VI
THE FOLK ORIGIN OF THE TAMING
Trace the antiquity of this schooling of a wife, and the resemblances and contrasts in the chief variants of the story (for help in this see Sources in "First Folio Edition").
Is there any progress to be discerned in the degree of bodily force deemed expedient?
Is any such scheme of the marriage-relation compatible with advanced civilization, or is it peculiar to crude notions of life in a taming age?
QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION
Is the folk-legend indicative of an inherent relation in marriage of the male and female natures, or is it merely an expression of established custom and legalized institution upon gaining for each the aims and line of conduct desired? If so, is the result of the process to gain a ground of mutual compromise and accommodation and a division of labor in joint life which will enable the process itself to fall into disuse.
Is coercion of others consistent with a high grade of individuality?
Did Petruchio play the Tamer in a "Pickwickian sense" and the whole thing being a bit of acting, did Kate see through it, finally, and play her part too?
The use of finesse in the Play (see Introduction to the Play "First
Folio Edition").
Does Shakespeare's way of handling the characters and the process of taming materially differ from the way prevailing both in the crude folk tales and in "A Shrew?"
Does he suggest that in both Petruchio's and Kate's case they are merely bent upon their own individual emotions until closer relation makes them join forces?
What is the modern bearing of Shakespeare's way of putting the story?
Partnership and co-operation versus autocratic rule: Are the administrative advantages of the latter consonant with the good will and continual psychical development furthered by the former?
Does the intellectual advantage rest with the user of force or with the mind that accommodates itself to force by gaining its ends by stratagem and other indirect policies?
Is coercion as wise as persuasion which has no such penalties to pay?