The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, written late sixteenth century.

 

Like most of Shakespeare’s comedies, there is more than one story. The title refers to Katharina, the shrew, and the efforts of her husband, Petruchio, to tame her. The secondary story is about Katharina’s sweet sister Bianca and her three suitors: Lucentio, Gremio, and Hortensio.

 

In one sense, this play does not age well. It’s quite misogynistic. Petruchio overtly declares…

 

She is my goods, my chattels…

 

But that was the reality of sixteenth-century Italy. A wife was not a partner. Her husband was lord and master. It isn’t very believable, at any rate. It’s a preposterous farce.

 

Katharina was beautiful and came with a good dowry, but she was indeed a shrew. Even her father avowed as much. When she briefly thought Petruchio had left her at the altar, she leaves the room crying, and her father professes…

 

Go girl; I cannot blame thee now to weep

For such an injury would vex a very saint,

Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour.

 

Petruchio was wealthy in his own right and presumably could have wooed a more amiable companion. I’m unsure what set his mind on Katharina, but he was confident he could tame her. I’m not sure what convinced Katharina to consent either. But they are wed, and Petruchio begins the taming. He withholds food, decent clothing, sleep, and other wishes until his wife becomes more dutiful. But at different times, he is unphased and even pleasant in response to her spite. And it seems to work. Katharina wonders...

 

The more my wrong, the more his spite appears:

What, did he marry me to famish me?

Beggars, that come unto my father’s door,

Upon entreaty have a present alms;

If not, elsewhere they meet with charity:

But I, - who never knew how to entreat,

Nor never needed that I should entreat, –

Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep;

With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed:

And that which spites me more than all these wants,

He does it under the name of perfect love;…

 

Or, from Petruchio’s perspective…

 

This is a way to kill a wife with kindness

And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour.

He that knows better how to tame a shrew,

Now let him speak; ‘tis charity to show.

 

And then there’s the contesting for sweet Bianca. And that just gets silly. At least four persons assume someone else’s identity, a common ploy of Shakespeare, though I wasn’t always certain what the deception was supposed to accomplish. It works for one in the end, who wins fair Bianca. One of her other suitors gets a different wife, and at the end of the play, the three new husbands wager on who has the most dutiful wife; of course, Katharina wins the day.