約翰．佛列裘之《女人的獎賞》一劇中女人、傢俱物品、與男性階級身份之建構

Women, Household Stuff and the Making of a Gentleman in John Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize, or The Tamer Tamed

本文探討約翰‧佛烈裘之《女人的獎賞》（TheWoman’s Prize）一劇如何透過階級秩序的維持以建立女性主體性、重新定義性別關係、進而鞏固男性的階級身份。儘管大多數的批評家認為該劇中女主角瑪麗亞（Maria）透過與其他女人的團結顛覆了既有男尊女卑的關係，然而當我們檢視劇中各種日常傢俱用品在其協商過程中所扮演的角色，我們可以發現瑪麗亞認同其來自低下階級的女性支持者的舉動，並非完全是為了為女性發聲，而是為了確保其階級優勢的策略性手段。當夫妻對立、男女對峙，當女人需要聯合起來對抗男人時，瑪麗亞自然願意與其他低下階級的女人建立平等互惠的關係。如果這樣的關係是建立在女性共同的家事經驗與對日常家用物品的認同感之上，當瑪麗亞迫使派楚奇歐（Petruchio）簽下停戰協定，她卻馬上以各種高級昂貴的傢俱用品取代了先前的那些普通物件，而間接強調了她和其他女人之間的階級差異。當她的女性支持者隨著那些日常用品的消失而各自回到她們原來的階級所在，取而代之的是另一群隱身幕後的女性僕人；她們在默默分攤那些較為粗鄙的家事之餘，也為女主人完成馴夫的任務並維護上流社會的形象。最後，當派楚奇歐從一個脾氣、行為粗暴的俗夫變成一位言行自律且足以匹配像瑪麗亞這樣一位貴婦的紳仕，甚至她也乖乖地變回原來那個「溫順馴服的瑪麗亞」，自願以其丈夫的「僕人」自居。換言之，之前彷彿已遭顛覆的性別階級也隨著階級秩序的恢復而得以重建。

Focusing on John Fletcher’s The Woman’s Prize, this essay explores the ways in which the ordering of class relations among household members contributes to the construction of female subjectivity, the redefinition of gender relations, and ultimately the making of a gentleman. Most critics see the play as a proto-feminist reversal of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. However, when viewed in the context of early modern material culture, Maria’s cross-class alliance with her female supporters aims not so much to address gender inequalities as to recuperate class privileges for both her husband and herself. When pitted against her husband, Maria is willing to establish an egalitarian relationship with women of different status, a relationship mediated by and materialized as their common access to everyday household objects. As soon as she succeeds in forcing Petruchio to sign the contract, she replaces those ordinary goods with luxury goods, which brings about a renewed emphasis on Maria’s gentlewoman status and thus on the class difference between women. Although her female supporters willingly return to their respective places in the social hierarchy, she is privileged to secure another group of predominantly female laborers, who silently work behind the scene for the preservation of those status goods essential both to her taming of Petruchio and the maintenance of her upper-class image. By the end of the play, the hierarchical relationship between husband and wife reasserts itself too when Maria reverts to her old self as “the gentle tame Maria” by becoming her husband’s “servant.” As we shall see, the reemphasis on the class difference between women is a function of the restored hierarchical order of the household.