Taming of the Shrew

            In William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, it is interesting how rapidly the main character Katherina changes from her shrew-like attitude to an obedient and tamed housewife. In the beginning of the play, Katherina is a single, strong headed, resistant, and hostile woman.  For example, she introduces herself by saying the following hostile words to Hortensio:

            I’ faith, sir, you shall never need to fear:

            Iwis it is not halfway to her heart.

            But if it were, doubt not her care should be

            To comb your noddle with a three-legged stool

            And paint your face and use you like a fool.  (lines 61-65)

In the end of the play, Katherina has a very long speech where she tells Bianca and the Widow what it takes to be an obedient wife.  She says, “Thy husband is they lord, thy life, thy keeper,/ Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee” (152-153). This sudden change in character makes the audience wonder whether Katherina has finally caved in and become a weak woman or whether her change of heart is authentic.

            After re-reading some of the play, it seems obvious that Katherina has always been rejected by her father, her sister, and everyone else in town.  She has always been treated like the outcast.  Her shrew-like behavior was brought on as a self-defense mechanism.  In act one scene one, Katherina’s father Baptista says, “And so, farewell.  Katherina, you may stay,/ For I have more to commune with Bianca” (100-101).  Kate’s reaction reveals her true feelings.  She says, “Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? What,/ shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike, I knew/ not what to take and what to leave? Ha!” (103-104).  Obviously Kate feels left out.  Bianca is the favored daughter and Baptista doesn’t hide it.  Another example of this favoritism is in lines thirty through thirty-six.  Baptista tells Bianca “get thee in.”  Kate is hurt by her father’s attempt to protect Bianca and not her.  She says, “Will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see/ She is your treasure, she must have a husband.”  In this passage, Kate is expressing that she sees her father’s favoritism.  She’s been trying to communicate this throughout the whole play, yet her father does not care.  Kate’s only reason for her dramatic change in the end of the play is due to the fact that Petruchio actually chose her for who she is.  Even though one of his motivations for marrying Kate was money, he was obviously turned on by the fact that she was hostile.  Through her marriage to Petruchio, Kate gained social status, a voice, and a man who actually paid attention to her.