SOURCE: "Civilizing Subordination: Domestic Violence and The Taming of the Shrew" in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 3, 1997, pp. 273-94.

In the following essay, Detmer analyzes The Taming of the Shrew within the context of early modern reforms against wife-beating, and claims that Petruchio's manner of "taming" Kate was probably seen by early modern audiences as an ingenious way to comply with the new reforms. Detmer goes on to challenge twentieth-century critics who fail to recognize or address the "violence of domination, " and who praise Petruchio's "nonviolent coercive behavior as better' [than wifebeating, even though it is no less oppressive. "]

Feminist and cultural historians have convincingly demonstrated that "rebellious women" were a concern for Englishmen during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Evidence of anxiety about disorderly women, or the "contest for the britches," as Linda Woodbridge refers to it, can be found at multiple discursive sites such as...