The Taming of the Shrew
"The Taming of the Shrew" is a play that involves some very twisted plots and even weirder turns. The play is about Kate who is proclaimed a shrew because she speaks her mind and does not wish to be told what to do. Kate's sister, Bianca, has problems of her own. She has suitors who want her hand, but are not allowed to ask for it until her sister is married off. The whole plays starts off when Hortensio and Gremio are fighting for Bianca's attention.Hortensio and Gremio want the fair Bianca for their wife, but the only way to get the treasure is to get the older sister, Kate, married. Hortensio and Gremio reach this goal but having Hortensio's good friend, Petruchio, court and wed the shrewish Kate. While this is happening, Lucentio arrives in town and sees the beautiful Bianca and falls instantly in love with her. While Hortensio and Gremio fight and plot to get Kate married, Lucentio and Bianca fall in love with each other. Petruchio and Kate are married after she bears the shame of Petruchio arriving to the wedding late and drunk. Kate then finds herself hurried away to Petruchio's home and working riguoursly making a home for both of them. While Kate is gone, Bianca and Lucentio are secretly married without Hortensio and Gremio's notice. In the end, three weddings have accured and the one wedding that everybody thinks is the worst is the best. When Lucentio calls for his wife, she denies him. When Hortensio calls for his wife, the widow that appeared out of the blue, she tells him to come to her; but when Petruchio calls for Kate, she not only comes, but brings with her Bianca and teh widow. Kate not only tells Bianca and the widow (Hortensio's wife) that they should be loyal and obiendent to their husbands, but that their husbands deserve their respect and love first. Even though Kate has gone from being the shrewish maid in the beginning of the story to an obient wife, she still hasn't changed when it comes to dealing with her sister.
Throughout the whole play, Kate is seen pulling, pushing, hitting, kicking and yelling at her sister, Bianca. Bianca is Baptista's, their father, precious daughter where Kate is the shrewish witch that Baptista doesn't know what to do with and doesn't want around anymore. One impression that someone would get is that Kate hates her sister, but it doesn't seem that at all. It is almost that Kate is jealous of Bianca's beauty and her fathers adoration of Bianca. The times that Kate is really shrewish is when her father is showing off Bianca or remarking about something that Bianca has done. Its as if Kate is being a shrew just to get noticed. This can be proven by that fact that Petruchio noticed her for her shrewness. She got attention.
Attention would be the one thing that I could relate to my life. Whenever my parents would praise me on something, my sister would try to do something that would get the attention on her some. Or when my sister has done remarkable on a project for school, I would say how that would not be a problem for me. Siblings are always competing for attention. This is the one thing that I have found out to be true no matter who I meet or where I am at.
The one question that i can think of that would pop into my head is, what is the point of having Christopher Sly in the play? What is his purpose? Why is he even there? He seems to be this free floating jumble of words that have no real purpose to the plot of The Taming of the Shrew.
Written by J. Morgan 1999
© 2005-2008 J. Morgan
