The new bride, Katherina, has no other choice but to succumb to her husband’s demands. When they marry, Petruchio treats Katherina very badly. He doesn’t let her eat or sleep, he refuses to buy her nice clothes that “gentlewomen” wear because he says she isn’t gentle and he plays with her mind. He tells her it is day when it is night and night when it is day, if she argues with him he threatens to cancel the trip back to Padua. This is his way of proving to Katherina that he wears the trousers in their relationship. Katherina tries to keep hold of the power she has always had but Petruchio proves to be more powerful and domineering than Katherina and she realises that her behaviour as a married lady will have to be the total opposite of what it was before marriage. The transformation of Katherina shows that women didn’t have power in the days that the play was set, and powerful women like Katherina were frowned upon. It was the done thing that men controlled the world and women looked after the house. Women were given power over the running of the house and they had a “duty” to make themselves look beautiful for their husbands. Katherina realises this in her soliloquy in act 5 scene 2, it is as though she is thinking out loud and at the same time telling her sister to give up trying to control her husband. It is also her reality check, she realises she has to let Petruchio do things his way and she has to accept her role as lady of the house.
Another male in the play who has a certain amount of power is Baptista. He has control over who marries his daughters and he makes it clear that his youngest and most wanted, Bianca, will not be married until his eldest daughter is married. Baptista uses his power to seal the marriage of Petruchio and Katherina by simply declaring “’tis a match,” in act 2 on line 311. Although he allows his daughter to talk to her suitor before the marriage is settled, he doesn’t really take into account what she feels and wants, instead he listens to Petruchio’s view on the situation and makes his decision from that. Immediately after this marriage is set up and declared, Baptista is presented with two possible husbands for Bianca. They battle it out between them with Baptista making the final decision after both men have told of what they own, from how much land they have to how many “fat oxen” they have. Naturally, as a father he goes for the man who can offer his daughter the most. In this case the daughter doesn’t even get a chance to talk to her chosen husband and this makes clear the power and control a father had in those times over his daughter’s life.
As a wealthy citizen of Padua, Baptista also has power over the servants he has working for his household. He isn’t the only one with power over servants in the play, Lucentio has control over his ‘man’ Tranio and so forces him to help deceive an unsuspecting Baptista and entice Bianca, Petruchio has power over his servants and he allows them to tease Katherina and tells them not to feed her. The servant/master relationships in the “Taming of the Shrew” are quite friendly and so the difference between the classes of society does not come through too clearly although we know the differences are there due to the fact that terminology like “master” is used.
Nevertheless, the servants too occupy certain powers, as is the case in act 4 scene 1, when Curtis is told by Gremio that his “horn is a foot.” They are talking about superiority over the other for the simple fact of the size of each others male components. This illustrates that any type of power is important.
Unlike her sister, Bianca doesn’t have power over a lot of things. She is the youngest daughter of a wealthy citizen of Padua, she is beautiful and the apple of her father’s eye, despite this she probably will not get a say in who she marries. This may be the reason why she comes across as a bit conceited during the tutoring in act 3. On line 77 she sounds like the spoilt child she is when she says “I like it not” but she soon becomes the captivating lady that has the wealthy men of Padua lining up to become her husband again when she is ready to make her exit. She refers to the tutors as “sweet masters.” It seems as though she is making use of the power she has as a beautiful young woman with many potential husbands and she enjoys the hold she has over men of all ages. Young men like Lucentio and Hortensio want her hand in marriage as do men of the older generation such as Gremio and we are under the impression that as with her elder sister, Bianca’s husband will be chosen by her father. Only, Bianca manages to deceive everybody including her father Baptista and she marries Lucentio whom she flirted with audaciously during the tutoring session in act 3 scene 1. This incident proves the power Bianca had as the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy and respected man of Padua, nobody suspected her of anything as mischievous as getting married without her father’s consent. After pulling a stunt like this it would be expected that Bianca would be in serious trouble with her father, however her father as Lucentio says does not “frown” upon the marriage instead he seems quite contented that she has married into a much respected family. His reaction shows that Bianca has a certain influence on her father and clearly, as his favourite, she can do no wrong.
Throughout the play, money seems to be the basis of power. Baptista is a ‘wealthy’ citizen of Padua, Petruchio was the sole heir to all of his fathers “lands and goods” and Lucentio, son of Vincentio who is related to the Bentivolii family, also will be the heir of his fathers fortune. Whether or not Lucentio is an only child is not clear but his father is much respected and Lucentio describes him as “a merchant of great traffic through the world” basically saying he deals with major international enterprises, and so he would, hypothetically speaking, be quite well off. Both Petruchio and Lucentio wind up marrying Baptista’s daughters with no objections from the girls father. Baptista does however make it clear that he will marry his daughters to men who are financially secure and will leave the “greatest dower” and fortunately both men fit into these criteria.
However, it isn’t only the father who would like rich husbands for his daughters; the suitor wants to know what his potential wife would be left if her father breathes his last and how much dowry he will get, as is the case when Petruchio meets with Baptista to ask for Katherina’s hand in marriage. He casually asks what dowry he will get if he gets Katherina’s love, when he is content with the dowry he promises to assure her a widow’s allowance if he should happen to die before her.
In act 2 scene 1, Tranio and Gremio debate amongst themselves and end up exchanging a few insults before Baptista intervenes, he states that whoever offers the most gets the girl. This starts the two potential suitors off on a personal ego trip about what they own, how much of it they own and how much of what they own will go to Bianca if they die before her. As the wealthy citizen, Baptista can afford to finance his daughters until he finds a suitable match for them. This works to his advantage because he can afford to keep Bianca until her elder sister, the “shrew” Katherina is made a sensible offer for marriage which is to the standards of Baptista.
The purpose of this play was for Shakespeare to prove hat domineering women didn’t make it in the 16th century. Katherina’s soliloquy in act 5 scene to is about a women’s role and in some parts it seems like Shakespeare is mocking this view, especially when Katherina calls men “king.”
Power in this play was presented in a number of ways. A lot of the power presented in the play started with a female but ended up with a male. This shows how male dominated the times of Shakespeare were.