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Sonnets

Welcome or welcome back to my blog. This post is for the first Action Project of the Humanities class, Drama. In this class. we have been reading The Taming of The Shrew by William Shakespeare. We have also been learning about the iambic pentameter and Shakespeare's rhyme schemes. This unit focuses on the gender roles that are represented in the play and the 16th century. Like many Action Projects this year, there weren't any Field Experiences our class could experience but we might have a virtual tour of the Goodman Theatre.

In the 16th century there were gender roles set for women. They were supposed to be obedient to men like their fathers or husbands. Women had to cook and clean and always be in service of her husband. There were some women who did not follow these expectations and were labeled as shrews. Kate, a character in The Taming of The Shrew is regarded as the shrew and needs to be tamed. Through the play Kate is married to a man named Petruchio and he attempts to tame her by breaking her spirit and hope for equality. Through Petruchio's methods of taming you begin to feel sorry for Kate because she is being denied food and sleep. After reading through The Taming of The Shrew, I hope that Shakespeare wrote this to show the power of these gender roles and how they were ridiculous. From what we have seen in this class it is still unclear about Shakespeare's intentions for writing this but I would like to believe it was to show his opposition to them.

For this Action Project, our goal was to write a sonnet. This sonnet had to follow the same format that Shakespeare used in his sonnets meaning the use of the iambic pentameter and Shakespeare's rhyme scheme. The sonnet is made up of 14 verses, divided into 3 stanzas of 4 verses and 1 stanza with 2 verses (3 quatrains, 1 couplet). The rhyming of this sonnet looks like this: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. In the quatrains, the first and third verses rhyme with each other and the same for the second and fourth verses. The couplet has both verses rhyme at the end. My sonnet is directed to Hortensio, a man in the play who chooses to basically call a woman a whore for wanting to love someone else who appears to be of a lower class. Hortensio thinks that this woman, Bianca Minola, should be loving him because he is in a high class like her. I chose to write about how I think he is wrong for doing such a thing.


Hortensio, why must thou be a fool?
To contaminate the token of love
Represents actions that show you are cruel,
For your words do not flutter like a dove.

Thou doth held affection for Bianca.
A wish to kiss and court with thine mistress.
Better than even flora and fauna,
Your hope for her love came with much swiftness.

There is right for sorrow from these events.
But do not base love on symbols of class,
For many who look have other intents.
Why utter the words that have come to pass,

“For such a one as leaves a gentleman
And making a god of such a cullion.”




If you read or listened to my sonnet, I hope you enjoyed it and thank you. When first learning about what this AP would be, I thought I wouldn't enjoy working on it and the end result would not be great. However, I  actually did have fun with this project and it looks like it turned out well. It was very interesting to hear the sonnets my classmates made. I think having the chance to observe the gender roles presented in this play is a good way to think about how that is appearing in our society to this day. I am excited to explore more of Shakespeare in this term and create more Action Projects. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next post.

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