T
o say that The Taming of the Shrew is a less popular work of Shakespeare would be an understatement. The play is commonly passed over for better-known tragedies like Hamlet and Othello, or even other comedies like Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. If you read it in high school or have seen it performed, it was probably with many a disclaimer about its misogyny. And for good reason. One need only look at the title. The shrew—a derogatory term for a woman perceived to be ill-tempered, argumentative, or outspoken—is Katherina Minola, the eldest daughter of a Paduan Lord. Katherina is notoriously strong-willed and
uninterested in playing the part of a demure, passive woman. This alienates her from the men in Padua, who decry her father, Baptista, for raising a headstrong shrew. If they had their way, they’d have nothing to do with her. Yet they must, for Baptista decrees that if Katherina is not married, none may have the hand of his younger daughter Bianca, the quiet, submissive picture of the cult of domesticity. She is courted by Hortensio and Gremio, as well as Lucentio, a university student. Enter Petruchio, a friend of Hortensio’s from Verona who has come to Padua to seek a wife. “I come to wive it wealthily in Padua,” he says. “If wealthily, then happily in Padua.” Bianca’s suitors enlist Petruchio
to “tame” Katherina, leaving the others to vie for Bianca’s hand. While the play’s title is sexist enough, it is Petruchio’s “taming” behavior—psychological manipulation, physical torture, and emotional abuse—that is truly egregious. In their first conversation, Petruchio decides he’ll undermine every word Katherina speaks. “Say she be mute and will not speak a word; Then I'll commend her volubility. And say she uttereth piercing eloquence; If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks. As though she bid me stay by her a week; If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day When I shall ask the banns and when be married.”
