The Taming of the Shrew

Petruchio is just as abrasive and witty as Katherine, and much more calculating. A man of the world, he’s experienced and well traveled, and a better judge of character than most of the starry-eyed young men around him. While his plan to “tame” Katherine can seem downright sadistic, its execution is funny, often at Petruchio’s own expense; he’s more than willing to behave like a madman for days to get what he wants. When Katherine starts to play along with the joke, Petruchio is delighted: He’s truly found a match. The couple’s shared sense of humor softens and complicates the play’s more conservative, sexist statements about marriage.

While Bianca has a reputation as a modest, beautiful young lady—that is, as everything her sister Katherine is not—the real picture is more complicated. Outwardly virtuous and well behaved, Bianca has a sharp eye on her own interests throughout the play, and she is willing to play the innocent young girl to get what she wants from the men around her. Katherine sees through Bianca’s facade from the start, accusing her of false tears. But no one else catches on until the end of the play, when Lucentio is surprised to discover that Bianca has just as much of a temper and fiery will as her sister.

The starry-eyed Lucentio shares common traits with Shakespeare’s later (and much better-known) young Italian lover: Romeo. Like Romeo, Lucentio is ludicrously quick to fall desperately in love. While he might be a bit naïve, he’s also canny enough to keep up with Tranio’s clever schemes and to successfully woo Bianca while wearing the disguise of a tutor. His education means he’s well versed in the works of Ovid, particularly Art of Love. Perhaps he should have studied Ovid’s Metamorphoses a little more closely, though. If he had, Bianca’s eventual metamorphosis from dream girl to sharp-tongued wife might not be so surprising.

Tranio, Lucentio’s loyal, streetwise, and canny servant, is a good deal sharper than his educated master. Tranio concocts all the schemes that bring Lucentio and Bianca together, he ably impersonates Lucentio himself, persuading even the class-conscious Baptista that he’s a fine gentleman. Tranio’s role in the play parallels Christopher Sly’s role in the frame story—but unlike Christopher Sly, Tranio is in on the joke.

Baptista, Katherine and Bianca’s father, is a man with money on his mind. His (unevenly distributed) affection for his daughters shows mostly in his desire to ensure they’re financially provided for. While he does want to take Bianca’s feelings into account, he’s pretty willing to marry her off to the highest bidder, so long as that bidder can promise she’ll inherit her husband’s wealth should he die. Baptista reminds us of the financial and practical realities of Elizabethan marriage; through him, we see that love takes second place to money in Paduan relationships.

Bianca’s elderly suitor Gremio is a “pantaloon,” a stock comic character from the old Italian commedia dell’arte tradition. Like many pantaloons before and since, he’s a stuffy old man with more money than sense. He’s an attractive marriage candidate in the eyes of a father concerned for his daughter’s financial stability, but a pretty unappetizing one for the daughter herself. Gremio exists in this play only as a two-dimensional antagonist, inevitably to be embarrassed and thwarted.

Hortensio is Petruchio’s friend and Lucentio’s rival as Bianca’s wooer (and a more viable love interest than old Gremio). Like a lot of the play’s young men, Hortensio seems rather naïve; he spends a lot of time marveling over Petruchio’s skillful “taming” of Katherine, making notes for his own future marriage. While he might be a little goofy, he does deliver one piece of wisdom: It’s better to marry where you find “kindness” than where you find mere beauty. (The audience might wonder how that advice fits into the picture of the complicated, combative relationship between Petruchio and Katherine.)