Taming of the shrew wedding

[krissy]

I am writing a paper for the Taming of the Shrew,
this is the question i have to answer, hope someone can help

What is the significance of Petruccio's bizarre wedding outfit in the Taming of the Shrew ?
thanks
Krissy

[ashiashiashi]

I found this stuff when i was researching for a school speech

''Petruccio’s Wedding Costume
The ridiculous outfit Petruccio wears to his wedding with Kate symbolizes his control over her. Simply by wearing the costume, he is able to humiliate her. It may be shameful for Kate to be matched to someone in such attire, but she knows she has no choice if she does not wish to become an old maid. She consents to let the ceremony proceed, even with Petruccio dressed like a clown, and thus yields to his authority before the wedding even begins.
The outfit also symbolizes the transient nature of clothing. Petruccio declares that Kate is marrying him, not his clothes, indicating that the man beneath the attire is not the same as the attire itself. Thus, Lucentio, dressed as a tutor, cannot escape the fact that he must return to his true identity. By the same token, when Kate plays the role of a dutiful wife, she remains, essentially, Kate.''

[Redzeppelin]

Shakespeare's comedies thrive on disguises and mistaken identities. "Shrew" is a play of identies and of unmaskings of these identities. Few people in the play are actually acting in their proper or correct identities; almost all are acting as someone/something else. (Even the induction with Christopher Sly mimics this theme - he, a drunkard, wakes up to find himself a "nobleman.") Petruccio takes on the "disguise" of maniac during the wedding as the beginning of Kate's "taming" - in that, he showed up in an outfit guaranteed to deliver to her the same sort of embarrassment that she easily dispenses to those around her. In order to help Kate "unmask" herself from the angry, hostile and out-of-control woman she is, Petruccio takes on the guise of madman in order to give her a dose of her own "mad-woman" medicine. The clothes are simply a clear metaphor for the disguises that all (including Kate) are hiding behind.

[David Morgan]

Are there other possibilities? My prof. wants at least four interpretations for everything.


DMorgan
Wedding Vegas