Taming Of The Shrew Literary Analysis

The Taming of the Shrew is a story about a woman who is crushed by many people in many ways. Kate is crushed by how her father treats her, and by how Petruchio treats her soon after their marriage. From a different person's perspective though, she still seems to be crushed by being put out as a shrew.
Along the way, Gremio, Hortensio, and Tranio thought of Kate as crushed because she is a shrew. Since their expectations of a woman is to be obedient and quiet, they believed that she was crushed because she does not meet those expectations. In act one of the book Baptista walks in and tells the boys, “That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder. If either of you love Katherina, Because I know you well and love you well, Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.”(17). After he said those words Gremio started of by saying “She’s too rough for me.”(17). Then Hortensio says soon after “No mates for you Unless you were of gentler, milder mold.”(17). Then Tranio says “That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward.”(17). As soon as Baptista offered them Kate to be their wife they started saying she is a shrew, crazy, and that she is rough. They see her as a

woman and that doesn’t meet the expectations of a woman.
One might claim that Baptista loves Bianca more than he loves Kate. The person that claims this is Kate. In Act two of the story Kate and Bianca get into a fight about who Bianca loves more out of the three suitors. When Baptista entered he was on Bianca’s side and Kate got angry because of it. That was when Kate realized though that she loved her sister more than her. She confronts him saying “ 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. Talk not to me; I will go sit and weep TIll I can find occasion of revenge.”(37). In turn Baptista replies to Kate “Was ever gentlemen thus grieved as I?”(37). He completely blows off what she said and doesn’t even say to her that he loves her just as much. She then goes to weep about the incident that played out.
With her not getting the same attention from Baptista that Bianca gets, it makes Kate feel crushed because she feels not loved.
As usual Kate is crushed yet again by Petruchio.

After Petruchio and Kate get married, they arrive at Petruchio’s house. In Act four of the book, Kate exits to go to her room, and when she does, Petruchio tells his plan to Grumio. He starts off by saying “Another way I have to man my haggard, To make her come and know her keeper’s call, that is, to watch her as we watch these kites That bate and beat and will not be obedient. She eat no meat today, nor none shall eat. Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not, nor tonight she shall not.” (73). He states to Grumio that he plans to tame kate by starving her and not letting her sleep at all until she is obedient. In him proceeding with his plan he makes Kate seem crushed by how he is changing her

personality.
An alternate view argues that Kate was empowered and not crushed. In Act five, Petruchio, Hortensio, and Lucentio made a bet of one hundred crowns on whose wife would arrive first when they called onto them. In the end, none of them came except Kate. In the beginning, Kate was a shrew, and when she married Petruchio, he tamed her. He made her a better woman to someone else’s perspective. Although the action did prove that Kate was an empowered woman, there still has been people that have proved she was crushed. She has gone through the troubles of people treating her omitly and how other people thought of her.
As mentioned earlier, Kate has gone through life feeling and looking crushed. In the beginning is was her personality that seemed crushed, but in the end her emotions ended up being crushed as well. Then her personality came to look saved to others. Her father, Petruchio and many others made her the way she is at the end of the book.