Taming of the Shrew

Essay by readaa11 April 2014

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Kate: Shrew or Misunderstood

In Shakespeare's play Taming of the Shrew, Katherine is a girl hated by everyone in Padua. She is well known for being a shrew, and having sharp mouth. Nobody wants to marry her or even be near her. In this play we can see that the character of Katherine Minola is a dynamic character, because she makes big changes throughout the play.

At the beginning of the play many of the characters talk a lot about Kate being a shrew. They talk about her rude words, her tantrums, her sharp mouth, but most of all they compare her to her young, sweet, and obedient sister, Bianca. In the play when Hortensio tells Petruchio about Kate, he refers to her as a "shrewish and unpleasant wife" (I.2.56). And that "her only fault, and that is faults enough, is that she is intolerable curst" (I.2.85). He also told him that not even for a whole mine of gold, he would marry her.

And then he tells him that she is "renowed in Padua for her scolding tongue" (I.2.97). He says this meaning that Kate always talks back to everyone. All the people in Padua call Kate, "Katherine the shrew" (I.2.125). In act 1 of the play Shakespeare uses the following words: "Yeah, leave that labor to great Hercules, and let it be more than Alcides'twelve" (12.2.255). By saying this Shakespeare refers to Kate being the most impossible woman of all. And that trying to tame her is going to be impossible.

Throughout the play Kate does a lot of shrewish things. She yells at people and hits them if they make her mad. She yells at her father in front of everyone, and she breaks the guitar on Hortensio's head. Also, she ties up Bianca and beats...