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Petruchio's Role

Petruchio is a dynamic character that has a significant influence on the plot of "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. The drama centers on the marraige of Bianca, Babtista's youngest daughter. Because she is younger, Babtista has ordered that before she can be married, his eldest daughter Katherine must be wed first. The difficulty lies with Katherine's inability to attract suitors, due to her feisty, headstrong nature. Petruchio's primary role in the drama is to court Katherine, while freeing Bianca to marry one of her suitors.

Petruchio also takes it upon himself to subdue Katherine's feisty nature, or in other words, "tame the shrew." His endeavor is the primary conflict of the novel. The methods that he uses to "tame" her also have an effect on the tone and plot of the play, as they add humor and tension to many scenes. For example, during his wedding, Petruchio arrives dressed in very abnormal attire, unfit for his wedding day. This action, in an attempt to teach Katherine humility, undermines the formal and tense atmosphere of his wedding, and has a comedic effect on his audience. Another action that has a significant effect on the tone and plot of the novel is when after his wedding, Petruchio takes his Katherine home and effectively starves and deprives her of sleep. The severity of Petruchio's methods give the play a twisted feel and make his eventual success of "taming" Katherine a hollow one.

Petruchio's actions are all very significant, as they are the foundation for most of the play. The other events of the plot, including Bianca's and Lucentio's marriage, are fundamentally intertwined and essentially determined by the fate of Petruchio and Katherine. Because of this, the statement can be made that without Petruchio's involvement in the play, there would be hardly a plot, and no dramatic tension.

Setting the Shakespearean Stage

Because of the visual limits of his stage, Shakespeare had to rely on verbal cues to illustrate the events of his story to his audience. In his drama, "The Taming of the Shrew" Shakespeare incorporates these verbal cues and effectively gives the audience an elaborate image that the visual elements of the stage at the time could probably not equally portray.

In the scene at the beginning of Act 4, Grumio is ordered to make a fire on a very cold day. In order to convey the surroundings, Shakespeare has Grumio enter with a direct statement to the audience, detailing the environment. Grumio enters the scene proclaiming, "...Was ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are coming after to warm them. Now were not I a little pot and soon hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to thaw me." Grumio's descriptive monologue indicates that the scene takes place in Petruchio's house and that it is very cold. Using Grumio as a method for setting the scene, Shakespeare is able to portray the surroundings to the audience, giving them a clear sensory image that is able to draw them in past merely a visual conception of the scene. The audience is practically able to feel Grumio's suffering as the descriptiveness of his language appeals to many primary senses. His statement, "My very lips might freeze to my teeth" gives the audience an enhanced visual image on top of a sensation of perceived touch as one in the audience would imagine the feeling of this happening to his or herself. Also, In Shakespeare's time, one would probably not be able to host a genuine fire onstage, so the statement, "ere I should come by a fire to thaw me," acts as a visual replacement for the fire that would not have been present at the time. It relieves the audience of the tension built-up during Grumio's rant, as they percieve the relaxing nature of a warm, crackling fire on a cold day. Shakespeare's descriptive language substitutes the need for a complete visual representation of the scene, and conveys a sensory experience that engulfs the audience, drawing them in for every minute of the play.

Paralysis in Eveline

In James Joyce's short story, "Eveline," his protagonist, after a last-minute debate, decides not to partake of a long-term, life-changing move to Buenos Ayres with her potential husband. The protagonist, names Eveline, hesitates and ultimately does not board the ship that would tear her away from her home and her familiarities. Originally intending to get away from the life she thought she loathed, and a father she thought she hated, she looked to Frank to spare her and give her life. She hoped he would provide for her what her father couldn't since her mother died: a loving and unhostile environment. With these thoughts just hours before, it was set that she was going to go. Its was not expected then, that just minutes before the beginning of this new life, an epiphany would enlighten her with the reality of her actions. The nature of the epiphany was this: It was eventually obvious that her intention of having a loving life with Frank was merely a premise for her to convince her that a different life was even necessary. She realized that she really didn't love Frank, and going away would tear her from all that she knew and loved. She even reconvinced herself that her provocative and possibly abusive father was caring and loving by recollecting a time when he read her ghost stories. She realized that her only memories of her dead mother and brother were in the home that she was raised. She grew to need her life and her identity and running off with someone she didn't love wouldn't solve the problem. This epiphany is the cause of her last minute paralysis, causing Frank to board the ship while she watched helplessly from the rail.

Sympathy for a Bug

Franz Kafka, through his novella, "The Metamorphosis," does attempt to evoke sympathy for his protagonist, Gregor Samsa. Though the life of the Samsa family continues on relatively smoothly after Gregor's transformation into a beetle, there are many vivid images that depict Gregor's situation in a way designed to evoke emotion from the readers. One example of this would be in the paragraph in which Kafka describes the lodgers listening to Grete play violin, while Gregor is transfixed by the beauty of the music. In that paragraph on page 130 of the novel, or 99 in the reader, Kafka describes the filth that contaminated Gregor during the moment he begins venturing out of the room. He writes, "And yet on this occasion he had more reason than ever to hide himself, since, owing to the amount of dust that lay thick in his room and rose into the air at the slightest movement, he too was covered in dust; fluff and hair and remnants of food trailed with him, caught on his back and along his sides; his indifference to everything was much too great for him to turn on his back and scrape himself clean on the carpet, as once he had done several times a day." Though the image is very vivid and grotesque, the neglect that this filth implies gives readers a sense of sympathy for his situation. Kafka, through this image, is giving readers a detailed look into the situation Gregor is in, and how it is affecting him. The next paragraph, during which Gregor is mesmerized by Grete's music, he reflects, "Was he an animal, that music had such an effect upon him?" Gregor asks this question of himself, though Kafka in this scene directs it to the readers. He asks the readers to ponder whether Gregor's physical transformation merits the treatments he recieves. Further in the paragraph, Gregor continues to crawl towards her and remarks, "He was determined to push forward until he reached his sister, to pull at her skirt and so let her know that she was to come into his room with her violin, for no one here appreciated her playing as he would appreciate it." This sign of desperation for interaction and company shows the effects of Gregor's isolation on his human side. The readers are able to see the toll of his exile on his mental state, and in effect can understand and sympathize with him. Kafka, through this scene, does a good job in drawing emotion and sympathy out of his readers. Through the sympathy he tries to evoke, Kafka poses the question of whether Gregor is still human or completely a bug, and if he should be treated as such. He allows readers to ponder over his inhumane treatment and whether it is justified.

Integrated Analysis on Kafka

Franz Kafka, in his novella, "The Metamorphosis," shows Gregor's changing mentality and physical reality. As Gregor's physical characteristics degrade, his link with the human world does as well. Kafka focuses on Gregor's physical change, but it is fundamentally the mental breakdown that Kafka demonstrates through the situation. Part of him still feels human as he attempts to explain his condition to the head clerk. As the story progresses, Gregor is less and less human, and more insect-like. He begins to accept that he can no longer provide for his family, something he obsessed about before the transformation. Gregor's family also goes through a transformation. They each change their attitudes toward money, each other, and life. They switch roles as Gregor becomes dependant on his family and they become the provider. The Article Myriad writes, "As this character analysis of Gregor in "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka suggests, his mother, father, and his sister have not changed form, but their metamorphoses are the most profound because they demonstrate how easily one’s beliefs, values, and basic treatment of others can be compromised because of a failure to adapt psychologically." Gregor becomes more and more of a burden as their transformations become more complete. Grete, Gregor's sister, was kindest to him before he changed, but is the first to want to dispose of him. Gregor's metamorphosis is a physical representation of the mental isolation he had before he transformed, and his death shows the psychological corruption of his family: the effect of their transformation.

Goodman? Brown

Nathanial Hawthorne, through his protagonist's encounters in his narrative, "Young Goodman Brown," explores the question of whether or not man is inherently evil. Hawthorne's protagonist, named goodman Brown, goes on a journey of self-search that questions his former notions about his faith. It is true that Brown ultimately decides not to partake from the evil he submerses himself in, however through Hawthorne's tone towards the events, and by the outcome of the story, it seems that Hawthorne does consider humanity to be inherently evil. Hawthorne also hints that rather than religion correcting the evil that is inherent in humans, it merely sets it off and is expressed through different means . One key factor of this statement is Brown's original decision to go on this journey within the forest. The fact is that we, as readers, are not given any indication as to why Brown decides to go into the forest in the first place. By not revealing Brown's original motives, he leads readers to take for granted his decision to go, and by that, hints that man is indeed inherently evil. Though Hawthorne never asks us to question Brown's intentions throughout his journey, it is obvious what temptations keep him going. These temptations include the old man and every townsperson that is met along the way. This speaks to Hawthorne's belief that evil is manifested in every society through these advocates of sin that bring others down to their primordial evil instincts. The fact that even the religious leaders are sinners in the story, indicates that Hawthorne does not believe that religion corrects sin, but covers it up. This can be seen in his description of the next morning when, "The good old minister was taking a walk along the graveyard, to get an appetite for breakfast and meditate his sermon, and bestowed a blessing, as he passed, on goodman Brown." The final outcome of the story shows Hawthorne's true tone towards evil and religion as Brown becomes a bitter and distrusting man due to the happenings within the forest. Through Brown's fate, Hawthorne reveals his cynical thoughts about religion and its role in society, as well as reinforces that man is inherently evil.