William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew The battle between these two characters thus becomes much more than a

merely physical one and moves into the realm of wit-combat with a

carefully thought out central theme-matrimonial relationships-which

gives structural form and meaning to the entire play.

Themes

Basically the play deals with the traditional comic situation in which

a shrewish woman is tamed into a wife who is submissive to her

husband. This constitutes the main action of the play - the taming of

the shrewish wife. But Shakespeare does more than merely that. He

gives the character of the shrew multidimensional qualities so that

she is not merely the conventional creation of the medieval and

renaissance anti-feminist.

Kate has good reason for her shrewish disposition, and indeed one

wonders whether Shakespeare's own preference might not have been for

her, rather than for her sweetly tractable sister, Bianca.

In addition to the taming theme there is also a carefully contrived

composition of differing attitudes toward marriage, wooing, and

wedding. First, Shakespeare shows the rough and tumble matching of

Kate and Petruchio, a match founded on mutual respect by the end of

the play. Second, in the matching of Bianca we have aspects of the

mercenary modes of betrothal often practiced in Shakespeare's own day,

though Bianca finally marries for love, not money. Third, in the

marriage of Hortensio and his widow we have what looks like an

unabashed marriage for money on Hortensio's part, and probably for

physic...

... middle of paper ...

...He agrees to marry Katherine sight unseen

At the banquet following Hortensio's wedding to the widow, the three

new husbands stage a contest to see which of their wives will obey

first when summoned, everyone expects Lucentio to win. Bianca,

however, sends a message back refusing to obey, while Katherine comes

immediately. The others acknowledge that Petruccio has won an

astonishing victory, and the happy Katherine and Petruccio leave the

banquet to go to bed. the other characters are shocked to see that

Katherine seems to have been "tamed"-she obeys everything that

Petruccio says and gives a long speech advocating the loyalty of wives

to their husbands. When

At the banquet following Hortensio's wedding to the widow, the three

new husbands stage a contest to see which of their wives will obey

first when summoned