In the Taming of the Shrew, who is the true Shrew?

Question

Often we expect that Kate, being so often called the shrew, is the real wench of the play; but is that so? Or would Bianca or the Widow be better classified as such?

Taming of the Shrew is ultimately a story about the alleged "taming" of Katherine, but is that were the story really ends? We see in the story two other key players (Bianca and the Widow) who are, perhaps, more wenchy than Kate. Is it true that Kate is the worst Shrew; or is the falsehood of Bianca's snobbery and the blatant cruelty of the Widow worse? Think openly dears.

Answer 1

This is a fairly common question. A new answer: Petruchio is the shrew who is eventually tamed by Kate.

Kate is never actually tamed. Instead she comes to understand how to "play the game" to get what she wants. Instead of giving in to her impulse emotional outbursts, she controls and tempers them in such a way as to sway Petruchio into doing what she wants him to do.

Giving Petruchio the response that he seeks, Kate is actually garnering the response she wants from Petruchio.

Don't buy it? Read the final monologue by Kate (at the end of the scene where each man calls their woman to the table). Imagine her winking to Bianca at the end of it. This is Shakespeares biggest act in the comedy. Did you know he was one of the first feminists?

Cheers.

Answer 2

Nope; sorry. You can encourage all the "creative" though you want, but the fact of the matter is that the "Shew" of the title is Kate, and only Kate.

HOWEVER...this is not to say that there isn't irony surrounding Kate's being a shrew, and considerable doubt as to whether she is "tamed."

Look, there's no getting around the fact that Kate is an absolute HELLION in the earliest scenes of this play. She's beating the holy crud out of Bianca's suitors -- and Bianco, too, for that matter -- but, if this stuff is sensitively and intelligently handled in production, we would all understand that Kate has every right to be livid about havign to endure a society that puts such enormous PRESSURE on her to wed, just so that her bubble-headed bimbo of a younger sister can entertain all of her many suitors. In other words, YES, Kate's a shrew...but she has every reason to be.

How hard must it be for Kate to watch guys sniffing around her younger sister all day long. Don't you think SHE craves love and companionship and marriage, too? Of course she does. Look at the scene where Petruchio fails to show up on time for their wedding. Kate is heartbroken. And, as usual, her father is oblivious to her dilemma, wondering aloud how all of this is going to reflect on HIM. And Kate lets him have it, in a speech that really cuts right to the heart of her character. It's the one that begins "No shame but mine!"

Sure she's a shrew. Who WOULDN'T be, having to endure that kind of nonsense.

You see how it works? And, once we're introduced to Kate as a shrew for GOOD CAUSE, then the ground is properly laid for Petruchio's actual "taming," which has FAR less to do with abuse and humiliation than modern productions would have you believe, and EVERYTHING to do with holding a mirror up to Kate, so that she can see the true (and destructive) effects of her behaviors.

The great irony of the play is that, as a Romatic Comedy (sorry, all you radical feminists, but that's what it is), Kate and Petruchio emerge as the ONLY functional and thriving couple in the piece. At the end of the play, Kate and Petruchio are off to bed to consummate their marriage, while the other couples (Lucentio and Bianca, Hortensio and the Widow) are left staring at one another, wondering why in God's name they ever thought to marry.

Answer 3

It's definitely Katherine. Have you ever seen "10 Things I Hate About You"? It's basically a modern twist on The Taming of the Shrew, and if you've seen it then you'll know that Bianca isn't the shrew.

Answer 4

All were shrews, but Katherine needed more taming. But when being tamed by Petruchio to be a dutiful wife, she then taught Bianca and the widow to serve their husbands with love and respect.

Answer 5

Kate's the shrew in question. She's the one who is tamed. While I love to dabble in stretching interpretations of the Bard, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And here a shrew is just a shrew.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Kate is the ubershrew.

Answer 8

No, it is Katherine.