Taste and Touch as Means of Coercion in The Taming of the Shrew

Abstract

In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina, the “shrew” of the title, is immediately and unsurprisingly described as choleric. Her suitor and later, husband, Petruccio accordingly attempts to subdue the excessive humour in her body by mitigating it with the complementary humour of melancholy. He thus tries to reach a hypothetical balance of humours which, by restoring Katherina’s good health, would also make her return within the bounds of society as an obedient wife. The taming techniques Petruccio implements are not only inspired by falconry manuals, but also resemble some of the treatments suggested in the medical treatises of the time, such as the favouring or avoiding of certain types of food, which were thought to have either beneficial or detrimental effects on the humours. In IV. 3, Petruccio repeatedly offers and withdraws food and clothes from Katherina, using the most physical and immediate of the five senses, i.e. taste and touch, to manipulate her humours and force her into submission. Yet Katherina’s final speech, which extols the virtues of the submissive housewife, calls the efficacy of such methods into question while revealing the circulation of the humours within the play.

Keywords

• Shakespeare
• The Taming of the Shrew
• gender
• taste
• touch
• humours