She is often insulted by other characters in the presence of Baptista, in this case it is Bianca’s suitors who throw wanton abuse:
“GREMIO To cart her rather! She’s too rough for me.
There, there Hortensio, will you any wife?
KATHERINA [To Baptista] I pray you, sir, is it your will
To make stale of me amongst these mates?
HORTENSIO ‘Mates’, maid? How mean you that? No mates for you
Unless you were of gentler, milder mould.”
Katherina is clearly distressed by what is being said and does nothing. For me this implies that if Katherina needs or wants something, possibly just attention, she must rely on her cunning to get it and so has developed this ‘act’. Others may entirely disagree and argue Baptista is a kind and loving farther cursed with a shrewish daughter, who possesses no love and has no desire to be loved. There is simple evidence also to back this claim, basically that Katherina is the first born and must have been given ample love and care as a child, but despite this still behaves in this manor. Quite simply a born shrew.
Now to the Taming itself. It is clear that Katherina has some profound personality flaws and is a very difficult person to be around, but with the introduction of Petruichio, who is clearly a man who enjoys the prospect of a challenge and will not give up his mission to tame her. This is apparent on their first meeting, when Petruchio first attempts to break her and becomes involved in a long exchange of witticism and sexual connotations. This could be seen as them enjoying each others company and using it as an entertaining game, later in the play we see further evidence that they may perhaps share the same humour and enjoy poetically insulting each other or attempting to humiliate each other.
When Petruchio’s taming progresses out of Padua, Petruchio begins to shoe Katherina that her shrewish behaviour will not cut any ice with him displayed via proxy in Grumio’s speech when he enter’s his master’s house describing the journey to Curtis. He tells of ‘how he left her with the horse upon her’, ‘how she waded through the dirt’ and ‘how she prayed that have never prayed before’. And that is where Petruchio’s ritual cruelty just begins. Once at the house he deprives her of food (Act 4 scene 1 line 135), sleep (Act 4 Scene 3 Line 9) and her desired outfit (Act 4 Scene 3 Line 60 onwards).
By the time the couple set out once more – this time back to Padua to attend Bianca’s wedding – Katherina has felt the full force of Petruchio’s taming. She maybe aware, by now, of the taming or it could be perceived that she has learnt to combat his stratagem or at least, however unwillingly, accepted it. This is demonstrated during a test by Pretruchio, which is one of the key stages in Katherina’s transformation.
Cause for Petruchio’s test may have some root in the fact he is surrounded by fellow males and wishes to show of or it may simply be just testing his methods. Petruchio begins by praising the brightness of the moon, however it is day and both Petruchio and Katherina are naturally aware of this. To start with she questions him, but then for the first time in the play she realises she will get nowhere correcting her husband or making a point of his nonsense. Instead in her first display of acquiescence she cowers to his obtuseness:
“PETRUCHIO I say it is the moon.
KATHERINA I know it is the moon.”
A further example arises when Vincentio arrives on the scene. Petruchio in effect calls her bluff testing her further by addressing this man (a complete stranger) as a young virgin. Again she obliges. These two incidents can be interpreted in several ways. Katherina could of course be just playing along so that one day they may eventually arrive in Padua. I belief with the issue of the moon this is most certainly the case as she is encouraged to do so by Hortensio, in which case she has not changed at all, but the second is not so clear cut. It is most certainly possibly she could still be doing it for this reason, however her use of unnecessary, highly poetic language distinctly mirrors Petruchio’s customary style. As a result it could imply a mutual desire for such humour or perhaps even a mockery of her husband, maybe employing the use of sarcasm. She might even be in awe of Petruchio’s guise of speech and insusceptibility to embarrassment at such an address to a perfect stranger and so has a stab at it herself.
The next moment in Kathina’s apparent tranformation occurs in the streets of Padua. Prior to Vincentio’s confrontation with Tranio and co. Petruchio bids they stand aside. To my knowledge this is the first time in the play when Katherina does as he says without even a single word, simply obeys as a servant would. This could mean one of three things: that she has indeed been tamed to do as he says without question, that she has learnt to love him and finds pleasure in doing his bidding or she plainly can’t be bothered to argue in the anticipation of such drama. Even the last point indicates change on Katherina’s behalf.
However the truly pivotal moment in the scene comes when Petruchio announces he will leave if he does not receive a kiss from his bride, this is another one of Petruchio’s ‘tests’ for Katherina. She replies:
“ Nay, I will give thee a kiss.
[She kisses him]
Now I pray thee love, stay.”
Her use of the word ‘nay’ implies a certain reluctance to kiss him, however this is soon contradicted with her use of ‘love’. Depending on how these to words are delivered is crucial to the statements meaning. If Katherina were to utter the ‘nay’ with an amount of contempt and annoyance finishing the ‘love’ portion of the statement with a digree of sarcasm, then again we would assume it is still essentially the same Katherina, just a slightly more co-operative one. She would just give him a peck to move them on their way so they could get to the wedding and eat. This would go back to what I said earlir about Katherina.
If the entire Statement were said with some genuine love and passion we may believe her to have been tamed, be in love with Petruchio or mocking him with an unusually sweet tone. It may even appear she is acting as a woman tamed and has developed a new way of manipulating people as opposed to her earlier method I touched on at the start of my essay. I believe this last point to be true as I cannot imagine Katherina to have become tamed in such a short space of time nor could I see her deliberately mocking or displaying annoyance at him, for fear of Petruchio’s wrath. For me it has to be clever, cunning Katherina up to her old tricks again.
