Taming of the Shrew essays

Taming of the Shrew essays Within The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare unfolds a plot that uses the tools of silence and misinterpretation to satirize the roles of women and marriage during Elizabethan times. Ironically, it is Katherine who is labeled a shrew, yet she has very little actual voice within this play. On the other hand, while acting in a shrewish manner, Petruchio gives voice back to Katherine in exchange for her submission. The silence of Sly is important, as his presence buffers the seriousness of the concerns raised by the perspective of his character watching a play. This leads us to question: is it Katherine who is being tamed, or is it the audiences reaction that is being tamed? During the Elizabethan era, women were expected to conduct themselves according to strict social norms. A woman was only considered suitable for marriage if she were obedient, chaste and silent in manner. For a woman to step outside of this traditional role whether by voicing an opinion in contradiction to her husband, or in not obeying his instruction was to break social order and thereby be labeled a shrew. This behavior was considered the ultimate curse to a husband. It was acceptable custom for the perpetrating wife to be carted through town, publicly humiliated and cast out of their circle of friends and neighbors. According to the historical reference in the Oxford English Dictionary, the term shrew meant an endless chattering tongue, but also denoted an evil or disdainful nature. The term was typically applied to women. Shakespeare pokes fun at the formal restrictions on behavior of females in Elizabethan society and questions the benefits of marriage in this play, yet he does so in a removed fashion through the use of Slys character most likely so as to not to invoke contempt of the court. The audience is watching Sly watching a play. Shakespeare tells us ...

apocope - definition and examples of apocope in English

apocope - definition and examples of apocope in English Apocope is a  rhetorical term for the omission of one or more sounds or syllables from the end of a word. Also called end-cut, apocope is a type of elision. Etymology: From the Greek, to cut off Examples and Observations In many poor neighborhoods, the Sandinista Front has more street cred than the local youth gang.(Tim Rogers, Even Gangsters Need Their Mamas. Time magazine, Aug. 24, 2007)Season your admiration for a while with an attent ear.(William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, scene 2)Loss of sounds from the end of a word is known as apocope, as in the pronunciation of child as chile.(Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language. Harcourt, 1982)After he left the city, thousands of people toasted him with beer at a barbie, an Australian barbecue.(Pope in Australia, The New York Times, Dec. 1, 1986)Newspapers have their own style and it is important that your feature matches it. For instance, it would be pointless writing a feature for a staid weekly in the style of something more suitable for a lads mag.(Susan Pape and Sue Featherstone, Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction. Sage, 2000) New Words and Names Quite a few English words have resulted from apocope, among them cinema (from cinematograph) and photo (from photograph). Names often undergo apocope (e.g., Barb, Ben, Deb, Steph, Theo, Vince).(Bryan Garner, Garners Modern American Usage. Oxford University Press, 2009) Lost Vowels Apocope is a process that deletes word-final segments, including unstressed (reduced) vowels. In Middle English, many words, such as sweet, root, etc. were pronounced with a final [e], but by the time of modern English, these final reduced vowels had been lost. We still see signs of final reduced vowels in the archaic spelling of words like olde.(Mary Louise Edwards and Lawrence D. Shriberg, Phonology: Applications in Communicative Disorders. College-Hill Press, 1983)Oliver Sacks on His Favorite WordOne of my favorite words is apocopeI use it (for example) in A Surgeons Life: . . . the end of the word omitted by a tactful apocope (Anthropologist on Mars, Vintage, p. 94).I love its sound, its explosiveness (as do some of my Tourettic friendsfor when it becomes a four-syllable verbal tic, which can be impaired or imploded into a tenth of a second), and the fact that it compresses four vowels and four syllables into a mere seven letters.(Oliver Sacks, quoted by Lewis Burke Frumkes in F avorite Words of Famous People. Marion Street Press, 2011) Pronunciation: eh-PAHK-eh-pee