Kate vs Antigone: An Evaluation of Character

 

            Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and Sophocles’ Antigone both echo similar themes, which include sibling rivalry, stubbornness, personal change, and breaking of gender roles. Both plays point out character flaws and human traits. The lead characters in each play are the catalysts who determine if the play will end in a positive or tragic manor. Their stubbornness, self-pitying and vocal altercations adversely affect those around them. The dynamic characters of Kate and Antigone show how just one decision can result in a dramatic change of events.  

            One theme in both plays is the issue of sibling rivalry and hatred. Antigone continually demeans her sister by calling her an “atheist” (Sophocles 4) who is only trying to “look “after her own skin” (Sophocles 5). Other examples of such comments can be found throughout the entire opening scene. She later disgraces Ismene in front of Creon by accusing her of incest, as evidenced by the line, “May I suggest an object of affection? Creon. He is your uncle after all” (Sophocles 14). Antigone cruelly insults her sister only because Ismene’s ideas aren’t equal to hers. Likewise, Kate resents that Bianca will probably marry, while she is left to become an old maid. She feels that “[she] must dance barefoot on [Bianca’s] wedding day, / And, for [Baptista’s] love for [Bianca], lead apes in hell,” (Shakespeare 73). Katherine is aggravated at others who frequently compare her to her docile sister. Kate goes so far as to strike her sister and to make fun of her, just as Antigone insults and degrades Ismene.

Both Kate and Antigone are the opposite of the ideal woman during each of their respective time periods. Kate’s independence was overwhelming for the sixteenth century. Shakespeare created a woman who was so extroverted with respect to her time period in the Taming of the Shrew, it was almost unbelievable. To contradict a male, especially your father or husband, was inconceivable. While Kate shows an untraditional woman, Bianca is a perfect example of the kind of woman that was accepted in the fifteen hundreds. She is sweet, proper and does whatever she is told. Bianca is innocent and portrays all that a woman of the sixteenth century should be, while Kate is discourteous and everything a woman of that time should not be. Antigone is also too bold and rash for her time. The best woman, according to a common saying in Greece, was the one about whom the least was said, whether it be good or bad. Antigone, who was very outspoken, did not fit that standard, and was thus not the ideal woman in the eyes of Athenian men.. “Women were needed to help run the house where she would cook, spin, weave, manage servants and raise the children.” (Frost 15) Antigone did not comply with these standards. Her blatantly aggressive speeches towards Creon, demonstrated when says to Creon “you’re not being so very wise yourself” (Sophocles 12), show that she sees herself at a higher station than even a king. As a woman, she had no right to challenge a man, much less a king as Creon. Both Antigone and Kate speak against a man, which was a faux pas in both cultures.

Kate and Antigone are both stubborn and obstinate. One of Antigone’s major faults is her stubbornness. Throughout the play, Antigone shows her inflexibility by refusing to ever admit she could be wrong or that she might be adversely affecting someone else. She disregards Ismene’s feelings and Creon’s authority. Antigone refuses to consider other courses of action, or even to acknowledge they exist. When Ismene confronts her in the first act, asking her to reconsider, Antigone replies “If that’s your line, then you’ve earned my hatred” (Sophocles 4). This sentence illustrates the fact that Antigone believes she has the right to hate anyone who does not agree with her. In A Taming of the Shrew, it can be argued that Kate never changes her beliefs at all, and is obdurate.  Kate’s actions in the end of the play are not a sign of conformity, but just an alteration. She still has control over what Petruchio does, but in a different, more subtle, manipulative way.  She may be submissive to him, but at the same time, he gives in to her.  Petruchio didn’t tame her, or rid her of her stubbornness, but she tamed and controlled him by craft and not violence. Antigone and Kate exhibit the same unyielding attitude that tries to control those around them.

The most important factor that differentiates Kate and Antigone is personal adaptation and change.  Antigone experienced her fate as a result of not realizing and learning from her own tragic flaws. Even after she knows she will be sentenced to die if she continues, she proceeds ahead without a second thought. Her attitude leads her to her early grave. Kate changes her demeanor to get her way. By adopting her sister’s bearings, Katherine’s infamous reputation is changed.  As a result, she gains love from her father, which is evident at the end of the play when he hands “Another dowry to another daughter, / For she is changed as she had never been,” (Shakespeare 136) and respect from others who originally mocked her domestic nature. When Petruchio threatens to punish Kate once again for her contrariness during their argument of whether stands as day or night, Kate suddenly decides to let it be “moon or sun or what you please. / And if you please to call it a rushcandle, / Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me,” (Shakespeare 124).  This is a great change from her earlier attitude, because she learned to go along with others if she wanted to get her way.

Katherine and Antigone both experienced some form of behavior modification. Kate’s transformation at the end of A Taming of a Shrew may just have been a guise, but it nevertheless was a change. In the last act of the play, Kate shows an alteration of her position by stating:

                        “Such duty as the subject owes the prince,

                        Even such a woman oweth to her husband

                        And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,

                        And not obedient to his honest will,

                        What is she but a foul contending rebel

And graceless traitor to her loving lord?” (Shakespeare 138)

 

Antigone’s attitude never transforms into something superior, but she also goes from accepting of her death to lamenting that “my fate is by far the cruelest” (Sophocles 22). Her attitude was not as steadfast as in the beginning, a change that shows she is second guessing her actions.

            Kate and Antigone have traits that are similar, but how they choose to respond to their situations determines their fate. Kate chose to adjust her behavior to get what she wanted, while Antigone never attempted to compromise. That vital difference sums up everything about each character, and in fact determines the endings of the plays. It shows that yielding to others will bring a happy ending, while refusing to make concessions will bring about unhappiness and ruin. The decision of the part of Kate to give in a little while still holding her personality and beliefs makes A Taming of a Shrew a comedy.  Antigone’s refusal to find the middle ground brings Antigone to a tragic ending. For sometimes, the ability to negotiate with things and people around us can determine if “we will retire for the night with a second dowry” or “hang ourselves in seeming defeat.”

             

Works Cited

 

 

1.  Shakespeare, William. The Taming of a Shrew. Ed. by Frances E. Dolan. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s. 1996. (pg.73, 124, 136, 138)

 

2.  Sophocles. Antigone Ed. and trans. by Michael Townsend.  New York: Harper & Row. 1962. (4, 5, 12, 14, 22)

 

3.  Frost, Frank J. Greek Society (5th Edition).  Boston: Hough-Miff, 1997. (pg.15)