Petruchio: Taming Of The Shrew

Petruchio says that the moon is the sun and Katherina firstly disagrees. So Petruchio calls for the horse so that they can go back to his house in the country side. Katherina is either very tired or that she has realised that it is pointless to argue with Petruchio. The final scene is with all the family and suitor gathered having a feast.

This is where we see who much more in love Katherina and Petruchio are. Their relationship is now a lot stronger and on steadier grounds than Bianca’s and Lucentio’s. Petruchio and Katherina have learned to love each other.

The last scene there is a bet raised to see whose wife is more obedient to there husband. There is a wager of hundred crowns each. Before this wager Bapstia is very impressed how Petruchio has tamed his viscous daughter he awards another dowry to Petruchio.

The bet is to see who comes first to there husbands when they call for there wives. This is the moment where we see how much Katherina has changed. When she arrives she has a lot to say but does not speak to the men she speaks to the widow, who is unconvinced by what Katherina has to say.

When Katherina speaks to the widow she says she see Petruchio as a god, ‘Thy husband is thy lord’.

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Katherina has been taught to obey Petruchio in very way and she does so. She’s tells the widow how simple women are and that they have only one thing to do in life and that’s to have children. She says that women are weak and tender. Katherina sees that Petruchio has taught her and that she has learned that her behaviour was unacceptable. In the end Petruchio has the chance to embarrass Katherina even more by making her kiss his feet but he does not and kisses her on her lips.

Then Petruchio invites Katherina to bed and Katherina comes willingly. This is the sign in my opinion that Katherina and Petruchio are in love. I agree with the fact that Katherina has been tamed and that she is not defeated. I think that Katherina and Petruchio are in love but I also think that they might be playing a tick on the others to seek there rewards. I think that she is not defeated because of the way that the play ends; Petruchio has the opportunity to embarrass Katherina completely but he does not, this shows a sense of understanding between the two of them.

She is not defeated because she still has a sense of her own character even though she has fallen in love with Petruchio. I come to this conclusion because Petruchio is the one that raises the bet and he is confident about betting his money on it. Katherina is not defeated because she attacks the widow in her own words. Katherina respects Petruchio but in the same way Petruchio most defiantly respects Katherina. This is show by Petruchio when he has the option to embarrass Katherina but decides not to. This relationship is the strongest because the only rival to it is Bianca’s and Lucentio’s.

This relationship is total false because Lucentio fell in love with the wrong Bianca. This relationship seems very shallow and they were married on false pretences. They married each other without knowing each other. Bianca has been living a lie to the whole world and she only shows her true colours in the final scene where she does not do what Lucentio says she should do. They meet when Lucentio dresses up as a tutor so he is not being himself. Lucentio sees Bianca as a young and lovely girl. Lucentio is the one who is in love and not Bianca. Bianca has not been tamed and therefore she is the shrew.

Bianca shows her true colours by tell Lucentio “the more fool you for laying on my duty”. “Hath cost me hundred crowns since supper time”; this is where Lucentio realises that he is married to an untamed shrew. A shrew he thought he had control over and he doesn’t. The other relationship other than the widow and Hortensio is the one of Baptista and his daughters. Baptista obviously loves Bianca more than Katherina, because otherwise he would show Katherina a lot more tenderness “Call you me daughter? I promise you have showed a tender fatherly regard”. He does show Bianca that he is fond of her “He fondles her”.

A reason for why he is not as fatherly to Katherina is because of the way she treats Bianca. However, Katherina treats Bianca the way she does because of the lack of love on his part. Thus creating an emotional and vicious circle where it would seem that Katherina fairs worst. There are two essential ideas that are recurrent throughout “The Taming of the Shrew”.

First, is the relationship with Katherina and Bianca who, as sisters should have an admiration for each other. This however, is apparently absent. This may be due to the fact of Katherina’s profound jealousy of Bianca.

The second is the unjust quantities of love shared between Katherina and Bianca from Baptista. Katherina has an obviously sad and despairing heart caused by many years of loneliness and loathing.

The only way she can express this is to act obnoxiously towards Bianca, for she, in Katherina’s eyes is the problem. Baptista is evidently an incredibly obtuse father towards his daughters. A more rational father would love both daughters in proportion. Baptista does not do this. However, Baptista is never hateful towards Katherina; he is just merely civil, similar to that of an acquaintance rather than that of a daughter.

The views of marriage and woman’s rights have changed a lot since the time of Elizabeth the first. A feminist in the 1960’s, Germaine Greer wrote about ‘The taming of the shrew’ instead of tearing the play to pieces she supports it and even say that “Kate’s speech at the close of the play is the greatest defence of Christian monogamy ever written”. Even though the play has moments of women being ordered around by men, Katherina’s and Petruchio’s relationship has hints of a change coming. I think that this relationship is going to change to the fact that they will have equal rights in there relationship.

I think Shakespeare didn’t want us to jump from one extreme to the other; he simply was pointing out the failings, and warned us of the path we were following. The hint of this made it acceptable to feminists. Shakespeare did not write the play to make it acceptable to feminist I think he was forward thinking and I believe that he saw that the way marriage was seen was going to change. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Taming of the Shrew section.