Source: "The Taming of the Shrew," in Shakespeare's Comic Sequence, Barnes and Noble, 1979, pp. 22-8.

[Disagreeing with the Views of critics who find Petruchio's behavior offensive, Muir argues that Katherina is a much happier woman at the end of the play than she is at the beginning. He cites as evidence performances in the role of Katherina by several of the best-known actresses of the twentieth century, who, he reports, clearly "enjoyed themselves in the part." Katherina's initial hostility toward Petruchio, he suggests, is a result of pride and of fear that he is a fortune.hunter: "Unconsciously," he writes, "she wants to submit and to accept her femininity. " Muir also argues that Katherina's speech in favor of wifely obedience should not be taken seriously, but rather as a parody of obedience.]

Petruchio's methods of taming Katherina have aroused the horror of many modern critics. Sir Edmund...