At the very start of the play, Kate can easily be portrayed as a typical shrew, who simply insults whoever she wishes and has little respect for anyone, even her own father. However, Kate could also be played as being misunderstood and even rejected by her father. After Baptista announces that Kate’s sister, Bianca, can only be wed after Kate has a husband, two of Bianca’s suitors begin to insult Kate in front of Baptista.
“GREMIO: To cart her rather: she's too rough for me.
There, There, Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATHERINA: I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make a stale of me amongst these mates?”
Although a contemporary audience would probably consider this disrespectful towards her father, it is clear that Kate is upset and her father does not even attempt to help her. This sort of treatment of Kate continues throughout the play. Baptista clearly favours Bianca, but really just wants to get as much money as he can out of his daughters.
“(He) That can assure my daughter greatest dower
Shall have my Bianca’s love.”
The relationship between Bianca and Kate can also be played in two different ways. Again, Kate is simply a shrew who enjoys torturing her more socially acceptable sister, or Kate is only awful to her sister because of her frustration at everyone, even their father, liking Bianca better than her and that Bianca is actually the one slyly torturing Kate.
“KATHERINA: Whom thou lovest best: see thou dissemble not.
…
Is't not Hortensio?
BIANCA: If you affect him, sister, here I swear
I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have
him.”
Here Kate is forcing Bianca to tell her who she loves most, and may at first be interpreted at first as though Bianca is merely pleading with her sister, but upon further analysis it seems that Bianca is actually mocking Kate, implying that Kate needs to depend on her younger sister to get a partner. This side of Bianca could be portrayed throughout the play, a sly woman who manipulates all those around her. It is clear at this stage that no one really loves Kate at this point, not even her own family, so it is possible that her shrewishness is the only way she can express herself and attempt to get her own way, therefore the audience should actually sympathise with Kate at this stage.
The first dramatic turning point of Kate’s character development comes when she first meets Pertruchio (Act 2, Scene 1) and the subsequent wedding (Act 3, Scene 2). Naturally, Pertruchio is a very important character when discussing the taming of Kate, as he is the one to carry out the supposed taming. Previous scenes show Pertruchio to be just as outspoken and disruptive as Kate, if not more so. However, due to social attitudes at the time Pertruchio would actually have been respected for his ‘manliness’ whereas Kate is merely ridiculed and shunned. Therefore it seems that if anyone were to tame Kate, Pertruchio would be the man to do it. He makes it clear to everyone, that he has “come to wive it wealthily in Padua” and even announces to Baptista that “everyday I cannot come to woo”. Despite the fact attitudes at the time fully expected a woman to be courted and ‘wooed’ before marriage, Baptista does not seem to care. Again, this ill treatment of Kate makes us sympathise with her, which in turn enforces the theory that it is lack of love which makes Kate a shrew. The odd thing is that once Pertruchio marries Kate, he has his money, why does he still insist on taming her? It may be that he considers it a test of his manhood, that taming Kate will prove that he is a true man. However, Pertruchio himself gives us a clue to another possible explanation when convincing Baptista that he is capable of taming Kate.
“And where two raging fires meet together
They do consume the thing that feeds their fury:
Though little fire grows great with little wind,
Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all:
So I to her and so she yields to me;
For I am rough and woo not like a babe.”
It seems that in this speech he is unknowingly implying that not only does Kate need him to tame her, but also that he needs her. Later in the scene, this need for each other seems to be proven by the long and witty stichomythic exchange between the two.
“KATHARINA: What is your crest? a coxcomb?
PETRUCHIO: A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen.
KATHARINA: No cock of mine; you crow too like a craven.”
The exchange is full of sexual connotations, showing that Kate and Pertruchio are attracted to each other, on some level. This attraction has come about because they have both found their match. Before this scene, other characters have either ignored Kate or insulted her, but Pertruchio challenges her, and she enjoys it despite herself. Further evidence of Kate’s reluctant love for Pertruchio is presented on the wedding day in Act 3 when Pertruchio has not arrived.
“KATHARINA: Would that Katherine had never seen him though.”
Again, this could be portrayed as yet another example of Kate’s shrewishness, but I think it more likely that after enjoying the company of another person so much, Kate is facing an inner struggle; she feels she must maintain her shrewish façade, as she is so used to it, despite the fact she is in love with Pertruchio.
The next major dramatic turning point in the development of Kate are the events after the wedding has taken place. These events are the actual process of Pertruchio’s taming of Kate. Pertruchio treats Kate very unfairly, even cruelly, to break her down so that she is no longer a shrew. His methods are to offer things to Kate, such as dresses and food, but then take them away from her before she can enjoy them, with the intent of making Kate believe the only way for her to have decent life is for her to obey him without question. This seems unnecessarily harsh, even to a contemporary audience, and even Pertruchio has his doubts.
“PERTRUCHIO: (To audience) He who knows better how to tame a shrew, let him speak.”
While Pertruchio seems to believe this treatment of Kate is necessary, he has betrayed his true feelings for her by making himself seem uncertain. He feels his treatment of Kate is needed for them both to be happy, but he wishes there were a less cruel way to accomplish this.
Despite this, in Act 4 Scene 5 Pertruchio appears to have accomplished his task and Kate begins to agree with whatever he tells her, no matter how preposterous it might be. However, although it may seem Pertruchio is controlling Kate in this scene, I think Pertruchio and Kate have subconsciously accepted their feelings for each other and are now combining their wit against others, in this case an old man they meet on the road.
“HORTENSIO: A' will make the man mad, to make a woman of him.
KATHARINA: Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet,
Whither away, or where is thy abode?
Happy the parents of so fair a child;
Happier the man, whom favourable stars
Allot thee for his lovely bed-fellow!
PETRUCHIO: Why, how now, Kate! I hope thou art not mad:
This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, wither'd,
And not a maiden, as thou say'st he is.”
Because of this evidence, I think that Kate’s final speech is merely an act between herself and Pertruchio to gain victories over their foes. There is no way Kate could have changed so completely. Granted, the speech does seem a little extreme but Kate and Pertruchio are extreme people who will do anything to achieve their goals.
They both benefit from this relationship in the end, Kate has shamed her sister, Pertruchio has his money, but most importantly they now have each other. Kate has been tamed to an extent by her love for Pertruchio, and vice versa.
