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- Title
Encouraging Whistle Berries: Paradoxical Intervention in The Taming of the Shrew.
- Authors
Raspa, Richard
- Abstract
The choice between living by obedience and living by exasperation is a little observed theme in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Derived from the Latin root, Ob-audire, obedience means to pay attention. In this sense, the domestic quarrels between Petruchio and Katherine concern paying attention to spouses rather than following their orders. This obedience/exasperation dichotomy arises in the deconstruction of the frenzy between Petruchio and Katherine and reveals gaps in the play's patriarchal interpretation. Petruchio's treatment of Katherine is a psychological strategy that resembles Milton Erickson's paradoxical intervention. Petruchio's objective is to transform Katherine's uncontrolled wildness-what Erickson called Whistle Berries in his therapeutic practice-into a sensibility ready for marital intimacy. In the process, Petruchio's own petulance and shrew-like behavior is ironically tempered. In the comic resolution, the impulsivity and the brawling of both husband and wife have been tamed and gives way to the experience of intimacy.
- Subjects
TAMING of the Shrew, The (Play : Shakespeare); SHAKESPEARE, William, 1564-1616; PARADOX; OBEDIENCE; PETRUCHIO (Fictional character : Shakespeare); IMPULSE (Psychology); INTIMACY (Psychology) in the theater; SPOUSES' legal relationship
- Publication
Mediterranean Studies (Manchester University Press), 2010, Vol 19, Issue 1, p102
- ISSN
1074-164X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/mediterraneanstu.19.2010.0102