From the first act Kate is presented to us as a “Shrew”. We get to know her by her vocabulary and mostly because of the way she treats the other people, specially her sister and her father. We also know about her from what the other character comment , and the first impression we get is that she is a “wild untamed animal”. The medieval church had inculcated a view of women that was split between the ideal of the Virgin Mary, and her counterpart, Eve. Adam was created first, and Eve from his body; she was created specifically to give him comfort, and to be subordinate to him, to obey him and to accept her lesser status. A dominant woman was unnatural, a symptom of disorder. This is what makes Kate abnormal for her times. She is looking for freedom of word and of soul, and, although her method are not the best, is the only thing she has.
The maintenance of social order is an important issue in the play. The idea that a woman should necessarily be under the father or husband orders is the basis of the "taming" plot, and is a strong influence in the sub-plot of Bianca and her suitors. A traditional justification for the importance of obedience lay in the belief that the universe was structured hierarchically. In an age of potential invasions as was the Renaissance, such as the one from Spain in 1588, and other sources of insecurity, social and family stability was thought to be very important. At the same time, however, Baptista says that Petruchio must have Katherine's love in order to marry her, and the play illustrates a positive way in which social order is disrupted when Lucentio and Tranio swap roles and costumes in order to get Bianca’s love. Nowadays the society has changed, woman are no longer bellow men and their social and religious position is exactly the same, at least in the civilized countries. Women is free to chose whatever she wants to do for her life, and most important of all in this case, is the freedom to choose to marry or not. This is the reason why we should take into account the social issues of the times when reading the play. It is clear that the society that Shakespeare portrays is one where most women feel they have the freedom to speak their minds, and that is what Kate represents. At the end of the play she gives a speech about the “natural” domestic order of things, she says:
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign . . .
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband,
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple [foolish]
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
(5.2.148-66)
This speech is very controversial. When we reed this nowadays the first thing we think is that she is jus being ironical to Petrucio. Even on the movie we can see that at the end she runs away leaving her husband behind and an open ending for us to conclude. But when we reed the play we can see that this doesn’t happen, so this brings to our minds if she is being ironic or that she has really changed to suit her husband needs. May be for Shakespeare this was a happy ending for the play, as the lovers get together and the natural things of order is restored, but for us, is not as it should be. May be that is why we tent to change the end to suit our beliefs and our ages.
