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GCSE English Literature · key term
A derogatory label for an outspoken or argumentative woman, reflecting the expectation that women should be agreeable and obedient.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and Eduqas
Paper 1
A derogatory stereotype of a sharp-tongued, argumentative woman who challenges expected female obedience.
Revise: ContextThe shrew stereotype treated a sharp-tongued, argumentative woman as a problem because she resisted male control.
A hostile stereotype of a woman considered quarrelsome or excessively outspoken, used to discourage women from challenging expected behaviour.
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Paper 1
Revise: GenderThese comments draw on the familiar type of the shrew, an outspoken woman treated as a problem because she refuses to be agreeable. The men make marriageability the test of Beatrice’s behaviour: the warning assumes that securing a husband should matter more to her than speaking freely. Benedick’s sharp tongue, by contrast, is often treated as entertaining wit.
Component 1
A traditional, derogatory label for a woman considered aggressively outspoken or disobedient.
Revise: GenderThese comments draw on the familiar type of the shrew: a sharp-tongued woman whose behaviour supposedly needs correction. However, Beatrice turns their criticism into comedy. Rather than accepting that remaining unmarried is a punishment, she calls having no husband a blessing.
