The Strength of Social Identity
Social identity is a very prominent feature that individuals learn to develop over the course of their life. In Shakespeare’s play, The Taming of the Shrew, Pertruccio, a wealthy businessman from Verona, has a very strong social identity that stems from his inner confidence in himself, and that explains his misconstrued outlook on women. On the other hand, in Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale, King Leontes, the king of Sicily has very little self-confidence and can be seen as a skeptic in most cases, which ultimately leads to his uncharacteristically low self-esteem for being a king. Tying these two together, it was fascinating how Pertruccio and King Leontes have such contrasting social identities given their respective roles in a society that is centered on hierarchy and social status.
In The Taming of the Shrew, Pertruccio’s social identity plays a vital role in the outcome of the play. Overflowed with confidence, which can be easily viewed as arrogance, Pertruccio prides himself on being the master at taming women. From the beginning of the play it is apparent that his character is fairly predictable. As an example of the undeniably strong faith he has in himself, he claims that he can and will tame Katharine. He follows that definitive statement by saying, "Thou mush be married to no man but me; /for I am he am born to tame you, Kate; /and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate conformable, /as other household Kates. Here comes your father; /never make denial; /I must and will have Katharine to my wife." (TS II.i. 270-5). It is evident that he already believes he will marry her and will stop at nothing to pursue this cause. Pertruccio takes little to no regard of how Katharine feels and quite honestly, he does not really care. Additionally, Pertruccio’s sense of superiority over women is apparent once again while he is explaining the steps he will take to tame Katharine, he goes on to say, "Last night she slept not, /nor to-night she shall not" (TS IV.i. 201-2). Whether it is depriving her of basic human rights such as food or sleep, he is determined to domesticate Katharine by any means possible. This again is a sign of his strong social identity; he is so motivated by self-interest, he becomes blinded to everything else around him.
Interestingly enough, his overwhelming confidence can be viewed as one of his greatest weaknesses. He is so blinded at times by his own actions that he, himself, becomes the shrew. Pertruccio has a very child like demeanor when he does not get his way; his aggressive side becomes noticeable. As an example of this, while standing outside of Hortensio’s house with Grumio, he asks him to knock on the door, but Grumio misunderstands his request and strikes Pertruccio instead. As a result of this, Pertruccio grabs him by the ears and shouts, “Now knock when I bid you, /sirrah villain” (TS I.ii. 15-19). In Pertruccio’s mind, everyone should be as bright and intelligent as him, so when a simple misunderstanding occurs, he does not know how to handle himself or the situation.
On the other hand, King Leontes from The Winter’s Tale has a very opposite social identity as Pertruccio. The first three acts of the play demonstrate that Leontes’ jealousy is what eventually led to his downfall. Although he is a king, with much power and respect, he is very insecure and jealous about the certainties in his life such as his wife and children. Unlike Pertruccio’s character, it was difficult to define his social identity because it could literally change at any given moment. At the beginning of the play Leontes appears to be happily married to Hermione, however, his misjudgments about her along with other factors prove to be a major theme throughout the play. Leontes arrives to his flawed conclusions by his own twisted mind, without any confirmation of truth or rational explanation for his jealousy. As an example of his paranoid mind, Leontes oversees his pregnant wife, Hermoine, and his childhood friend, Polixenes, having a meaningless conversation regarding the length of his stay in Sicily. From that, he develops an unwarranted fear that his wife is being unfaithful and hints at the idea that the child she is bearing is not his, going on to say, “that is entertainment
/My bosom likes not, nor my brows/Mammilius, Art thou my boy?” (TWT 1.2.11) His wife, Hermoine is merely being a good host to her husband’s childhood friend, Polixenes, yet Leontes translates that friendliness into infidelity. Intriguingly enough, Leontes was the one who initiated the conversation between the two in the first place. The audience gets their first real glimpse of how his diseased mind works. He dramatizes this even more when he questions the paternity of his own son, Mammilius, and unborn child. It was quite fascinating in the text how his speech became visibly broken and sporadic throughout this whole scene. To further demonstrate his lack of faith in his wife and women in general, Leontes develops the belief that that all women are promiscuous liars and should not be trusted. He goes on to bring forth many meaningless examples of infidelity to Camillo saying, “is whispering nothing? /Is leaning cheek-to-cheek nothing? /Is meeting noses nothing?” (TWT I.2 287-9) From this, we can now see just how cynical he has become, he is grasping at anything he can to prove his claims to be true. He has lost all sense of reason and resorts to anything to try and convince Camillo that women are promiscuous by nature.
Tying these two together, neither character really seemed to fit the customary stereotype of their social rank. Petruccio is too arrogant for just a merchant, whereas, Leontes appears too fickle and childish for a king. Although polar opposites personality wise, it was fascinating how they had similar behavior when it came to dealing with the women in their life. This is a testament to show that regardless of one’s social status and rank in society, an individual’s social identity will take precedence over all.

Works Cited
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Winter's Tale Jealousy Quotes Page 1." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Taming of the Shrew." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.