Introduction:

How Katherine was tamed by Petruccio:

The taming of the shrew is one of the Shakespeare’s comedies, it was written approximately in 1593; in the Early Modern English when in England was Queen Elizabeth at the throne, the last Tudor king. In literature the Humanism is feasible. We can notice that in Renaissance there is a rebirth of the learning and of the free enquiring. It is the time when drama raises because it is by oral transmission.

When the reader reads this comedy can find something that really impacts him or her. This is the character of Katherine. Nowadays, this comedy can be interpreted not as good as in its age. In Elizabeth Age women has to be submitted to their husbands because religion said.

‘The wife's subordinate status was based on religious conceptions of hierarchy. The Book of Common Prayer directs the priest to read, to the newly married pair, a homily which quotes the well-known passage of St. Paul (Ephesians, 5: 22-5)’ [i]

Katherine is Baptista’s first daughter and Bianca’s sister. Katherine has irritable, obstinate and a shrewish. She insults her father and tortures her sister. When Petruccio appeared and declares his love for her she insults him, but he finally achieved that her father accept their marriage (he did not know that Katherine had not accept Petruccio). But when Katherine insults somebody she speaks in an eloquent way.

‘She begins as a termagant, tying up and torturing her sister, shrieking insults at her father, smashing a lute over her music-teacher’s head and terrifying would be suitors out of the house’ (pages 133 -134) [ii]

‘HORTENSIO

Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee

And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife?

Thou'ldst thank me but a little for my counsel:

And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich

And very rich: but thou'rt too much my friend,

And I'll not wish thee to her…’

‘…HORTENSIO

Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in,

I will continue that I broach'd in jest.

I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife

With wealth enough and young and beauteous,

Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman:

Her only fault, and that is faults enough,

Is that she is intolerable curst

And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure

That, were my state far worser than it is,

I would not wed her for a mine of gold.’ (act I scene II) [I][iii]

‘KATHARINA

What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see

She is your treasure, she must have a husband;

I must dance bare-foot on her wedding day

And for your love to her lead apes in hell.

Talk not to me: I will go sit and weep

Till I can find occasion of revenge.’ (Act II) [iv]

‘KATHARINA

Asses are made to bear, and so are you.

PETRUCHIO

Women are made to bear, and so are you.

KATHARINA

No such jade as you, if me you mean.

PETRUCHIO

Alas! good Kate, I will not burden thee;

For, knowing thee to be but young and light--

KATHARINA

Too light for such a swain as you to catch;

And yet as heavy as my weight should be.

PETRUCHIO

Should be! should--buzz!

KATHARINA

Well ta'en, and like a buzzard.

PETRUCHIO

O slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee?

KATHARINA

Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard.

PETRUCHIO

Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.

KATHARINA

If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

PETRUCHIO

My remedy is then, to pluck it out.’ (Act II) [v]

They finally married, but the wedding’s day, Petruccio arrived late at the church, and when the ceremony finished he take his wife and go home without remain in the celebration. With this, he tries what he said before to his friends, tame the shrew. Petruccio did not believe that fight his wife were the way to tame her, so he used another way, which was that she finished losing her patience with him. How could he make that happen this? The answer was that he did allow Katherine to eat anything, but he did not deny with words to her, he said that the meal is not enough good for her. He did not allow dressing pretty with her new dress, but he did this saying that the dress was old-fashioned.

PETRUCHIO

They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command.

Obey the bride, you that attend on her;

Go to the feast, revel and domineer,

Carouse full measure to her maidenhead,

Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves:

But for my bonny Kate, she must with me.

Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret;

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;

And here she stands, touch her whoever dare;

I'll bring mine action on the proudest he

That stops my way in Padua. Grumio,

Draw forth thy weapon, we are beset with thieves;

Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man.

Fear not, sweet wench, they shall not touch

thee, Kate:

I'll buckler thee against a million. (Act III scene II) [vi]

PETRUCHIO

'Tis burnt; and so is all the meat.

What dogs are these! Where is the rascal cook?

How durst you, villains, bring it from the dresser,

And serve it thus to me that love it not?

Theretake it to you, trenchers, cups, and all;

Throws the meat, & c. about the stage

You heedless joltheads and unmanner'd slaves!

What, do you grumble? I'll be with you straight.

KATHARINA

I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet:

The meat was well, if you were so contented.

PETRUCHIO

I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away;

And I expressly am forbid to touch it,

For it engenders choler, planteth anger;

And better 'twere that both of us did fast,

Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric,

Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh.

Be patient; to-morrow 't shall be mended,

And, for this night, we'll fast for company:

Come, I will bring thee to thy bridal chamber. (Act IV scene I) [vii]

PETRUCHIO

Thus have I politicly begun my reign,

And 'tis my hope to end successfully.

My falcon now is sharp and passing empty;

And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged,

For then she never looks upon her lure.

Another way I have to man my haggard,

To make her come and know her keeper's call,

That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites

That bate and beat and will not be obedient.

She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat;

Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not;

As with the meat, some undeserved fault

I'll find about the making of the bed;

And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster,

This way the coverlet, another way the sheets:

Ay, and amid this hurly I intend

That all is done in reverend care of her;

And in conclusion she shall watch all night:

And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl

And with the clamour keep her still awake.

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. (Act IV scene I) [viii]

Since Katherine began to live in Petruccio’s house she became docile and a typical wife. So much so, that at the end she seems so docile that she preach sermons about how may behave a woman, and which was the wife role. Petruccio was betting with Hortensio and Lucentio about which wife would be much obedient when the husband call for her. Each of these three make the test and they can check that the ‘winner’ was Petruccio because Katherine was the only wife that go with his husband when he call her. The other two wives that seems so docile did not go with their husbands.

KATHARINA
Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease. (Act V scene II)[ix]

Katherine father offered her to Petruccio because he was hopeless for the reason that his daughter was irritable and obstinate and nobody want to marry with her because she scares away all the suitors. Baptista did not ask if Petruccio was enough good for his daughter or if he was looking for his money (as it is). So, in a modern vision Katherine is an example of an abused woman, although (as I said before) Petruccio did not fight her (with this I am not accepting the way in which he treated Katherine). The abuse that Petruccio use with Katherine was psychological (for our society is as bad as a man that fight his wife). Moreover, Baptista wanted that Katherine marry because his other daughter has got a lot of suitors and he did not allow that his young daughter married before than Katherine. [x]

If we focus on Katherine behaviour change we can observe that at the beginning of the play she was obstinate, unfriendly and irritable; she was a shrew. But when she married with Petruccio she changes. He makes her a docile, an obedient and a sweet wife that treat his husband with love and softness. While his daughter Bianca was soft and sweet at the beginning and we can see a change in the last act of the play when her husband called her and she did not go with him.

Bibliography:

- Taming of the shrew, W. Shakespeare, Ed by Ann Thomson, Cambridge University Press, 1984, 1990, Cambridge

- Home: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca (22/11/07)

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/status.html

- Home: http://www.online-literature.com/ (27/11/07)

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/shrew/

- Longman guide to Shakespeare’s Characters, Kenneth McLeish, Longman 1985, Essex, England

- Studying Shakespeare, A guide to the Plays. Blackwell Publishing, 2004 Australia