Kate and Bianca clearly do not get on with each other, when Bianca comes onto the scene she is harsh straight away, the third thing that she says is commenting on Bianca’s behavior.
“A pretty peat! It is best put finger in the eye and she knew why”. Kate calls Bianca a spoilt child and then goes on to say that the best thing that Bianca could do if she could not think of an excuse would be to make herself cry so that Kate got the blame. Bianca mocks Kate by using words that have a hidden depth “sister, content you in my discontent” After the comment from Katherine “A pretty peat” Bianca tells Kate not to feel bad, and then goes on to talk sweetly to Baptista.
This leads me on to talking about Bianca’s speech. She says what she thinks is right in front of her father, even if she does not really mean it. “What you command me to do I will do”, in this she is talking to Baptista, she is pleasant and obedient.
She also says later on “so well I know my duty to my elders”. At the start of the play people would have thought that this remark was of her politeness but when it gets into the play some people think that it is suggesting something, as she is saying it to Kate, it may be a sarcastic hint that she is older than Bianca and not as fair as she is. Bianca always comes across as if she is saying sweet and kind things but underneath the original meaning it is almost as if there is a hidden depth to her speech and it goes back to the original meaning behind the play of deception and disguise.
After Bianca’s’ wooing scene she says “farewell, sweet masters both, I must be gone” she comes across to be flirting with them, but she is not interested in either of them and is confusing them.
Shakespeare gets the point across about the two sisters by using how others react to them and also what others say about them, either to them or about them. Kate does not have a very good reputation and so people are used to what she is like. They are horrified at some of the things that she says but not at all surprised because everyone knows Kate as the Shrew.
When Petruchio first meets Kate he thinks that he can tame her; “For I am he am born to tame you, Kate”, he thinks that underneath the ill-tempered behaviour and the bad mannered speech that there is something else there that no one can see, he thinks that it needs bringing out. He wants to have a wife so he thinks that she will be a perfect challenge. Baptista gives up hope on Kate because he thinks that she will never calm down and be like Bianca, he asks her “Why, how now, daughter Katherine in your dumps?” This is because she has been shouting so much that she is left feeling low spirited and out of temper. Petruchio woos Kate and she tries to fight back, he says “Twas told me you were a rough cay and sullen, and now I find report a very liar” he tells her that she is beautiful and how she is perfect and all she does is fight back.
Petruchio thinks that she should calm down and show a sensitive side he keeps trying to tell her how nice she is “A combless cock, so Kate will
be my hen” by this remark he is trying to make her see him in a different way such as marriage. She fights back with insults and so he says “Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour”, he tells her that she would be pretty on the inside as well as the outside if only she took the sourness away.
As a complete contrast what others think and say about Bianca is very different indeed. There is immense variety of thought as Katherine knows what Bianca is really like but no one else can see that. Baptista is proud of Bianca and says to Katherina “when did she cross thee with a bitter word?” Because the only time that Bianca says anything bitter is when Baptista is out of hearing distance he thinks that she would never say anything out of order or do anything to have an input on an argument-that it is all one sided fights with Kate. Kate gets angry that Baptista only treasures and looks after Bianca so she turns round and says “She is your treasure” because she feels unloved. Baptista knows about all of Bianca’s suitors because they are always around their house begging for her to love them, one day Baptista says to them “be happy rivals in Bianca’s’ love” he never mentions Kate in the conversation and when he does all of the men are put off because she is so ill-tempered.
In Act 2 scene 1 Kate and Bianca are completely unobserved by men for the first time in the play, this is an ideal moment for them both to show their true characters, Kate is behaving as normal, violent and shrewish but Bianca is also answering back, this could be interpreted as defending herself, or this could also be interpreted as something deeper.
Meanwhile Petruchio has come. During his wooing scene with Kate he asks her; “Am I not wise?” and Kate replies “Yes, you keep warm”, she is implying that he has about enough wits to keep warm. Not only is she insulting she is good at comebacks too. Later on again in the play, in the wooing scene with Kate and Petruchio Kate asks “where did you study all this goodly speech?”. This is a clever technique as this reminds the audience, by using a sarcastic enquiry, that Petruchios’ speech has been worked on and is probably a “calculated performance”. She is harsh in her speech, it comes across as she does not care what anyone else thinks of her and she thinks that she can say what she wants using violence to get her own way, but people can argue that it is because she wants some attention because everyone is always with Bianca and she is obviously the favorite, she can sense that her father is ashamed of her.
At the beginning of Bianca’s wooing scene she is flirting with Lucentio. Tranio, who is pretending to be Lucentio, and Hortensio, pretending to be Litio, are both watching this and commenting on it.
Hortensio reveals that he is not Litio. He says that he is not a musician either. He has seen another side to Bianca during his teaching sessions and he is giving up on her, and losing his affection that he had towards her. Bianca has turned into something that Hortensio does not like. He wants money and so he says that there is a “wealthy widow” He decides not to look for beauty anymore, only kindness beneath and within, because that is the only thing that will not be changed.
In both the wooing scenes, it keeps going from Kate to Bianca and swapping every so often, it parallels their development of characters which enables you to compare them. Bianca is involved in deception and not so fair, innocent and sweet as she used to be, and Kate is getting less shrewish as the time goes by.
Bianca seems to be a bit more independent and stubborn than she was at the beginning of the play, it is like Shakespeare has peeled back a layer of her character to reveal her in more depth she says “I’ll not be tied to hours nor ‘pointed times” but this is also when her father is not around, he has left her to be taught by the suitors. She starts flirting with them too which was not expected “farewell, sweet masters both, I must be gone”, she is teasing them because she clearly has no feelings for either of them.
In Act 3 scene 2 she is asked what she thinks about her sister and she said “that being mad herself, she’s madly mattered” , she cannot see that Kate and herself are having a change of character.
Kate and Petruchio are to be married, so Petruchio plans a wedding that h can start the taming process at. Tranio sees Baptista and they try to persuade Petruchio to change his clothes because he had turned up in things both “old and new”. The reason that Shakespeare does not actually show the wedding scene in the play is because the audience know already what will happen so they get all the information about the wedding through a messenger. At the wedding Grumio says that Petruchio is worse than Katherina, “Tut, she’s a lamb, a dove, a fool, to him” this is meaning that compared to Petruchio, Kate is a dove. Petruchio says “Ay, by gogs-wouns!” when asked if he will marry her-this means yes by gods wounds. He swore so loud that everyone was amazed, when the priest dropped the book and bent own to get it Petruchio hits him back down again when he tries to stand up. The technique Shakespeare is using here is that people are feeling a little bit sorry for Kate; it is manipulating the audience for them to have sympathy for Katherina.
After the wedding Kate is begging for food, the more bad things that happen to her the more spiteful Petruchio is getting, but not to her. She has not eaten now for thirty-six hours. She never knew how to beg or plead but she is tired “giddy for lack of sleep” and hungry “starved for meat”. She sees that he is doing it out of love for her. The use of language and way that it says it implies that Kate is desperate.
As the time goes by Kate is more and more like the ideal woman and this all shows in her final speech. In the speech Shakespeare uses a lot of techniques to make it ironic. He uses references to how Kate was before “scornful glances from those eyes” “muddy, ill-seeming” “and when she is forward, peevish, sullen, sour” “what is she but a foul contending rebel” All this is talking about how women should obey and serve their husbands. He uses references to male supremacy and dominance “thy lord, thy king, thy governor” “thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for me”, and references to how a woman should behave “love, fair looks and obedience” “bound to serve, love and obey”.
At the beginning of the play Kate was shrewish, despised and feared and Bianca was ideal, worshipped, and adored. The techniques used were the use of things that other people said about them, especially what men said about and to them.
In the middle of the play Kate has had aspects of her not seen before released. She shows a bit of sympathy towards other people and talks less when she is not spoken to. Bianca has also had aspects of her not seen before come out, we see wit from Kate also in the wooing scene. The techniques used here is also what men say about them, with Kate it is Petruchio’s actions around her and the theme of deception/deviousness and dominancy.
At the end of the play Kate appears more like the ideal woman, she is obedient and submissive. The language she uses is refined, polite, poetic and formal. Her personality is calmer and she only speaks when she is told to
Bianca is more shrewish, not obedient, and not submissive. She appears to have no conscience about what she has done. She uses more forceful language smutty and crude. Lucentio has married Bianca but now wishes that she was more like Kate. The techniques used here is what each of them says and their use of language.
At the end of the play Kate’s speech is ironic because she is telling other women how to treat their husbands.
When Kate was a Shrew no one listened to what she had to say, now she has been tamed men listen to every word, this is because she is talking about obeying men.
This maybe suggests that Shakespeare was talking about his society, which was a male dominated world.
