Source: "'The Taming of the Shrew': Shakespeare's Mirror of Marriage," in Modern Language Studies, Vol. V, No.1, Spring, 1975, pp. 88-102.

[Kahn interprets The Taming of the Shrew as a farce that relies on exaggeration to at once indulge and undermine the male fantasy of mastery over women. Shakespeare, she asserts, set out to Write a comedy that would both critique and celebrate marriage and resolved this apparent contradiction through an ironic portrayal of Katherina in the final scenes of the play. Kahn compares Petruchio's violence and Katherina's shrewishness, remarking that while society accepts the violence of men as normal male behavior, it condemns forceful self-assertion by women, even when it serves as a psychological defense or arises from real provocation, as it does in the play. The critic further notes that Petruchio's view of Katherina as his property and his comparison of her to a hawk that...