The Taming of the Shrew

Literary Devices to know

Allusion
A figure of speech that make a reference to a specific
famous, well-known person, place, event, or literary
work directly or indirectly
“Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak” (1.1.84)
Allusions to classical mythology infuse a work with
references that add depth and understanding for the
well-read.
Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor
of arts, trade, and strategy—in Greek, its Athena
Aristotle, Ovid, great Jove
Anaphora
the use of the same word or phrase at the beginning of
several successive clauses, sentences, lines, or verses,
usually for emphasis or rhetorical effect. "She didn't
speak. She didn't stand. She didn't even look up when
we came in" is an example of anaphora.

Kate says: “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy

keeper, thy head, thy sovereign…” (5.2.146-147)
Aside
a remark made by an actor, usually to the audience,
that the other characters on stage supposedly cannot
hear—a side comment
Hortensio speaks aside to Petruchio to congratulate him
on his taming success silently so Kate will not hear:
“Petruchio, go thy ways. The field is won” (4.5.23)
Asyndeton
the omission of conjunctions in sentence
constructions in which they would usually be used.
Rhetorically, it speeds up the effect.
Petruchio says, “she is my goods, my chattels; she is my
house, my household stuff, my field, my barn, my ox, my
ass, my anything: (3.2.230-232)
“Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish” (1.1.155)
—to emphasize the immediacy of Lucentio’s feelings
towards Bianca
 NOTICE: ALSO, ANAPHORA
Blank

Verse
unrhymed iambic pentameter
 Kate’s determination to go to her bridal dinner:
I see a woman may be made a fool
i SEE | a WO | man MAY | be MADE | a FOOL

 SPEECH BY KATE—in BLANK VERSE:

 What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see
 She is your treasure, she must have a husband,
 I must dance barefoot on her wedding-day,
 And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
 or (looking at the second line)
 she IS | your TREA | sure, SHE | must HAVE | a HUS | band
Dramatic Monologue
dramatic speech of a lone character directly to the
reader or to the listener.
Kate (5.2.136-179)
 Kate expresses and accentuates the fact that she is indeed
“tamed” and that all women should be subordinate to their
husbands.
Dramatic Irony
a situation, or irony arising from a situation where the
audience knows more about what is happening than a
character in the story does.
What situations do we know more than the characters
do? How does this add to the humor?
 Christopher Sly’s situation in the Induction
 The Disguises—Lucentio as Cambio and Hortensio as Litio,

they are known to us, but not to Bianca or Baptista

 Others?
Epigram
a concise, witty, and often paradoxical remark or
saying
“There’s small choice in rotten apples”
Farce
style of comic drama in which authority, order, and
morality are at risk and ordinary people are caught up
in extraordinary events
Exaggerated improbable situations, course wit,
horseplay, grossly insensitive characters, impulsive
characters, frequent verbal and physical assaults, rapid
pace, practical jokes…these are all traits of The Taming
of the Shrew!
Foil
a character who contrasts with another character
(usually the protagonist) in order to highlight
particular qualities of the other character.

Kate and Bianca

Others?
The Fool—a stock character
Literature is filled with fools and tricksters. It’s a stock
character. Down through literary history, the fools
have provided comic relief.
Christopher Sly
Gremio (the old guy/Pantaloon
Baptista
Frame Tale
 a secondary story or stories embedded in the main
story
 The (induction—story of Christopher Sly and the Lord)
frames the story of the suitors pursuit of Kate and
Bianca, and the taming of Kate.
The play is put on for Sly, which creates a story within a
story framework.
Heroic couplet
a couplet of rhyming iambic pentameter—the last two
lines of a Shakespearean Sonnet
Heroic Couplet: Sonnet 29
 For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 18:
 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Hyperbole
the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure
of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to
create a strong impression.
Hyperbole, cont. Act II
Bianca: Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself.
Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;
Or what you will command me will I do,
So well I know my duty to my elders.
This is a plea in hyperbole--she's going to free herself (which she obviously has not
been able to do), she'll strip down to her petticoat if that's what it takes (but clearly
that would not satisfy Kate's demand), she'll meekly do anything Kate wants
(which we know to be an untruth, for Bianca only does what Bianca wants and
would certainly not bow to her sister's wishes).
Katherine: Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell
Whom thou lovest best....
Kate's whole demeanor here is hyperbolic, tying her sister up and railing at her.
Specifically, she asks about all Bianca's suitors as if there were many, yet she goes
on to name only two. When she speaks to her father, she's angry that he may marry
off Bianca, the younger sister, before she is wed.
Iambic Pentameter
is defined by its rhythm of pairing ten syllables for
each line into five pairs of unstressed/stressed
syllables—Example: Sonnet 18. (see this quatrain)

weakSTRONG/weakSTRONG/weakSTRONG/weakSTRONG/weakSTRONG
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Iambic Pentameter:
example is found with these lines from Petruchio to
Katharina:
We will have rings and things and fine array;
And kiss me, Kate, we will be married o'Sunday. (2.1.314)
Animal Imagery
language that forms mental images and appeals to the
five senses, as it refers to animals.
She is my ox, my ass, my anything… (all stubborn
creatures to bear the burden)
Wasps
Shrews
Milch kine (cows)
Induction
an introductory and explanatory scene or other
intrusion that stands outside and apart from the main
action with the intent to comment on it, moralize
about the play
Frame Story—creates a play within a play
feeling/concept
Includes themes of the play—including
deception/disguise and humor
Metaphor
a figure of speech, comparison saying one thing is
another for a point of comparison.
 The Shrew as metaphor for Kate
In Petruchio's speech in act 4, he compares his methods
of taming Kate to that of taming a falcon. Female hawks
were the ones taught to hunt. By definition falconry is an
aristocratic sport of hunting with trained falcons in the
Medieval and Renaissance times.
Act 2, Sc. i—Metaphors/Animals
PETRUCHIO: O slow-winged turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?
KATHERINE: Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.
PETRUCHIO: Come, come, you wasp! I'faith you are too angry.
KATHERINE: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
PETRUCHIO: My remedy is then to pluck it out.
KATHERINE: Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.
PETRUCHIO: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?
In his tail.
KATHERINE: In his tongue.
PETRUCHIO: Whose tongue?
KATHERINE: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
Metonymy
is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing
or concept is not called by its own name, but by the
name of something intimately associated with that
thing or concept. Like the White House, or
Hollywood.
“Crown” for Queen Elizabeth I
Pun
a form of word play which suggests two or more
meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words,
or of similar-sounding words

CAT: Punning on the name "Kate"

and "cat," Petruchio threatens to turn
Kate from a "wild Kate" to a
"household Kate" (2.1.39)
Rhetorical Question
a figure of speech in the form of a question that is
asked in order to make a point and without the
expectation of a reply

Petruchio—(1.2. Lines 198-209)

 Asks a series of questions rhetorically to emphasize his
strength of what he has experienced versus the challenge Kate
will present.
Have I not in my time heard lions roar? / Have I not heard
the sea, puffed up with winds/Rage like an angry boar chafed
with sweat?
Satire
the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in
exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice , folly:
This play is a satire and political commentary on the
state of relationships and power between men and
women.
Social commentary on sexism/traditional roles/taming
of a spouse

What is Shakespeare saying through his play on these

issues? Is he sexist? Or is he the opposite?
Shakespearean Insult
Thou villainous common-kissing puttock!

You are intolerable curst!

O monstrous beast, how like a swine you lie!
Simile
a figure of speech that directly compares two different
things, usually by employing the words "like" or "as“
"Kate, like the hazel-twig/ is straight and slender;
and as brown in hue."
A woman mov’d is like a fountain troubled, Muddy, ill-
seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. (5. 2. 160-161) In a
simile, Katharina compares a woman moved to the
muddy waters of a fountain.
Eye Rhyme
imperfect rhyme in which two words are spelled
similarly but pronounced differently (such as move
and love)
Poetic rhyme that looks like it rhymes, but does not:
(move and love)
Rhyme Scheme--Sonnet
pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem—
abab,cdcd,efef,gg