The taming of the shrew

Written by: William Shakespeare

Published: 1590-1592
Genre: Comedy

The play

Lucentio, a gentleman who comes from Pisa, comes to Padua and, with his servant
Tranio, overhears men quarreling.

Gremio and Hortensio are both suitors to Bianca, Baptista's daughter, but her father has
decided that she won't get married before her older quarrelsome sister Katharine does.
Baptista's looking for a tutor for Bianca, so Lucentio, wh's fallen in love with her, decides to
disguise as a tutor, while Tranio, disguised as Lucentio, tries to arrange the marriage
between them with Baptista.

In the meantime Gremio and Hortensio decide to find a husband for Katharine.

Petruchio, a business man from Verona, comes to Padua in search of adventure, and
perhaps, of a wife. He's a friend of Hortensio and he's not interested in a girl's rudeness,
but in her whealth, so Hotrensio proposes him to marry Bianca's sister. Petruchio agrees.

Hortensio and Lucentio enter Baptista's house disguised as tutors, the first one with
thename of Licio, the second one with the name of Cambio. Baptista and Petruchio
arrange Katharine's marriage and Petruchio decides that the only way to tame her is to act
as Katharine means the opposite of what she says and does.

Petruchio and Katharine meet, he plays his strategy and decides to marry her on the next
Sunday. Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) and Gremio try to obtain Bianca's hand. Baptista
decides to give her to the richest one, who turns out to be Tranio. As Tranio's young,
Baptista's wants his father to confirm his whealth. As a consequence Lucentio and Tranio
decide to find a merchant to act as Vincetio, Lucentio's father.
Hothensio and Lucentio, who have been both employed as tutors, confess their love to
Bianca during their lessons. They both try to prevent the other one from seeing her. On the
wedding day Petruchio's late and he's not dressed for a wedding at all: his jacket's old and
dirty, his bootsare broken, his sword's rusty and his hosrse's old and tired. He doesn't want
Katharine to take part to her wedding feast, so as soon as the wedding's finished, he takes
her to Verona. They get home and Petruchio decides to deprive her of food and sleep,
pretending that's all for her sake. Back to Baptista's place, Lucentio and Bianca fall in love,
Hotensio descovers the affair and decides to marry an old but gentle widow. Tranio, who's
been told about the love affair by Hotensio, pretends not to want Bianca anymore.
Hotensio visits Petruchio, and they decide to visit Baptista in Padua. Bianca and Lucentio
get secretely married, while Baptista, the merchant and Tranio try to arrange the
marriage . Petruchio, Katharine and Hotensio are going to Padua. By the way petruchio
continues to tell false statements, wanting Katharine to agree. They meet Vincentio and
they travel together. Once there Baptista and Vincentio find out about Lucentio's trick adn
his marriage with Bianca. At the banquet to celebrate the marriages (Hotensio's got
married, too) the men bet upon their wives' obedience. They ask them to come and
Katharine's the first to obey. The play ends with a monologue spoken by Katharine about
marriage: the husbund is the lord and the protector of the wife, therefore she has to obey
him.

Key points:

 Lucentio and his servant Tranio travel to Padua where they encounter Baptista and his
daughters, Katharina and Bianca. Bianca has many suitors but Baptista insists on first
marrying off the aggressively assertive Katharina.

 Lucentio falls in love with Bianca and trades clothes with his servant so that he can
woo Bianca under the guise of a tutor.

 Petruchio decides he wishes to marry the wealthy Katharina and help his friend
Hortensio, who wishes to marry Bianca. Hortensio disguises himself as a tutor to woo
Bianca.

 Petruchio marries Katharina and bends her to his will by a scheme that deprives her of
food and sleep.

 Lucentio woos Bianca and the two marry secretly. Hortensio marries a rich widow.

 In a contest to determine the most obedient wife, Katharina wins. She has been tamed
by Petruchio.

Themes

Marriage as an Economic Institution

As a romantic comedy, the play focuses principally on the romantic relationships between
men and women as they develop from initial interest into marriage. In this respect, the play
is a typical romantic comedy. However, unlike other Shakespearean comedies, The
Taming of the Shrew does not conclude its examination of love and marriage with the
wedding. Rather, it offers a significant glimpse into the future lives of married couples, one
that serves to round out its exploration of the social dimension of love.
The Effect of Social Roles on Individual Happiness

Each person in the play occupies a specific social position that carries with it certain
expectations about how that person should behave. A character’s social position is defined
by such things as his or her wealth, age, gender, profession, parentage, and education;
the rules governing how each of them should behave are harshly enforced by family,
friends, and society as a whole.
Motifs

Disguise

Disguise figures prominently in The Taming of the Shrew: Sly dresses as a

lord, Lucentio dresses as a Latin tutor, Tranio dresses as Lucentio, Hortensio dresses as a
music tutor, and the pedant dresses as Vincentio. These disguises enable the characters
to transgress barriers in social position and class, and, for a time, each of them is
successful. The play thus poses the question of whether clothes make the man—that is,
whether a person can change his or her role by putting on new clothes. The ultimate
answer is no, of course. In The Taming of the Shrew, society involves a web of
antecedents that are always able to uncover one’s true nature, no matter how differently
one wishes to portray oneself. Tranio, disguised as Lucentio, needs only to bump into
Vincentio, and his true identity surfaces. As Petruchio implies on his wedding day, a
garment is simply a garment, and the person beneath remains the same no matter what
disguise is worn.
Domestication

The motif of domestication is broadcasted in the play’s title by the word “taming.” A great
part of the action consists of Petruchio’s attempts to cure Katherineof her antisocial
hostility. Katherine is thus frequently referred to as a wild animal that must be
domesticated. Petruchio considers himself, and the other men consider him, to be a tamer
who must train his wife, and most of the men secretly suspect at first that her wild nature
will prove too much for him. After the wedding, Petruchio and Katherine’s relationship
becomes increasingly defined by the rhetoric of domestication. Petruchio speaks of
training her like a “falcon” and plans to “kill a wife with kindness.” Hortensio even
conceives of Petruchio’s house as a place where other men may learn how to domesticate
women, calling it a “taming-school.”

Fathers and Their Children

The several father/child relationships in the play—Baptista/Bianca, Baptista/Katherine,

Vincentio/Lucentio—focus on parents dealing with children of marriageable age and
concerned with making good matches for them. Even the sham father/son relationship
between the disguised pedant and the disguised Tranio portrays a father attempting to
make a match for his son, as the pedant attempts to negotiate Tranio’s marriage to
Bianca. Through the recurrence of this motif, Shakespeare shows the broader social
ramifications of the institution of marriage. Marriage does not merely concern the future
bride and groom, but many other people as well, especially parents, who, in a sense,
transfer their responsibility for their children onto the new spouses.

Symbols

Petruchio’s Wedding Costume

The ridiculous outfit Petruchio wears to his wedding with Kate symbolizes his control over
her. Simply by wearing the costume, he is able to humiliate her. It may be shameful for
Kate to be matched to someone in such attire, but she knows she has no choice if she
does not wish to become an old maid. She consents to let the ceremony proceed, even
with Petruchio dressed like a clown, and thus yields to his authority before the wedding
even begins.
The outfit also symbolizes the transient nature of clothing. Petruchio declares that Kate is
marrying him, not his clothes, indicating that the man beneath the attire is not the same as
the attire itself. Thus, Lucentio, dressed as a tutor, cannot escape the fact that he must
return to his true identity. By the same token, when Kate plays the role of a dutiful wife,
she remains, essentially, Kate.
The Haberdasher’s Cap and Tailor’s Gown

The cap and gown that Petruchio denies Katherine, despite the fact that she finds them
truly appealing, symbolizes yet again his power over her. The outfit functions as a kind of
bait used to help convince Kate to recognize and comply with Petruchio’s wishes. Only he
has the power to satisfy her needs and desires, and this lesson encourages her to satisfy
him in return.