There is a social and historical context behind all of Shakespeare’s plays. In my opinion that is what makes them so popular because by Shakespeare including real life issues of the time in his plays it gives something for the audience to relate to.
As The Taming of the Shrew focuses on the concerns of married life it was relevant to the English audiences for the time period it was first shown (Renaissance period). This was because their society was concerned with marriage in general (due to Henry VIII’s part in the separation of England from the Catholic Church to secure a divorce that the pope had refused to grant him). One important aspect of the play which was true to Elizabethan marriages among the upper class was that they were often arranged for money, land or power rather than for love. This was true to Petruchio because he agreed to marry Katharina just on the bases of her having money and not because of love or even friendship as they had never even met.
Another reason the resolution of marital disputes became an important topic in the popular literature of the era was because unless you were the king of England, the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries offered few ways out of an unhappy marriage.
Katharina being a ‘shrew’ and having to be tamed also fitted in with the era. This is because men were very chauvinistic 400 years ago and they believed that women had no rights. This is why women that were cantankerous wives (Katharina) had to be tamed by their husbands (Petruchio).
From the social and historical context I think that it is likely Petruchio succeeded in taming Katharina because that’s what would have happened if it were to be a real situation and that is what the audience would have expected.
Contradicting that Shakespeare could have lead the audience to believe that Petruchio was going to tame Katharina (as they would expect) but then end it with her still being a shrew, (but I do not believe this is true).
There are four examples throughout the play that can be used to help decide in whether Petruchio succeeds in taming Katharina. These are; Petruchio trying to woo Katharina at the start of the play, their weeding, when he denies her food, sleep and then new clothes and finally the speech Katharina makes at the end of the play.
From Petruchio’s wooing it leads you to think that he doesn’t have a chance in marrying Katharina let alone taming her. This is because when the first meet she is abusive and violent towards him and the only reason they are getting married is because he tricked her into it and she didn’t want to let her father down as he had paid out a lot of money.
On their wedding day however Petruchio begins to show her who really is in control by showing her up and making her wedding day a misery. He accomplishes this by turning up for his wedding; late, drunk, dressed in a ridiculous outfit and riding a broken down horse.
This is where you first see what Petruchio is capable of and realise that Katharina may have met her match and has started to be put in her place by the chauvinist, uncaring and thoughtless.
After the wedding but before the feast he forced her to leave for his country house, telling all in ear shot that she is his property and that he may do with her as he please. This must have been hard for Katharina because it is the first time she had been ordered to do something, especially by a man.
The cunning Petruchio continues the process of trying to tame Katharina by keeping her from eating and sleeping for several days. He slyly does this by pretending that he loves her so much he cannot allow her to eat his inferior food or to sleep in his poorly made bed. He makes it worse for her by leaving before the wedding feast and sitting her down at his country house and turning the food away just as she gets it. This must have confused her because she would have been unsure whether he was actually doing it out of love or spite. Which ever way she took it he was still succeeding in the process of taming her because if it was out of spite she might have learnt that he was not a match for her and if it was out of love she might have realised that she needs to calm down and become a so called proper ‘lady’. Another thing that Petruchio does to help tame her is buy her a new dress and then destroy it in front of her blaming it on poor tailor ship.
I think that all those things help Petruchio succeed in taming Katharina because his nastiness is gradually wearing her down whether she does think it is because he loves her so much or not.
The final thing from the four examples that helps answer the question, “Do you think that Petruchio succeeds in taming Katharina?” is the speech Katharina makes at the end of the play. This is a very important part of the play because it is where Katharina releases her true emotions and feelings. It also finally tells us whether Petruchio succeeds in taming Katharina even though it can be interoperated in two different ways. The speech gives us the impression that Petruchio has succeeded because she speaks about advocating the loyalty of wives to their husbands. Also after the speech the three new husbands (Petruchio, Hortensio and Lucentio) stage a contest to see which of their wives will obey first when summoned. Everyone expected Lucentio to win but his wife (Bianca) sent a message back refusing to obey, while Katharina came immediately. Shortly after Petruchio and Katharina leave to go to bed happily.
From this you get the impression that Petruchio has succeeded in taming Katharina.
From the four examples (especially the speech), Katharina’s inherent personality and social graces, Petruchio’s motivations and the social and historical context I have decided that Petruchio did win the wager set at the start of the play by succeeding to tame Katharina.
I think this mainly from the speech because she is saying aloud (for the benefit of the audience) that women should obey their husbands which is pretty much giving in to Petruchio and emitting she has been tamed. The speech could also work against the argument of Petruchio’s success because Katharina could have been sarcastic and ironic in her words but I do not believe this is true because it doesn’t appear that she says it in that way.
Lastly I think that Katharina may not have been tamed solely by Petruchio’s harshness towards her but maybe by the happiness she has gained from being married. I do not think Petruchio as a person has given her this happiness but the role she is playing as his wife. I think this because when married she is not suffering the universal revulsion she received as a shrew but respect and consideration from others.
