Kate and Petruchio are the two most powerful characters in William Shakespeare’s play called ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’ Petruchio acts as the shrew in the play. He is a fortune seeker and has come to the town of Padua with the motive of getting married to a wealthy woman. The role of Petruchio has attracted many notable performers. Performers like Danny Smith, David CAVES, Rufus Sewell, and Morgan Freeman have played this role.
Hortensio put the idea of marrying Kate Minola into his head. Kate Minola is the daughter of the wealthiest man in the city. Hortensio suggests this idea particularly because he cannot marry Kate’s sister Bianca until Kate is married.
If Petruchio pursues this idea, then both men win. Petruchio soon begins to take an interest in Kate and, after marrying her, thinks about the dowry he will receive and agrees. During their first encounter with each other, Petruchio matches her fierce temper with Kate and manages to convince her father she truly loves Petruchio but only pretends to hate him in public.
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Why Did They Split Up?
The two get married as soon as possible. But Petruchio forces Kate to leave the wedding ceremony early, and he also arrives at the ceremony late. Petruchio starts to take advantage of Kate and manipulate her in more than one way. He behaves indecently with the servants and yells at them, frightening Kate in the process. Then he offers Kate some jewelry and dresses, which he wants her to deny because they aren’t good enough for her. He also tells Kate to obey him without questioning him.
Petruchio tests Kate by telling her two statements, that moon is the sun and that a man is a woman, and she agrees to both of them. Then at the ceremony, he flaunts by having a competition between Lucentio, Hortensio, and his wife. He said the competition would be about whose wife obeys her husband the most.
All they have to do is call for their wives and see who comes forward first. All of them ask their respective wives to come, but only Kate responded, leaving to win Petruchio the contest. After this, Petruchio commands them to give a speech on how to honor their husbands.
Petruchio does all this because he wanted society to believe that he controlled the most shrewish woman in the town. He solely married Kate for her dowry and now taming her to prove that woman is submissive in marriage. This also shows his act of male chauvinism. As the play moves further, we can see that Petruchio didn’t only marry Kate for her dowry but also he wanted a tamed wife.
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Critics have viewed and regarded this scene as one of the enigmatic scenes in all of the Shakespearean plays. Some suggested that this scene was unwarranted. Sometimes people also get surprised by Kate’s speech. Shakespeare wrote this scene in order to poke fun at the concept of marriage. Shakespeare has always been empathetic towards women characters in his plays. Kate, from the very start of the play, seemed a fiery, dominating, and spirited woman. From Kate’s speech, we can identify her as a richer and not a tamed shrew.
After this, both of them hurriedly left the ceremony and went back to their house. Petruchio still spoke kind words to Kate. She is still trying to control her life. Meanwhile, Bianca gets married to Lucentio, and Hortensio marries a wealthy widow.
In the play’s final scene, both Bianca and Hortensio’s new wife ironically prove to be shrewish. Kate is fed up with the relationship and, frustrated from obeying the orders of her husband, decides to call off the marriage. She doesn’t want to spend her life like this and will certainly not entertain any of the drama caused by Petruchio.
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