Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
The Taming of the Shrew is an Elizabethan comedy. While bearing characteristics that tie it to the broader genre of comedic drama, The Taming of the Shrew contains several elements that situate it as singularly Elizabethan. The play engages critically with contemporaneous social mores, principally those associated with gender, romance, and marriage. Shakespeare uses comedy in this context to draw attention to those aspects of human behavior he deems ridiculous, or worth criticizing. This method of leveling critique is typical within comedic genres. Characters against whom the playwright directs humor often become, through comedic tonality, objects to be viewed through the playwright's satirical lens.