Her Own Humor: Contrasting Philosophical Discourses of Femininity in Shakespeare's Comedies of Humors

Abstract

Shakespeare's comedies of humors, The Taming of the Shrew (ca. 1592–94) and The Winter's Tale (ca. 1609–11), are well known for plots with misogynistic elements. In this paper, I explore the subgenre to which these two plays belong by reading them together, an exercise that yields insight not only into their unique formal structure but also into the discourses of the Renaissance with which they engage. Structurally, they are both comedies that, in their primary plots, depict members of an already-married couple who experience crisis when the wife exhibits characteristics associated with hot, masculine humors. In both plays, the crisis is resolved by a character who assumes the role of a "physician." The physician character in The Taming of the Shrew effects his cure by championing the Aristotelian, naturalistic discourse of humors over the religious or preternatural discourse of demons and devils. The primary physician character in The Winter's Tale effects her cure by championing the Platonist discourses of magic and equality over the natural, hierarchical discourse of humors. Both plays involve the complete psychological transformation of the wayward spouse who undergoes the healing process. Insofar as these two comedies of humors have parallel structures and opposite ideological valences, they can be seen as mirror images of each other.