Is Katherina Truly Tamed?

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Recommended: The portrayal of women in Shakespeare's plays

Taming an individual, in the simplest of terms, means to take a person that is unconquerable and not easily broken, and try and break their ego or self-image until they are submissive and receptive to follow orders or commands. Not to mention, the goal of the “tamer” is to forcibly alter certain behaviors and actions that they find distasteful, that the person being tamed exhibits. As regards to the title of the play The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina Minola, Padua’s shrew, has essentially been tamed and domesticated by her husband, Petruchio. In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina is portrayed as behaving rambunctious and displeasing, thereby, making it inevitable for a person, in this case of, Petruchio, to tame her. Even though it may seem that Katherina Minola is pretending to be tamed in order to achieve her goals, the refined and modified behavior she is displaying in the play reveals a change in her disposition.
Katherina has evidently been tamed because of the newfound manner in which she unwillingly finds herself, as she interacts between the several characters, mentioned in Shakespeares’ masterpiece. Petruchio tests the ability of Katherina’s compliance to simple requests, by giving her a straightforward and effortless command of “first kiss me, Kate, and then we will.”By doing so, he manipulates her by restricting her from the right to go home and visit her family; and therefore, Petruchio directs Katherina to complete minor tasks, which reveal him as the “sole charge”, justifying thereby the fact that she has been tamed. Her acceptance of the kiss demonstrates the fact that she has embraced her union with Petruchio; and is willing to act like the “type of wife” that he wants her to be, even though it may mean h...

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...overtible that she has actually been tamed because Petruchio, being highly clever and intelligent would have recognized any underlying pretense of Katherina’s insincerity to obedience.
Regardless of the misconception that Katherina is pretending to be tamed, she still remains as disciplined and docile, which is seen in her transformation into a well-mannered woman, in which she continues to express even to the end of the play. It takes several epiphanies and the need of companionship for a person to be truly tamed and controlled, which Katherina craves from Petruchio. Petruchio looked past the strong and antagonistic personality that Katherina depicted, and saw an insecure and worried woman that needed love and a companion. Socrates once said, “If you want to be a good saddler, saddle the worst horse; for if you can tame one, you can tame all.” (GoodReads, 2013)

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