1st individual paper
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: LUCENTIO
Lucentio in the plot
Lucentio Bentivolii is a rich and young man from the Italian city of Pisa.
He is the son of a rich merchant called Vincentio. There are no descriptions
in the play, but we can possibly assume that he is a good-looking man, as
Bianca falls easily in love with him. The action in The Taming of the Shrew
starts with Lucentio and his servant Tranio arriving to the city of Padua,
where he is going to study to continue his father’s successful business.
The dialogue they hold at the very beginning of the play serves also as
an introduction (The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene I).
In that same scene we meet Baptista Minola, his two daughters: Bianca and Katherine, Hortensio and Gremio. That is when we learn that Bianca cannot be married until his older sister does. The problem is that nobody wants to do that because Kate is a stubborn and unruly woman.
Lucentio falls immediately in love with Bianca and, after overhearing the conversation between Baptista and Bianca’s suitors, Lucentio and Tranio decide to disguise themselves. Tranio, dressed as Lucentio, will behave as another of Bianca’s suitors, while Lucentio will pretend to be Cambio, a Latin teacher. That is what they do and Lucentio, unknowingly helped by his rival Gremio, finally manages to declare his love to Bianca (The Taming of the Shrew, Act III, Scene I).
Meanwhile, Hortensio and Gremio find someone willing to marry Kate: the bankrupted Petruccio (The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene II). He convinces Baptista and marries Kate, thus beginning what is referred in the play as “the taming”. Petruccio takes Kate to his country-house (The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene I) and torments his wife in a very curious way (preventing her from eating, for example) until she finally gives up and decides to obey him.
In the other subplot, Lucentio escapes with Bianca and they get married in secret. After the wedding, the couple meets with Baptista and Vincentio, Lucentio’s father. Lucentio has to tell his father-in-law about his deception and everything is finally revealed (The Taming of the Shrew, Act V, Scene I). They celebrate a banquet that serves as a conclusion of the story and also as a comparison of the two couples. By the end of the play, Lucentio seems somewhat disappointed, because Petruccio has managed to have Kate under his control, while Bianca does not behave as an obedient woman anymore (The Taming of the Shrew, Act V, Scene II).
Lucentio's relationships in the play
Lucentio & Vincentio: Lucentio respects and loves his
father, Vincentio. Their relationship in the play is brief, but their meeting
at the end of the play is really significant. While Biondello urges Lucentio
to deny his father, he only asks for his forgiveness:
BIONDELLO
O! we are spoiled and--yonder he is: deny him,
forswear him, or else we are all undone.
LUCENTIO
[Kneeling] Pardon, sweet father.
VINCENTIO
Lives my sweet son?
(Act V, Scene I)
Lucentio & Bianca: Bianca is Lucentio’s love interest. He loves her, she loves him in return and there is not much more to say about them. They behave as the typical lovers for almost the whole play. The only thing worth mentioning is the final “rebellion” of Bianca, when she disobeys Lucentio and makes him lose his bet with Petruccio:
BIANCA
Fie! What a foolish duty call you this?
LUCENTIO
I would your duty were as foolish too:
The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca,
Hath cost me an hundred crowns since supper-time.
BIANCA
The more fool you, for laying on my duty.
(Act V, Scene II)
Lucentio & his servants: There is a great difference
in the relationship Lucentio shares with his two servants, Tranio and Biondello.
Tranio seems to be more a friend or a confident than a servant. He is cultivated
and well-educated. In fact, he is able to disguise himself as Lucentio and
pretend to be someone of a higher social status. Biondello, however, is
just a normal servant that has a not-so-high cultural level and spends the
whole play following orders.
Lucentio as a stereotype and a symbol
Lucentio plays the traditional role of the young lover, almost always present
in Shakespeare’s stories: Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, Ferdinand in
The Tempest, the four main male characters in Love’s Labour’s
Lost, etc. He falls in love with Bianca at first sight and from that point
on he only thinks about making her his wife:
Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio,
If I achieve not this young modest girl.
(Act I, Scene I)
Lucentio always behaves as the perfect lover: gallant, romantic, and also a bit stupid. His actions are guided by love, not by reason, contrasting with those of Petruccio. In fact, the two couples in the play (Petruccio-Kate and Lucentio-Bianca) represent different manifestations of love. Lucentio represents courtly love, driven by feelings, immature… while Petruccio forgets about feelings. He is a practical man that only marries Kate because of her wealth (although he does fall in love with her when she starts obeying and respecting him).
At first it seems that Petruccio is the comic character in the story, but
at the end we realise that Shakespeare was really laughing at Lucentio,
mocking his feelings and behaviour, not Petruccio’s. Lucentio is an
out-of-place character in this play, probably more suited for tragic stories
(again the example of Romeo) than for a comedy. The only reward he gets
is the promise of a not-so-happy marriage represented by the lost bet and
Bianca’s stubbornness. This final disappointment is the only real
evolution (if it can be regarded as an evolution) that Lucentio suffers
through the play. He is a pretty flat character who does not have a deep
psychology or motivations apart from getting Bianca. This is not uncommon
in plays, especially in comedies, but we have to bear in mind that Petruccio
and Kate do suffer a clear evolution, and even Bianca seems to be more independent
at the end.