Dramatic situations Essay

Examine carefully your chosen scene and discuss how well in your view Shakespeare succeeds in presenting good theatre with a variety of dramatic situations in order to entertain his audience. Shakespeare wrote ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ towards the end of the 16th century. The play was aimed at all social classes, meaning that there had to be humour in the play to suit everyone’s taste. The scene that I have chosen to examine is Act 5, Scene 2. Which is the last scene of the play. This scene follows on from Act 5, Scene 1 where Katherina has just reluctantly kissed Petruchio and Petruchio feels very pleased with the way everything has turned out. It then enters Act 5, Scene 2, where Lucentio is welcoming everyone to the banquet, which was being held to celebrate the three marriages. I chose to do this scene because I think that this scene rounds the play off nicely as nearly all of the characters are there in it and there are a variety of dramatic situations. After Lucentio has finished welcoming everyone Petruchio says â€Å"Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! â€Å". If I was directing the play I would make Petruchio butt in with that straight after Lucentio has finished talking because I think that he is saying it quite sarcastically, as he was wanting to draw attention to himself because previously in the play we learnt that he is quite mad character, for example when he turned up at the wedding he was wearing crazy clothes. I found that quite amusing but in the Royal Shakespeare production that we saw I don’t think they made him say it with enough expression, I thought that they would have made a bigger deal about it. To draw even more attention to himself I think he should say it quite loudly and stand up because the audience would be focused on him. I think that Shakespeare made Petruchio’s character quite a quirky one because all through the play he brings humour and it leaves the audience wondering what strange thing he will do or say next and it is all very unexpected. After that, on line 14 and 15 I think that the tone gets a bit more serious. On line 14 Baptista says â€Å"Paudua offers this kindness, son Petruchio† In the text there is no exclamation mark so if I was directing it I would make him say it in a stern, serious voice. Petruchio says after that â€Å"Padua offers nothing but what is kind† I think that when he says that he should again say it quite quickly and immediately after Baptista did because that brings out his ‘cheeky’ character and it is entertaining because there is an argument and this is an amusing way to start off quite a formal event.