Petruchio refused to let her eat, under the pretense that she deserved better food than what was being given her:
Petruchio: What’s this? Mutton?
First Serv: Ay.
…..
Petruchio: ‘Tis burnt, and so is all the meat.
What dogs are these! Where is the rascal cook? (IV, I, 147-148 & 149-150)
Petruchio throws the food and the dishes at his ‘dim’ servants, who, according to Petruchio, have prepared unsatisfactory food for his wife. This is perhaps an exaggerated reaction from Petruchio who may be playing to the audience as this situation is not major, and the food may not have been burnt. Similarly, Petruchio did not think that her bed was suitable for her to sleep in, so his servants took turns keeping her awakened denying her the sleep that she so desperately needed. Petruchio took the stance that Kate was his property, as he pointed out in the second scene of act three:
Petruchio: I will be master of what is mine own.
She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house.
My household stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing, (III, ii, 227-230)
The hyperbolic description of Kate is an example of how Petruchio feels in terms of superiority to Kate. He believes he is the commander, and she is a possession of his.
Petruchio’s vocabulary surprises Kate when they first meet, as does his flattery of her that she is dismissive of:
Petruchio: O be thou Dian, and let her be Kate
And then let Kate be chaste and Dian sportful
Katherina: Where did you study all this goodly speech?
Petruchio: It is extempore, from my mother-wit
Katherina: A witty mother, witless else her son (II, i, 254-258)
Petruchio refers to Dian in his speech, who was the Goddess of love. He tries to lead Katherine to believe that her looks resemble those of the Goddess of love. Kate is not tricked by his exaggeration and flattery and responds to his speech by branding him foolish, and rather unamusing. She shows she has a rather sarcastic manner to her, which would be not be seen as a characteristic of a stereotypical Elizabethan woman. Queen Elizabeth would find her sarcasm amusing and pleasing to see a woman standing up to a man.
Gremio and Tranio are alike in that they are both over-confident suitors to the beautiful Bianca. In Act two, when the suitors are speaking to Baptista after he has confirmed the marriage of Petruchio and Katherina, and they sense they can persuade Baptista to choose either of them to be Bianca’s husband:
Tranio: I am my father’s heir and only son.
If I may have your daughter to my wife
I’ll leave her houses three or four as good (II, i, 357-359)
Tranio boasts of his father’s wealth and that his inheritance will provide sufficient financial support for Bianca should she be his wife, and also that he will leave her good property wealth should he die. But Gremio, also seeking for Baptista’s approval of him, describes his wealth, and how he can support Bianca in terms of finance, which was the most important factor when choosing a husband in Elizabethan era. Gremio explains:
Gremio: [Aside] My land amounts not to so much in all.-
That she shall have, besides an argosy
… What, have I chok’d you with an argosy? (II, i, 366-367 & 369)
Gremio is being sarcastic and questions whether Tranio is surprised and jealous of his wealth. An ‘argosy’ refers to a large trade, in other words, sizeable wealth. He is maybe being over-confident and cocky, unaware of Tranio’s wealth. But eventually, his extravagance and arrogance is not enough to win Bianca’s hand.
Religion and social values in Shakespeare's time supported a belief in a hierarchical structure of human relationships. Everything was arranged in a series of pyramids: God was at the top of the largest one, with angels below him, man beneath them, followed by women, animals under them, and plants at the bottom. This was known as the ‘Great Chain of Being’ which organized the world in a fixed order. Such domains within the greater hierarchy meant that the structure of each class reflected the creation as a whole. The political structure had the monarch at the top, lords next, and commoners below. In a family, the man ruled the household, his wife obeyed him, and the children were next, just above the servants. Elizabethans believed that if the order were disturbed, things would go wrong. Katherina is assuming an authority that does not belong to a woman, the right to do as she likes without obeying her husband's wishes. So when Petruchio declares with all the strength of his personality that he will be master in his own house and demand obedience from what belongs to him, he is putting the social order straight. Petruchio's jokingly boastful defense of Katherina demonstrates his intention to defend his property.
Baptista feels that his daughter is a prize, showing he feels she is like a possession to give away:
Baptista: Content you, gentlemen, I will compound this strife.
‘Tis deeds must win the prize.. (II, i, 334-335)
Bianca, although not named here, is seen as the prize by Baptista, or the more precious daughter. This was a common trend that the younger daughter was more sought after than the eldest daughter, who was believed to be the more stubborn and rebellious of the daughters.
Shakespeare uses Katherina as a portrayal of the monarch of the time of his play, Queen Elizabeth I, as she was a feminist, and believed women should not have their freedom dictated by men. Kate shows her ruthless manner when first meeting Petruchio, and she is not impressed by him:
Petruchio: Good morrow, Kate, for that’s your name, I hear.
Katherina: Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing;
They call me Katherina that do talk of me. (II, i, 182-184)
Kate’s first words to Petruchio already create the impression of a moody woman, who is angered when someone does not call her by her real name, and she uses this as an attempt to show she is no inferior woman.
Elizabeth was known as the virgin Queen, and therefore did not marry, as Catholics held strong views about sex before marriage. Kate believes that her father is willing to ‘sell her to the highest bidder’ for her marriage. Marriage was, in fact, very much a business agreement, with love and compatibility as decidedly subsidiary factors.
The 16th-century genre of Italian comedy seems to have had a big impact on Shakespeare and we can see evidence of its stylings in many of his plays. An important feature of the Commedia dell'Arte was the zanni, a collection of characters used for comic relief. Tranio could be classified as a zanni. The melodrama and slapstick in the play is also likely due to the influence of the commedia dell'arte, and the protagonists could easily be dressed as clowns and still fit perfectly into the drama. Petruchio's use of physical violence to tame his headstrong fiancée is somehow made tolerable because all the relationships in this play are embed with violence
Disguise figures prominently in ‘The Taming of the Shrew’: Sly dresses as a lord, Lucentio dresses as a Latin tutor, Tranio dresses as Lucentio, Hortensio dresses as a music tutor, and the pedant dresses as Vincentio. These disguises enable the characters to transgress barriers in social position and class, and, for a time, each of them is successful. In ‘The Taming of the Shrew’, society involves a web of antecedents that are always able to uncover one's true nature, no matter how differently one wishes to portray oneself. Tranio, disguised as Lucentio, need only bump into Vincentio and his true identity surfaces. The audience watching would find the deceit amusing as they are aware of the disguise, although the characters are not, and the characters are being deceived.
Farce is a style of comedy that is very stylized in its form. Unlike Commedia dell’Arte it is not a specific style of acting. Instead, it is a specific style of comedic writing. Farcical comedy depicts comic worlds that are shallower than the world we live in because the characters do not experience the physical pain or the moral conscience that we would experience. An extreme example of farce is the Punch and Judy puppet show, a form of puppetry that has been around since the 1600s. In this puppet show, the husband, Punch, wields a stick (which is where we get the term slapstick) he uses to hit his wife, Judy. He also uses the stick to beat the child in the play, all done in a very broad, non-believable fashion so the audience can laugh at his actions without feeling guilt. Due to the broad, physical humor of farce, this form of comedy has many attributes that are seen time and again. For example, the confusion of many people entering and leaving a space, slamming doors, not realising that they are just missing each other.
In Renaissance times, there were many farcical comedies with shrewish wives and abusive husbands. It was considered a humorous topic, and many of the Renaissance farcical comedies are quite shocking to modern audiences today. However, by writing broad, slapstick humour, Shakespeare is giving the audience permission to laugh without judgment because there is a lack of genuineness within the characters and their situations.
As one of Shakespeare's bawdier works, this play describes the volatile courtship between the shrewish Katharina and the canny Petruchio, who is determined to subdue Katharina's ferocious temper and win her dowry. Although Katharina repeatedly insults Petruchio, he woos, wins, and tames her by insisting that she is actually the soul of gentleness and patience. The way Petruchio’s attempts to win Katherina’s hand are particularly amusing. He is arrogant and over-confident, using sophisticated vocabulary and remarkable flattery of Katherina:
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate (II, i, 187-89)
Here Petruchio repeats ‘Kate’ to give her a false impression that she is special and unique, and holds many titles in society. He is speaking to her for the first time after being introduced by Baptista and is attempting to portray himself as a gentlemen, who admires a woman’s appearance. This flattery and flamboyant attitude from Petruchio eventually wins Kate’s hand.
The adjectives that Petruchio uses are actually the opposite of Kate’s real attitude, e.g., ‘super-dainty’ Kate is not a delicate, quiet lady; she is more of a ferocious, temperamental woman. This may be a ploy of Petruchio to wind her up with a subtle approach.
Shakespeare used the flexibility of English for contrasting sounds and rhythms in his plays. He employed a large vocabulary and arranged it into prose, as well as rhymed and blank (unrhymed) verse to create different dramatic qualities of character and atmosphere. The dramatic impact of his lines is often heightened by imagery and word play, and by devices such as alliteration and onomatopoeia. One of the most frequent is his use of antihesis, contrasting or opposite ideas ‘to kill a wife with kindness’ (IV, I, 194). Antihesis bring opposites together to make ideas vivid.
Shakespeare’s engages his characters in many kinds of word play and their speeches reveal parts of their personalities and their individual levels of sophistication and intelligence. Kate and Petruchio prove their quick wits by the the way they spar each other when Petruchio is wooing her:
Petruchio: I swear I’ll cuff you if you strike again
Katherina: So you may lose your arms,
If you strike me, you are no gentlemen.
And if no gentleman, why then no arms.
Petruchio: A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books! (II, i, 218-222)
Kate has just struck Petruchio and he attempts to stamp his authority by threatening physical retaliation towards her. However, she is not impressed by his temperament. Kate questions his respect for women, so Petruchio replies with a sarcastic comment.
The passage in the play where Lucentio, Hortensio, Tranio and Biondello are disguised as school tutors in the plan to have a wife for Katherina, and then for Bianca would be amusing for the audience as Baptista would not be aware that the 4 male characters are disguised as part of a plan. This is called dramatic irony, where the audience is aware of the situation and forthcoming events in the play, but some characters are not, and the audience is amused at their expense. The scene when the 4 “tutors” are with Baptista may be quite funny for the audience, who realise that Baptista is unaware of their disguise:
Sirrah, lead these gentlemen
To my daughters, and tell them both
These are their tutors. Bid them use them well. (II, i, 108-110)
The irony here is that Baptista is convinced that he has found tutors for his daughters, and sends Hortensio and Lucentio, both of whom are disguised, them to his daughters to begin the tutoring immediately. The audience would be aware of his thoughts and that he has not recognised they are disguised.
An audience watching this play would approve of comedy through petty insults between characters. The majority of (petty) insults in this play are between Katherina and Petruchio when he is wooing her, and whenever they are having an argument. Tranio and Gremio, being rival suitors, insult each other when arguing over the subject of wealth, and who will win Bianca’s hand:
Gremio: Youngling, thou canst not love as dear as I.
Tranio: Greybeard, thy love doth freeze (II, i, 330-331)
Gremio believes that because Tranio is a young man ‘Youngling’, he perhaps feels he is inferior, and can not love a woman as much as him, as he is older. However, Tranio responds by branding Gremio a ‘Greybeard’, an old man, and that his love for women has gone with his old age. These petty insults are not too dissimilar to those between Kate and Petruchio, which are amusing
Shakespeare frequently mixes prose and verse, and there is a general “rule” in his plays that verse is used by socially or morally superior characters, e.g. Baptista, Petruchio, Bianca, etc, and prose is used by their inferiors. The quotations above are in verse as Petruchio and Katherina are two of the play’s protagonists, and are rich and of high status. When Shakespeare used verse, a regular line would contain five units, pentameter, of a particular rhythm made of a light followed by a strong stress, iambic. This line ‘A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen’ (II, i, 224) has 10 syllables, showing he is a character of nobility. However these lines show that Petruchio and Katherina share iambic pentameter:
Kat.: Yet you are wither’d
Petruchio.: ‘Tis with cares.
Kate.: I am not. (II, i, 234-236)
When iambic pentameter is shared, it shows there is a love match, as iambic pentameter resembles a heart beat, and therefore these 2 characters are sharing a heart (of love).
As well as the verbal comedy, via punning and insults, between characters in the play, the visual comedy, i.e. actions, character costumes and stage directions, brings a different dimension of comedy to the play. The Elizabethan stagecraft scenery and stage effects were minimal, to keep with medieval traditions. The location of a play was set was presented through poetic description and elaborate costumes. Incidental music punctuated the continuous action of the play in the theatre.
Petruchio’s attitude and arrogance would please and amuse audiences. He is an attention-seeker and is very loud in his speech, as he likes to express his superiority, to his servants and others, in public. The way he humiliates his servants and Kate would amuse Elizabethan audiences who saw Petruchio’s abusive as funny, and not harsh and unnecessary, which is how people may see it today. In this scene, Petruchio appears to be dissatisfied at the standard of food being delivered to his newly-wed wife, however, being a crowd-pleaser, Petruchio is probably playing to the audience (the stage directions show his actions):
Out, you rogue! You pluck my foot awry.
Take that, and mend the plucking off the other.
[Strikes him]
….
There, take it to you, trenchers, cups, and all.
[He throws the food and dishes at them] (IV, i, 134-135 & 152)
Petruchio’s antics here are over-elaborated in the light of the situation, and even his wife feels his attitude is unnecessary, ‘I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet’ (IV, i, 155)
A modern audience watching this play would find some of the antics over-exaggerated and the costumes bizarre, despite the fact it was theatre. Incidents such as servants exaggerating a fall or dramatising their reaction to someone striking them would be amusing, but may not be seen as a form or style of comedy nowadays. The theme of marriage brings humour to the play. The courtship of Katherina and Bianca, and the methods of wooing would amuse a modern audience as modern courtship is not as flamboyant and expressive as Petruchio introduced himself. Marriage is shown as a financial agreement in this play with love a secondary factor for marriage, and a 21st century audience may be shocked at how times have changed.
Shakespeare’s plays reflect the broad Elizabethan audiences, most of whom were academic and understood is plays in Latin, mixtures of tastes by their inclusion of violence, poetry, slapstick comedy, and depictions of real-life scenarios, e.g. Romeo and Juliet is a portrayal of the relationship between Anthony and Cleopatra.
With all the humour, farce and drama in this comedic play, there are messages, moral and philosophical, that we can relate to in modern society. Firstly, the relationship between Petruchio and Katherina proves that love will eventually prevail as the reason for a marriage. Katherina’s temper is less ferocious by the end of the play, and she learns to obey her husband, Petruchio, and appears to be not as volatile as she was before marrying Petruchio, and he has not offered her money or bribed her into being obedient. This proves that people can be tamed and that money is not the answer to everything
