Three Hamburger Paragraphs on The Taming of the Shrew

In the play The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, the character Katherine is typified as the shrew. Baptista tells Bianca’s suitors that she will not be married until Kate is married first, however, Kate is considered to be a “devil” by most of the men. Gremio and Hortensio set out to find Kate a husband so one of them can have Bianca and as a result, they find Petruchio. Petruchio says to Kate, “Thou must be married to no man but me, for I am born to tam you [Kate],” (47, 268). This establishes the meaning of the title; Petruchio is meant to tame Katherine. After the two get married, Petruchio states that Kate is his property, “I will be master of what is my own,” (65, 222). It is later revealed that Petruchio is starving Kate of food and sleep as a means of ‘taming’ her. If literature, especially Shakespearian literature, has taught us anything, it is there will be a twist/change before the play is through. This twist turned out to be a metamorphosis of Kate’s character. She turned from an uncivilized, ill-mannered and jealous woman into a polite, obedient lady. Katherine was, ultimately transmogrified.

Deceit is a major concept in The Taming of the Shrew. In the play, most characters aren’t being entirely truthful about who they are. To start, the Lord’s entire plan is to trick Christopher Sly into thinking that he is royalty when in reality, more or less, he is a low class drunk. This ploy is simply for the Lord’s cruel taste in entertainment. In the play within the play, we observe many of the characters adopting alter egos to achieve a goal that would be challenging without some trickery. Tranio becomes Lucentio, while Lucentio disguises himself as Camio, Hortensio becomes Litio, and the Merchant pretends to be Vincentio. These different disguises were used as a means of slipping through social class barriers. Tranio’s disguise allowed him to be more than a lowly servant, at least for a short while. Lucentio and Hortensio used their costumes as a way to visit Bianca. Though, all of the true identities were later exposed. On the wedding day, Petruchio says, “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes” (61, 111). This means that the clothes worn by a person does not define who they are. The person underneath will always be revealed for who they truly are.

In The Taming of the Shrew, the most prominent juxtaposition is between Katherine and Bianca. The two sisters are complete opposites of each other. Bianca is the perfect sister and the one everyone wants to marry, while Katherine is the mean and cruel sister who alienates everyone she speaks to. Act 2 Scene 1 outlines the jealousy and animosity that Kate feels toward Bianca. Katherine felt that Baptista favored Bianca, “[…] Now I see she is your treasure, she must have a husband. I must dance barefoot on her wedding day and, for your love for her, lead apes in hell” (36, 31-34). After Kate is made to marry Petruchio and he begins to ‘tame’ her, she is suddenly no longer mad at Bianca. I believe her only issue with Bianca was the fact that she didn’t want Bianca to be married before her. All of this anger went away with her marriage to Petruchio since she had developed new problems to worry about. It also may be inferred that Kate’s experience with marriage was not as glorious as she thought it would be.