it she outlines what married women should do, how they should respect their husbands and how they should submit to their power - 'thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign'. She even says that if women do not agree with their husbands then they are traitors and that if women argue then she is ashamed that they are so simple. The worst bit of all is when she says that women should be ready to place their hands beneath their husbands' feet to show their subservience to them. This is surely not very funny especially when we think how many men today mistreat their wives. Domestic violence is a big issue in the twenty first century and it would have been an even bigger issue in the past. In Shakespeare's time it was acceptable for men to use horrible forms of torture on their wives - the bridle and the brank - to stop them from talking. These cruel iron devices often broke their teeth and pierced their tongues. Hortensio actually suggests to Petruchio that 'iron might hold with her'. However, while Kate doesn't have these instruments on her, she is still silenced by Petruchio's taming methods which are cruel in a different way.

The ending of the play is really just an extension of how Kate is treated throughout. Her father clearly favours Bianca, all the male characters she comes into contact with call her names and compare her with her goody two shoes sister and Petruchio starves her and does not allow her to sleep. He comes to Padua just to wive it wealthily. His courtship of her is seen as a sport, a game to play. Just as he tames and trains a falcon so he trains her. The allusions throughout the play to hawks and falcons are significant to the way he treats her - which is like a bird or an animal:

'my falcon is sharp and passing empty

And till she stoops, she must not be full gorged'.

The numerous animal metaphors and references that pervade the courtship of Kate and Petruchio could be seen by some to add a sexuality that is lacking in the subplot, but really they only endorse Petruchio's power and Kate's weakness. At their wedding he is particularly cruel, first turning up late and then in a way to humiliate her (her father says that even a saint would be vexed by this). Then at the end she is the subject of his bet with Baptista, Lucentio and Hortensio. He says he will venture one hundred crowns that his wife will be most obedient, more than he would venture on his 'hawk or hound'.

Another point to consider at the end of the play which does not make the play funny is the very nature of Kate. From the start she is sexually dignified, placing a lute over Hortensio's head when he becomes too familiar and in the wooing scene telling Petruchio 'farewell' if he 'talks of tales'. She is also honest, unwilling to 'put finger in the eye' like Bianca whose silence 'flouts' her because Kate loathes deceit. She is also very sad and hopeless about her treatment answering Hortensio's surprisingly polite question 'what cheer' in monosyllabic words, 'as cold as can be'. At the start of the play she speaks up for herself when she is insulted - a quality which makes her who she is. So the ending, when she becomes just a mouth piece for Petruchio is deeply disturbing. When she lectures her sister and the widow on how to behave, it is a different Kate from the Kate who we have seen during the play. She is mocked into conformity, diminished by her husband and left powerless. No longer can her tongue tell 'the anger of' her 'heart'. Her tongue has metaphorically been cut from her. When she wanted to utter the truth about the sun and moon as they journey to her father's towards the end of the play, she is forced to say what Petruchio wants. He says

Now by my mother's son, and that's myself,

It shall be moon, or star, or what I list'

and Kate can only say, 'sun it is not, when you say it is not/ And the moon changes even as your mind'. Now some critics say that Kate's agreement with Petruchio suggest that they are now a harmonious unit and indeed in comedies it is conventional to have a sense of harmony at the end and a resolution where young couples marry. However, although Shakespeare uses this pattern in this play, the harmony is only from Petruchio's point of view and perhaps those members of the audience who have an intellect equivalent to that of Sly.

Examiner commentary

This is a thorough response and it focuses well on the task. It is also coherent though this could be a little more secure. Ideas are discussed in a logical way in terms of the candidate's argument and there is some depth in the thinking. The candidate seems to know the play well and even though this is a closed book exam the quotations chosen are apt and accurate. The candidate does have a clear voice here.

AO1

The argument is well shaped and consistent. Ideas are logically sequenced and the written expression is largely precise and accurate. At times there is a lack of sophistication and a lack of control but critical literary concepts are used appropriately. Quotations are well integrated into the argument.

AO2

There is a thorough understanding of dramatic methods and relevant comments are made on the play's structure and on some aspects of language. The work on metaphor and imagery is sensibly woven into the argument.

AO3

There is a thorough understanding of the gender, social and dramatic contexts as set up in the task. Some relevant comment on the treatment of women in Elizabethan times is incorporated well. Discussion of contexts is very well linked to the comedic aspects of darkness and humour which are part of the genre.

AO4

As the candidate fully engages with the task and the question of whether the ending of the play is 'funny', there is logical and consistent exploration of humour which connects with the wider comedy genre.

AO5

There is a thorough engagement with the task and the development of an assured personal viewpoint is the strongest part of the answer. The candidate builds into the discussion the possibility of other readings, though these are confidently dismissed as the argument is driven to its conclusion.

Overall: Thorough and coherent. This response seems consistent with the Band 4 descriptors, perhaps towards the top of the range.

This resource is part of the Aspects of comedy resource package.