The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare is informed by the traditional western views on females, such as the Bible. Shakespeare's ideas in the play are that of male's opinions of a women, the place of women in a patriarchal system, and that a shrewish woman can successfully be managed. Shakespeare's ideas correlate with the views the Bible has to offer on women as well. The Bible considers women to be inferior to men, that women should be subservient to men, and that a woman may be punished for unacceptable actions. .
In The Taming of the Shrew, the relation between the sexes is depicted through men's views on women. The women are allowed to speak their mind freely, but the men never take what the women are saying into consideration. The men in the play think that women are foolish and that they are able to tame any shrewish woman by male authority. A woman is only wanted when she is gentle and quite because a man likes to feel superior to a woman. " "Mates," maid, how mean you that? No mates for you Unless you were of gentler, milder mold (1.1.59-60)." Here Hortensio is speaking to Kate, the shrew, no one believes that she will be married because she is bitter and considered a "devil." .
Another example of a man's outlook on a woman in this play is when Petruchio is referring to his bride to be, Kate. She is nothing but an object to him and she is to him as he wills. "I will be master of what is mine own. She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, My household stuff, my field my barn, My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything; And here she stands, touch her whoever dare" (3.2.229-232). Kate is treated as a piece of property that is to be protected. Women are treated as objects because they are married according to how much dowry a father will give the husband; this is why Petruchio will protect her at all costs. .
The Bible informs this idea of male authority and the depiction of women as property.
