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.