Katherina and Petruchio's Relationship to the Title of the Play Taming of the Shrew

Katherina and Petruchio's Relationship to the Title of the Play Taming of the Shrew

In my essay, I am going to try and show my understanding and knowledge

of how Shakespeare presents Katherina and Petruchio throughout the

novel, and how this makes us understand the title of 'Taming of the

shrew'. I will show how their relationship changes throughout the

novel as the 'taming' process of Katherina progresses, and the ways in

which we see how she is tamed.

The novel 'The taming of the shrew' is set in 16th century Elizabethan

England. This was a time when marriages were very important, and most

upper class marriages often arranged for money or power rather than

love or meaning. Women were expected to wait on their husbands every

need and desire. They were expected to be kind and gentle and do

whatever their husband wanted.

'The taming of the shrew' is one of Shakespeare's comedies and so

throughout the novel we see a lot of slapstick humour, witty remarks

and comments between characters. In my essay I will show how as the

taming of Katherina progresses, the humour also changes along with

her. I think this is to show that as she becomes tamed, she becomes

less of a joke and more of what an Elizabethan lady should have been

like at the time.

At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Katherina,

daughter of Baptista and sister of Bianca Minola, a well respected

family in Padua. Katherina has a very strong reputation throughout

Padua to be a shrew. She is foul tempered and sharp mouthed at the

start of the play, and is not the stereotypical Elizabethan lady. She

stands up to men, cursing them and showing no respect towards them.

Her sister Bianca is far from what Katherina is. She is gentle, quiet

and sweet. In the beginning, Baptista declares that Bianca cannot be

wed until Katherina is wed too. Bianca has a few admirers, Grumio,

Hortensio and Lucentio, all wanting to wed her. Grumio and Hortensio

know they have no chance of marrying Bianca until Katherina is wed, so