Shakespeare's use of Elizabethan dress as a comedic device in The Taming of the Shrew: “Something mechanical encrusted on the living”

Abstract

In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare utilizes Elizabethan fashion not only as a staging device to furnish spectacle and add color, but also to provide meaning. Examined in relationship to Henri Bergson's theory of comedy, the play provides an example of Shakespeare's use of fashion and its function in society as a comedic device in the shaping of plot, character, and thought.