“The Taming of the Shrew” act 4 scene 1 is a very important scene because it helps the readers understand Petruccio and Kate’s relationship, how Petruccio plans on taming her, and the two concepts Shakespeare wants to impart to his readers. When Kate meets Petruccio for the first time, she is appalled by his arrogance and obstinate temperament. Forced to marry Petruccio, Kate unwillingly agrees. However, at the wedding when Petruccio shows up extremely late, Kate is weeping that he has left her at the altar instead of being happy that she did not have to marry him. At the last minute, Petruccio arrives in rags and behaves like a hooligan, which shocks everybody. After the exchange of vows, Petruccio forces Kate to leave her own wedding party to go back home. During the wedding, readers see a whole new side of Petruccio as he is starting to act the way that Kate used to act. Petruccio’s new attitude foreshadows how he plans on taming the wild Kate. Lowering her pride, Kate begs Petruccio to stay for their wedding party by saying, “Let me entreat you” (3.2.193). Unfortunately, Petruccio would not stay and on the way home he acts even more shrewishly, which brings the readers to act 4 scene 1. In act 4 scene 1, Grumio enters the villa and gossips to the servants about Petruccio and Kate’s ride home. Grumio says, “thou shouldst have heard how her horse fell,/… how she was bemoiled, how he left her with the horse upon/ her, … the horses ran away, how her bridle was burst,”
The Katherina that gives the final speech in The Taming of the Shrew is quite a departure from the Katherina we were introduced to in Act I. This new Kate is modest, quiet and obedient. All of these qualities were not present until Act V. Such a profound personality change prompts the questions how this happened and what purpose do her changes serve?
Petruchio wears the psychological mask of a guy who only has eyes for money. He makes his mask clear to the reader when he tells Hortensio to “wife wealthily” adding “you don’t know the power of gold.” after being told about Katherina’s bad behavior, not to mention her temper. It appears that Petruchio marries Kate for her money, but immediately starts to “kill her with kindness”. He begins going so by depriving her of food and sleep because he claims that neither the food from the kitchen nor the bed is good enough for her. Petruchio puts on a show of bad temper towards his servants for every fault, showing Kate what it is like to live with a bad-tempered person. For the first time in her life, Kate finds herself trying to get someone else to control their anger. Petruchio also shows Kate that she will get the things she wants when she learns to agree with what her husband says. By treating Kate in this manner, Petruchio seems cruel, but there is a reason for it. If he were truly interested only in money, he could have left Kate at home and gone out on his own. In the end, his efforts to improve his wife have worked. He improves Kate’s life, so that she does not continue to live an unhappy life. Because of Petruchio, Katherina the shrew is happily married in the end, and comes to be a good example to
In the play Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare includes several appeals of pathos, ethos and logos. In the last passage of the book, Katharina speaks out to all of the characters with a speech. Katharina describes how she has changed into a person who looks to her husband as her lord, her care taker. The characters who listened to her speech seemed impressed on how she has finally changed her rude attitude and how she obeys her husband Pertruchio’s every word.
In Taming of the Shrew many of these events were particularly significant in terms understanding Kate’s disposition throughout the story. Kate’s character, being dynamic, goes through a very important inner change toward the end of story. At first, Kate was described as rude, sharp tongued, and stubborn. Kate was an envious woman who would punish her sister so she could get answers out of her. She would also yell at her father for not cherishing her as he did to her sister. This, however, changes when Kate meets Petruchio who, unlike others, has a tolerance for Kate. Petruchio successfully tames her to behave properly. His taming methods consisted of starving her, having her wear the clothes he likes and making her do things that were
In the play The Taming of the Shrew, men do quite absurd things to get what they desire. Petruchio, Lucentio, Hortensio, and Gremio all derive schemes to win the heart of the woman they choose. Throughout the play many characters create alternate personas to woo the one they love. However, one man, Petruchio, prefers to pursue his soon to be wife ingenuously. All of the ideas the men concoct are in hopes that Bianca or Kate might fall in love with them, whether or not they do fall in love is due to how well their suitors perform their acts of love.
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and has weathered well into our modern era. For all the praises it has garnered throughout the centuries, it is curious to note that many have considered it to be one of his most controversial in his treatment of women. The "taming" of Katherine has been contended as being excessively cruel by many writers and critics of the modern era. George Bernard Shaw himself pressed for its banning during the 19th century. The subservience of Katherine has been labeled as barbaric, antiquated, and generally demeaning. The play centers on her and her lack of suitors. It establishes in the first act her shrewish demeanor and its repercussions on her family. It is only with the introduction of the witty Petruchio as her suitor, that one begins to see an evolution in her character. Through an elaborate charade of humiliating behavior, Petruchio humbles her and by the end
In Taming of the Shrew, the opening starts with an act of deceit. A drunk man comes into a bar and refuses to pay for his drinks. After one too many, he passes out on the floor and is carried home in a carriage by a lord. Once in the lord’s home, he wakes up and is tricked into believing that not only is he a lord, but that he has a wife and that they are watching a play which is how the book begins. Later in the play, Lucentio, a suitor for Bianca, disguises himself as a school teacher to get close to her. His manservant, Tranio, and himself come up with the ploy so that while they search for a man for Kate, Lucentio can win Bianca’s, heart. He was not the only one to use this idea, another suitor of Bianca’s also disguises himself as a teacher. However, it is Lucentio’s ploy that is successful and the two young people fall in love and agree to the marriage. Before they can be married, Bianca’s father needs to meet Lucentio’s father. However, instead of getting his real father, Lucentio finds a man on the street and gets him to act as though he is his father. Again, the ploy works and the two fathers meet and the marriage is arranged. Lucentio is no the only one who uses deceiving as a way to get married, Petruchio too deceives Kate and her father to gain marriage. First, he vows to deceive Kate by telling her the opposite of what he feels. For example, if she was ugly, he would call her beautiful, and if she was mean he would call her the sweetest person he had ever met. This, he believed would allow him to woo her successfully. It did not go quite as planned, but when Kate’s father came in to see Kate and Petruchio together, Petruchio made it seem as though Kate loved him and wanted to be married to him. His
Petruchio, though rightfully attempting to stand as a master and man according to the homily, does not do so with his servant, Grumio, or wife, Katherine, with love and respect as it suggests. The scenes that introduce Petruchio and Lucentio begin by depicting their
Throughout the play, Petruchio’s behavior illustrates his chauvinistic mindset to force Katharina into obedience. After the wedding ceremony, Petruchio wants to head home with Kate while she disagrees and he says “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;” (Shakespeare 52). Instead of treating her like a human being, he speaks of her as if she is an object that he owns and controls. Also, when the newly married couple prepare to leave for Baptista’s house, Petruchio claims that the time is different from what it actually is and when Kate argues, he states, “Look, what I speak, or do, or think to do,/You are still crossing it. Sirs, let ’t alone:/I will not go to-day; and ere I do,/It shall be what o’clock I say it is” (Shakespeare 69). Petruchio is basically saying that the only opinion
William Shakespeare's comedy, The Taming of the Shrew illistrates the difficulty of trying to tame a headstrong, stubborn, and a high-spirited woman so that she will make a docile wife. The one attempting to tame Kate, the shrew, is Petruchio. They contend with each other with tremendous vitality and have a forced relationship. In contrast, there is another romantically linked couple who seemingly possess an ideal relationship. These young lovers, Bianca and Lucentio, share a love that is not grounded in reality, but in fantasy. These two sub-plot characters are stock characters and Shakespeare creates the irony of the play through the differences between the two couples. It
Much Ado About Nothing was scripted by William Shakespeare around 1598 to 1599, while The Taming of the Shrew was written earlier around 1590. They were both love romantic comedies, however it seems in his Much Ado About Nothing he figured out how to make it feel a lot smoother. In his first play the main relationship was between Kate and Petruchio. Kate was the shrew; she had a hot temper, was obnoxious, hateful, and liked slapped people around. She didn’t want to get married to just anyone she wanted to marry someone of her choice. Petruchio comes to Padua to wed a woman whose family is rich and that is it. Throughout the play Petruchio tries to domesticate her. He compared her to a wild animal that has to be tamed. Towards the end Kate
Have you ever heard of two stories in different time periods with characters following the same actions? This occurs in two different plays. Taming of the Shrew is a play written by William Shakespeare. In this play a high-class noble man, Petruchio, finds a woman, Katherine, he would like the marry but, makes the decision to tame her as well. Pygmalion is a play written by Bernard Shaw.
During the time Shakespeare wrote The Taming of the Shrew, there was a specific way husbands and wives were supposed to act. However, Katherine and Petruchio have this transformation that conforms them into this social expectations to hide their agenda. In the scene right after the two get married where they are back at Petruchio’s home. Katherine complains that she is hungry and asks Grumio to get her some food. Petruchio comes in with meat and ask that Katherine “pluck up thy spirits” and “this kindness merits thanks” (IV, i, pg.113).
Love is one of the most powerful things in this world. People will go to great lengths to achieve another’s love. From youth we have been showered with tales of true love’s kiss and of Prince Charming breaking the Evil Queen’s curse. Time and again, we are made to see the power of love. In the play, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare, the renowned playwright takes love deeper than just passion. Shakespeare goes under the surface of love, all the way to its core. The story truly begins as Baptista Minola’s two daughters are readied for marriage: Bianca the sweet and innocent; Katherina the shrewd and curst. Men gravitate towards beautiful Bianca and flee when Katherina appears. Hortensio, a good friend of the main protagonist, Petruchio, wants to marry Bianca, in order for that to happen, Hortensio must get Petruchio to marry Katherina. Yet, Petruchio knows what he is getting himself into and he wisely sees past Katherina’s prickly outer shell. He proves that the Katherina isn’t what everyone in Padua thinks she is. Petruchio exposes the superficial problems in his society and demonstrates that respect and love are one and the same. Furthermore, Petruchio’s determination and heart allows him to woo the girl, marry her and activate the Taming of the Shrew.
During the play Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, Petruchio is a very intriguing character. One of the more notable things he does in the play is ‘tame’ Katerina. However while the play is called “taming” of the shrew, I believe his intentions are to have a loving relationship with his spouse. However I don't believe that was the case the whole time! Petruchio originally did not have feelings for Kate because he claims during the beginning of the play that he travelled to Pertua to marry a woman with a rich father. Whilst attempting to tame her he claims he is enjoying doing so, I believe that he is enjoying because he is getting to spend time with her, while falling in love with her and not even realizing it. After Petruchio has starved her and deprived her of sleep as well as other things, he makes a real attempt to be nice to Katherine and I believe that's what really tamed her. Overall I believe Petruchio’s original intentions were to use Katherine and marry her for her wealth. But over time he began to fall deeply in love with her. We see this by Petruchio putting a great amount of effort into his attempt at taming Katherine. We see this during his thoughts and speech about marriage and happiness. And lastly, we see this through his flirty and affectionate gesture towards Kate. Through these things I believe that Petruchio as well as the audience learn a valuable lesson about love, you cannot force it.