<P> there are two arguments against (an ironic interpretation). One is that a careful reading of the lines will show that most of them have to be taken literally; only the last seven or eight lines can be read with ironic overtones (...) The second is that some forty lines of straight irony would be too much to be borne; it would be inconsistent with the straightforwardness of most of the play, and it would really turn Kate back into a hidden shrew whose new technique was sarcastic indirection, sidemouthing at the audience, while her not very intelligent husband, bamboozled, cheered her on . </P> <P> Another way in which to read the speech (and the play) as farcical is to focus on the Induction . H.J. Oliver, for example, emphasising the importance of the Induction, writes "the play within the play has been presented only after all the preliminaries have encouraged us to take it as a farce . We have been warned ." Of Katherina's speech, he argues: </P> <P> this lecture by Kate on the wife's duty to submit is the only fitting climax to the farce--and for that very reason it cannot logically be taken seriously, orthodox though the views expressed may be (...) attempting to take the last scene as a continuation of the realistic portrayal of character leads some modern producers to have it played as a kind of private joke between Petruchio and Kate--or even have Petruchio imply that by now he is thoroughly ashamed of himself . It does not, cannot, work . The play has changed key: it has modulated back from something like realistic social comedy to the other,' broader' kind of entertainment that was foretold by the Induction . </P> <P> The issue of gender politics is an important theme in The Taming of the Shrew . In a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette, George Bernard Shaw famously called the play "one vile insult to womanhood and manhood from the first word to the last ." A contemporary critic, Emily Detmer, points out that in the late 16th and early 17th century, laws curtailing husbands' use of violence in disciplining their wives were becoming more commonplace; "the same culture that still "felt good" about dunking scolds, whipping whores, or burning witches was becoming increasingly sensitive about husbands beating their wives ." Detmer argues: </P>

Where does the taming of the shrew take place