Kate then speaks what she is feeling, L.31-34, ‘What, will you not suffer me? 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.’ Kate’s jealousy is shown here, and it seems she is also jealous of all the suitors Bianca has as well as their father’s attention. When she talks about dancing alone on her sisters wedding day she is talking about the behaviour traditionally expected of an older, unmarried sister. The mention of leading apes in hell is referring to the lot of women who die old unmarried maids. Katherina then exits the scene.
This is when Petruchio enters. He introduces himself to Baptista firstly and then checks what he will get for marrying Katherina. ‘…if I get your daughter’s love, what dowry shall I have with her to wife?’ (L.118-199) He’s making sure marrying this bad-tempered shrew he has heard about is worth his while.
Hortensio, disguised as Litio, then enters the scene with his head bleeding. He explains Kate hit him with his instrument!
‘I love her ten times more than e’er I did.’ Says Petruchio, L.160. ‘O how I long to have some chat with her.’ Kate’s fiery temper has made him more fired up!
Baptista then exits and goes to fetch Kate. When she enters, the two argue and exchange witty insults. Petruchio flirts with Kate but all it does is make her more annoyed and fiery. He twists everything she says and is full of quick-witted, sexual and sarcastic replies. Kate probably feels quite intimidated which may be another reason why she dislikes him. She is also, most likely, quite shocked to have some male attention for once, despite the fact she is being her usual self and insulting him, which usually the men are frightened of and end up disliking her.
Baptista and others then return. ‘…how speed you with my daughter?’ asks Baptista, L.272-273. Petruchio lies and says, ‘How but well, sir? How but well? It were impossible I should speed amiss.’
Katherina is furious! She calls Petruchio a ‘…one half lunatic, a mad-cap ruffian and a swearing Jack that thinks with oaths to face the matter out.’ (L.280-281)
Petruchio once again lies and claims Kate is putting it on and says that because they got on so well, they have agreed to marry on Sunday.
‘I’ll see thee hang’d on Sunday first!’ (L.291) Says Kate.
Gremio and Tranio begin to doubt Petruchio but then he gives a long speech about how much she loves him.
‘I tell you, ‘tis incredible to believe how much she loves me–O the kindest Kate! She hung about my neck, and kiss on kiss she vied so fast, protesting oath on oath, that in a twink she won me to her love.’ (L.298-302)
Baptista is absolutely thrilled! Kate doesn’t say anything though. This seems to be a turning point for Kate. She doesn’t argue with Petruchio or deny what he has said, nor does she threaten or insult him. Her silence at the end of this scene is remarkable. Kate has been fiery and bad-tempered throughout the play but now Petruchio and her father are forcing marriage upon her and yet she remains silent! Maybe she does in fact like Petruchio? Or maybe she is so shocked that someone actually wants to marry her? Either way this is a big change in the Kate we are used to.
Act 3, Scene 2 is the scene of the wedding. There’s a problem though - someone is missing. Oddly enough it isn’t Kate…it’s Petruchio! Kate is extremely upset and embarrassed by his failure to show.
‘No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forc’d to give my hand, oppos’d against my heart, unto a mad-brain rudesby…I told you, I, he was a frantic fool!’ (L.8-12)
Kate is once again speaking her feelings. She claims that she is being forced to marry him but she did not object or argue with Petruchio to what he was saying in the previous act. Kate then exits the scene weeping.
‘Go, girl. I cannot blame thee now to weep, for such an injury would vex a very saint, much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.’ (L.27-32) Says Baptista. This is the first time in the whole play that Baptista has been sympathetic about Katherina.
After a long time of waiting Petruchio finally arrives. Kate and Baptista are horrified and completely humiliated - Petruchio is drunk and dressed in an old shabby outfit. It would have been better if he hadn’t turned up at all.
‘To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.’ Says Petruchio, L.111. This is true but obviously he has a reason for dressing the way he has. In my opinion this is the beginning of his plan to tame her. By embarrassing her in front of everyone it shows he is the one who is in charge, not her.
Gremio then describes the wedding to us. Surprisingly he claims that Kate is ‘…a lamb, a dove, a fool…’ (L.151) compared to Petruchio. Gremio’s feelings have obviously changed since the first act when it was him who referred to her as a devil.
We then move onto the wedding feast. Petruchio tells everyone that him and his new wife won’t be able to stay as he is in a hurry to return home. Kate doesn’t like this though. She ‘entreats’ him to stay and says, L.199, ‘Now, if you love me, stay.’ She blackmails him. Surprisingly she doesn’t hit him or insult him.
When Petruchio still insists on going and ignores her, she gets angry.
‘Nay then, do what thou canst, I will not go today! No, nor tomorrow––not till I please myself!’ (L.200-2003) She’s gone back to her fiery usual self.
Kate is showing self-control and that she is in charge, not Petruchio. In the end he drags her off anyway, kicking and screaming.
The next scene (Act four, scene one) is set at Petruchio’s house. Kate is miserable and in a state. She fell of her house on the way to the house and is soaking wet and muddy.
Petruchio’s servants have cooked him and his new wife a meal. This is where the beginning of Kate’s taming really begins.
Petruchio starts to yell and complains that all the food is burnt. He then begins throwing the food and dishes at his servants and insulting them. This is where we see a big change in Kate.
‘I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet. The meat was well, if you were so contented.’ (L.150-151) Kate is defending the servants and being polite/calm. She isn’t being fiery and bad-tempered. Petruchio’s taming has barely begun and she already seems to be softening.
Petruchio then gives a long speech to himself, talking about more ways to tame Kate.
In Scene 3 Kate talks to Gremio about how she is feeling, L.1-16. She realises that the greater the wrong done to her, the worse his temper grows. Maybe she is beginning to see he is trying to tame her?
Petruchio has already starved her and deprived her of sleep, but now he takes away a dress and hat especially made for her.
‘I’ll have no bigger. This doth fit the time, and gentlewomen wear such caps as these.’ (L.69-70) Kate loves the hat, but Petruchio quite simply replies, ‘When you are gentle you shall have one too.’ He’s blackmailing her, trying to get her to become gentle so she can have the hat. Kate makes a big speech about how she is feeling and her rights, L.73-80, but Petruchio just ignores her,
Next he shows her dress but he makes out it is the complete opposite to what he asked for and tears it apart, teasing Kate with it, knowing that she adores it.
‘I never saw a better-fashion’d gown, more quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable.’ (L.101-102) He is once again trying to blackmail her into being gentler.
At the end of the scene Petruchio says, ‘…I think ’tis now some seven o’clock’ (L.182), knowing full well that, that isn’t the real time. ‘I dare assure you, sir, ‘tis almost two’ Says Kate, L.184.
‘It shall be seven ere I go to horse. Look what I speak, or do, or think to do, you are still crossing it.’ (L.166-167) Petruchio is trying to get his point across. Kate is his wife and therefore he believes Kate is his property and should do as he says. He tells her what he says or does she still keeps crossing him.
In Scene 5 we see one of the biggest changing points in Kate so far - she actually does what he asks. Herself and Petruchio are on the way to her father’s home for her sisters wedding.
‘Good lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon.’ Says Petruchio, L.2. ‘The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now.’ Comments Kate, knowing for sure she is right.
This is when Petruchio reiterates what he said in the previous about doing as he says. ‘Now, by the mother’s son––and that’s myself––it shall be the moon or star or what I list or e’er I journey to your fathers house.’ (L.6-10)
Kate, who has been strong-minded, bad-tempered, rude, violent and many more things throughout the play, then gives in to her husband’s wishes. She is done with arguing and finally gives in.
‘…and be it moon or sun or what you please’ and if you please o call it rush-candle, henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.’ (L.12-15) She’s doing as he says!
Petruchio then changes his mind. ‘I say it is the moon.’ He had just argued with Kate and told her it was the Sun.
‘What you will have it nam’d, even that it is, and so it shall be so for Katherine.’ (L.21-22) All Petruchio’s hard work has worked, Kate seems to be tamed! Hortensio realises this too and says, ‘Petruchio, go thy ways. The field is won.’
Later on in the scene Petruchio tells Kate that a male passer by is in fact a woman, when clearly this is a lie. Kate goes along with it and comments on her beauty. Petruchio then informs Kate that it is really a man. Kate apologises and says her eyes are mistaking her. She is tamed!!!
Next is Act Five, Scene one and another big change in Kate’s normal behaviour.
‘First kiss me, Kate, and we will.’ (L.121) Says Petruchio. You wouldn’t expect the usual Kate to agree to this. ‘What in the midst of the street?’ Asks Kate, not insulting him or lashing out.
Petruchio then seems a bit surprised and maybe worried his taming hasn’t been successful, L.123, ‘What, art thou ashamed of me?’
‘No sir, God forbid––but ashamed to kiss.’ She quickly corrects him and kisses him!!! To make things even more shocking she says, L.127, ‘Now pray thee, love, stay.’ She calls him love! This is a big change in Kate. All the way through the play she has referred to him as husband or an insult, etc, but for the first time she calls him love.
Kate’s miraculous transformation gets even more incredible in the final scene. Petruchio, Hortensio and Lucentio all have a contest to see who has the most obedient wife by requesting their companion come to them. Everyone thinks Petruchio will lose but, to their amazement, it is Lucentio and Hortensio’s wives who fail to come. Kate comes and also brings the other two ladies with her. She gives them a long speech on what duty they owe their husbands and lectures them about not doing as their husbands asked for. This certainly proves that Kate has been ‘tamed’ and is definitely the biggest turning point in the play.
In my opinion I do not believe Kate has actually changed whatsoever. I think she is still the same person that she was at the beginning of the play, only now she realises that being loud and fiery will not help her circumstances. I feel she hasn’t been ‘tamed’ at all but is putting on this false behaviour so she can get on with her life freely. Despite this I do think she loves Petruchio and is thrilled to have found a husband, but, regardless of the title, you cannot actually ‘tame a shrew’.
We saw three different interpretations of the play. The first version we saw was a theatre production. After reading the text I was disappointed at the directors portrayal of Kate. Firstly she had short black hair whereas in the text she had long, red hair, which in a stereotypical view shows she was fiery. The actress was also small and I had imagined Kate to be quite well built and sturdy. Her height also made her less intimidating.
Her appearance wasn’t the only let down, her acting was also very unbelievable and not ‘shrew’ like at all. Kate was meant to experience this huge transformation, but I didn’t see it. She was very monotonous from beginning to end.
Next we saw an animated version. This was much better than the theatre production. Kate had long, red hair, was quite tall and was dressed in fairly rich clothes, unlike in the first where she was dressed like a peasant. She was very violent, rude and was the perfect shrew! Her speech was snappy as well, which made her character even better.
Like in the first production though I didn’t see much of a transformation from beginning to end, her voice changed and was much ‘softer’ but her actions towards Petruchio didn’t change really. Despite it being an animation and it probably being hard to show affections, I still think they could have made it more realistic. Her clothes and appearance did help make her more believable, but the love wasn’t real enough.
The third interpretation was a film. This was definitely the best out of the three; Kate’s portrayal was perfect in my opinion. She had long, jet black, curly hair and very sharp, violet coloured eyes. This made her very fierce looking and helped bring the realism of her character to a whole new level, you could believe she was actually Kate. She was also dressed very smartly and looked like a princess.
Her personality was exactly right too, she was fiery, insane, scary…almost witch-like. She was evil!
The transformation was incredible also, just like in the text. She went from being this wild ‘shrew’ like demon to a kind, polite, caring human. The love between Petruchio and Kate was very genuine and convincing so if you didn’t have time to read the text then this would definitely be the best version to watch.
