Summary:
Contrasts the characters Bianca and Kate from "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. Describes the conflicting personalities of the two sisters. Questions if either character really finds true love in the play.
Shakespeare always had a way of writing plays that could be interpreted in all different types of ways. This is no exception in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Kate, the main character, portrayed a woman who behaved quite maliciously and nasty towards others, especially men. Bianca, Kate's sister, was a beautiful, stuck up, spoiled little brat who attracted all the men. An audience might expect Bianca to be the one to obtain true love and Kate the one to be destined without true love forever. In all actuality, though, neither of the two really found true love.
At the end of the play, when Kate gives her final speech, she appears to have had a change in heart about her "shrewish" attitude. She talks with great certainty, or what seems to be certainty, about how women should obey men and be perfect little slaves, basically, to their husbands. One may take this and think that Kate has really changed and has fallen deeply in love with Petruchio. However, I believe that Kate just fooled everyone. This is just another one of her schemes to deceive anyone who would fall for it. Here, Kate talks to her father about Bianca and her getting married:
Nay, now I see
She is your treasure, she must have a husband;
I must dance barefoot on her wedding day,
And for your love to her lead apes in hell.
Talk not to me. I will go sit and weep
Till I can find occasion of revenge.(2.1.31-36)
Notice here she mentions revenge. This leaves reason to believe that Kate's final speech was nothing more than a simple plan to trick everyone into thinking that she has changed. This is a perfect opportunity for her to get revenge on her father and Bianca. She can pretend to be in love with Petruchio and marry him, making them think that she has been tamed and that all is well. This gives her a chance to get out of the house and away from her family and getting back at Bianca for being such a stuck up brat because now she is the one with the husband. Then, later on down the line, she would go back to the same nasty, crude person she always was. I don't see reason to believe that Kate would give up her evil ways so easily and just fall madly in love with Petruchio.
Another clue that suggests Kate had not truly fallen in love with Petruchio takes place when she talks to her father and Tranio:
No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forced
To give my hand, opposed against my heart
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen,
Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure. (3.2.8-11)
This implies that Kate just wants to get married because she is shameful of her situation as compared to her sister's. Guys do not go for Kate as easily as they do Bianca and so this may be Kate's escape from having to worry about that anymore. Also, she tells us that she must marry because she is being forced, against what her heart is telling her. She is more likely to marry because she is shameful and because of the pressure that is on her by her father than her to just all of a sudden have a huge revelation and realize everything she has ever thought was wrong. It doesn't seem plausible. Besides, Shakespeare is much more clever than to just end the play so simply without having to put any further thought into his piece. I believe he wants his audience to think beyond what is written or acted out.
Then there is the issue of Bianca finding true love; this is almost a joke. It is quite obvious that Bianca just wants money and she was given to the highest bidder; the person who had the most money. Not only did Bianca want a guy loaded with money, but Baptista, her father, wanted a rich son-in-law also.
This is the complete article, containing 657 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
