Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TeacherStudentRomance: Hortensio and Lucentio sign up to be Bianca's tutors just so they can woo her. Cue lots of learning-based flirtation.
--> ''Lucentio'': Now, mistress, profit you in what you read?
--> ''Bianca'': What, master, read you? first resolve me that.
--> ''Lucentio'': I read what I profess, ''[[{{Ovid}} The Art to Love]]''.
--> ''Bianca'': And may you prove, sir, master of your art!
--> ''Lucentio'': Now, mistress, profit you in what you read?
--> ''Bianca'': What, master, read you? first resolve me that.
--> ''Lucentio'': I read what I profess, ''[[{{Ovid}} The Art to Love]]''.
--> ''Bianca'': And may you prove, sir, master of your art!
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 24 (click to see context) from:
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. For some reason, he feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this]].
to:
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. [[{{Exposition}} For some reason, he reason]], feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are linked to ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together and Vincentio and Baptista as their respective forbidding fathers. Meanwhile, Grumio and the rest of Petruchio's wacky servants engage in ''zanni''-like slapstick and pratfalls.
to:
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are linked to ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together and Vincentio and Baptista as their respective forbidding fathers. Meanwhile, Grumio and the rest of Petruchio's wacky servants household staff engage in ''zanni''-like slapstick and pratfalls.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 32 (click to see context) from:
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are based on ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to in stage notes as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together.
to:
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are based on linked to ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to in stage notes as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together.together and Vincentio and Baptista as their respective forbidding fathers. Meanwhile, Grumio and the rest of Petruchio's wacky servants engage in ''zanni''-like slapstick and pratfalls.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
* BestHerToBedHer: Kate, in some interpretations.
Changed line(s) 56 (click to see context) from:
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both Lucentio and his servant, Tranio. They're on their way to study at the University of Padua when a ZanyScheme derails them, but they still show themselves to be well-educated.
to:
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both Lucentio and his servant, Tranio. They're on their way to study at the University of Padua when a ZanyScheme derails them, but they still show themselves to be well-educated.
Deleted line(s) 72 (click to see context) :
* TheRedSonja: Kate, in some interpretations.
Changed line(s) 75 (click to see context) from:
* ShipperOnDeck: Tranio for Lucentio/Bianca. Also just about everyone for Petruchio/Katerina, if only because they want Katerina out of the way.
to:
* ShipperOnDeck: Tranio for Lucentio/Bianca. Also just about everyone for Petruchio/Katerina, Petruchio/Katherina, if only because they want Katerina Katherina out of the way.
Changed line(s) 84 (click to see context) from:
* WealthyEverAfter: When Kate and Petruchio win the already-substantial bet at the end, Baptista throws in twenty thousand crowns, "Another dowry for another daughter/For she is changed, as she had never been." Add to that Kate's original dowry, and it's safe to say that [[GoldDigger Petruchio got his wish]].
to:
* WealthyEverAfter: When Kate and Petruchio win the already-substantial bet at the end, Baptista throws in twenty thousand crowns, "Another dowry for another daughter/For she is changed, as she had never been." Add to that Kate's original dowry, and it's safe to say that [[GoldDigger Petruchio got his wish]].wish to marry into money]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 65 (click to see context) from:
* LoveAtFirstSight: Lucentio experiences this upon first seeing Bianca. When Tranio asks him if this is possible, he admits that he never believed in it himself before it happened to him.
to:
* LoveAtFirstSight: Lucentio experiences this upon first seeing Bianca. [[LampshadeHanging When Tranio asks him if this is possible, he admits that he never believed in it himself before it happened to him.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TranslationConvention: When Petruchio greets Hortensio in Italian, Grumio thinks he's speaking Latin.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
In the play ([[ShowWithinAShow within a play]]) there is a man with two daughters: kind, beautiful Bianca, sought by suitors everywhere, and loud, shrewish Katarina (sometimes spelled "Katherine," but in any case shortened to Kate), whom nobody likes. Their father declares that he will not marry Bianca off unless someone marries Kate first, which seems unlikely. However, a man named Petruchio is attracted by her large dowry and marries her over her objections.
to:
In the play ([[ShowWithinAShow within a play]]) there is a man with two daughters: kind, beautiful Bianca, sought by suitors everywhere, and loud, shrewish Katarina (sometimes spelled "Katherine," but in any case shortened to Kate), whom nobody likes. Their father declares that he will not marry Bianca off unless someone marries Kate first, which seems unlikely. However, a man named Petruchio is attracted by her large dowry and marries marriesI her over her objections.
Added DiffLines:
* FourthDateMarriage: All three of the couples; [[LampshadeHanging several lampshades are hung]]. Petruchio arranges to marry Kate on Sunday after one conversation ("Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly?"), Lucentio and Bianca sneak off to the altar shortly afterward, and Hortensio's widow is, according to Tranio, "wooed and wedded in a day".
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 59 (click to see context) from:
* HypercompetentSidekick: Tranio, to Lucentio.
to:
* HypercompetentSidekick: Tranio, Tranio to Lucentio.Lucentio, though how much [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation depends on the performance]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* WealthyEverAfter: When Kate and Petruchio win the already-substantial bet at the end, Baptista throws in twenty thousand crowns, "Another dowry for another daughter/For she is changed, as she had never been." Add to that Kate's original dowry, and it's safe to say that [[GoldDigger Petruchio got his wish]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TheBeard: Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) and Bianca fake being a couple so successfully that they have all the other characters fooled. Meanwhile, Bianca's in love with the real Lucentio, who's disguised himself as her tutor.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 60 (click to see context) from:
* TheJeeves: Tranio, to Lucentio.
to:
* TheJeeves: Tranio, to Lucentio.Lucentio--in stark contrast to Petruchio's oddball servant Grumio.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 63 (click to see context) from:
* LoveAtFirstSight: Lucentio experiences this upon first seeing Bianca. When Tranio asks him if this is possible, he admits that he never believed in it himself before he saw her.
to:
* LoveAtFirstSight: Lucentio experiences this upon first seeing Bianca. When Tranio asks him if this is possible, he admits that he never believed in it himself before he saw her. it happened to him.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* LoveAtFirstSight: Lucentio experiences this upon first seeing Bianca. When Tranio asks him if this is possible, he admits that he never believed in it himself before he saw her.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* MockMillionaire: Tranio standing in for Lucentio. He ends up getting into a battle with Gremio as to which of them owns the most argosies, acres of land and [[BigFancyHouse big fancy houses]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin:
--> '''Tranio:''' ''Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]]
--> '''Tranio:''' ''Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]]
to:
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin:
--> '''Tranio:''' ''Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]]SlapSlapKiss
--> '''Tranio:''' ''Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* HypercompetentSidekick: Tranio, to Lucentio.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 48 (click to see context) from:
* DoubleStandard: This was meant as a comedy. Now hundreds of years later the other way round is played as comedy, whereas this would now be played for drama,if played full stop.
to:
* DoubleStandard: This was meant as is a comedy. Now hundreds of years later the other way round is played as comedy, whereas this written now would now be played for drama,if played full stop.drama and angst.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 81 (click to see context) from:
* WritersCannotDoMath: Look for it during the placing of the bets near the end (of the play; the movie corrects it). It seems even Shakespeare isn't immune to Writers tropes.
to:
* WritersCannotDoMath: Look for it during the placing of the bets near the end (of the play; the movie corrects it). It seems even Shakespeare isn't immune to Writers tropes.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* AbductionIsLove: Petruchio essentially kidnaps Kate after the wedding ceremony.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* ParentalFavoritism: Baptista prefers Bianca, leaving Kate as TheUnfavorite.
Added DiffLines:
* TheUnfavorite: Katherina.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* CouldSayItBut: Grumio not telling Curtis all about what happened on his journey with Petruchio and Kate.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
--> '''Tranio:''' ''... Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]
to:
--> '''Tranio:''' ''... Redime ''Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[hottip:*:"Redeem ''[[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]"]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin:
--> '''Tranio:''' ''... Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]
--> '''Tranio:''' ''... Redime te captum quam queas minimo.''[hottip:*:"Redeem yourself from captivity as cheaply as possible."]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a famous example of the trope in Virgil's ''{{Aenid}}'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
to:
* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a famous example of the trope in Virgil's ''{{Aenid}}'': ''{{Aeneid}}'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a notable example of this trope in Virgil's ''{{Aenid}}'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
to:
* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a notable famous example of this the trope in Virgil's ''{{Aenid}}'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Added DiffLines:
* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a notable example of this trope in Virgil's ''{{Aenid}}'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. For some reason, he feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this stuff]].
to:
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. For some reason, he feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this stuff]].this]].
Added DiffLines:
* ServileSnarker: Grumio, and Tranio to a lesser extent.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Namespace move.
Added DiffLines:
[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew_1967_01_724.jpg]]
->''And kiss me, Kate; we will be married a Sunday!''
-->--'''Petruchio:''', ''The Taming of the Shrew''
''The Taming of the Shrew'' is one of {{William Shakespeare}}'s more famous comedies and an interesting exploration of historical ValuesDissonance in the realm of gender relations.
In the play ([[ShowWithinAShow within a play]]) there is a man with two daughters: kind, beautiful Bianca, sought by suitors everywhere, and loud, shrewish Katarina (sometimes spelled "Katherine," but in any case shortened to Kate), whom nobody likes. Their father declares that he will not marry Bianca off unless someone marries Kate first, which seems unlikely. However, a man named Petruchio is attracted by her large dowry and marries her over her objections.
Petruchio strives to tame her to his will, which ultimately succeeds in breaking her spirit, proving to her the existence of woman's natural need for man. When Petruchio returns to Kate's family, they do not believe in her new obedience, and he wins a second dowry from her disbelieving father. The play ends with three happy marriages, and a speech from Kate about the need for women to obey their husbands.
It's hard to find a story more prime for AlternateCharacterInterpretation. Some readers see 'sweet' Bianca as a manipulative little bitch who's got their father twisted round her finger and Kate 'acts out' just to get some of his attention. It is also clear that though it is the thought of a fat dowry that initially attracts him, Petruchio is also enchanted by Kate's quick wit. His challenge is to break what has become a conditioned reflex. YourMileageMayVary on whether he breaks her spirit.
Shakespeare's play is based on older works. Significantly, these versions emphasized women's inferiority. Shakespeare's Kate, on the other hand, argues that women should be obedient to their husbands because said husbands love them and want only what is best for them. Admittedly an arguable proposition, but it puts her in a different category from the patient Griselda who endured any kind of mistreatment as a duty.
----
!! ''The Taming of the Shrew'' contains the following tropes:
* AbortedArc: The play starts off with a wealthy man deciding to pull a prank on a drunkard, by fooling him into thinking he's suffering from amnesia and is actually incredibly wealthy, and the play itself is provided for his amusement. After this, the entire setup is pretty much forgotten, and outside of one of them remarking on the play briefly as they're watching, this beginning is never brought up again.
** Probably the scenes resolving this subplot are lost to history, along with quite a bit of Shakespeare's work thanks to the fact that he didn't bother to preserve his plays himself in any form and many of the written texts of the period were bad knockoff versions penned by others. It's also been speculated that the frame story was added to the play later, probably by someone other than Shakespeare.
** In some collections, a resolution to the Christopher Sly arc IS added (though it's unclear whether it was actually written by Shakespeare or by someone else). In the ending in ''The Norton Shakespeare'', [[spoiler: Sly falls asleep before the end of the PlayWithinAPlay and the men dress him back up in his regular clothes and when he wakes up, he's back where they found him. He thinks it's a dream, and the bartender tells him that he should go home to his wife. Sly agrees, and muses that in the dream, he learned a thing or two about taming a shrew, and maybe he'll try it out]].
*** These scenes are from Taming of A Shrew, a play that, for complicated reasons, may either be based on or be a basis of Taming of THE Shrew. Much debate occurs over this stapling on of another (much worse) play's ending.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: '''Averted''', though not obviously so. Tranio’s father was a ‘sail maker’ from land-locked Bergamo. Bergamo is the nearest large city to Lake Iseo and close to Lake Como, creating a Bergamo boat-making and sail-making industry which started long before the 16th century and continues to this day.
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. For some reason, he feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this stuff]].
* AttractiveBentGender: In the play outside the play, the tinker Christopher Sly is lusting after a page who the local lord has dressed up as a woman as part of an elaborate joke. (This is MetaHumor, of course.)
* BelligerentSexualTension: Most interpretations of Petruchio and Kate.
* BetaCouple: Bianca and Lucentio, though they seem like the OfficialCouple at first, if you think the ZanyScheme below is the actual main plot.
* BreakTheHaughty
* CatFight: Kate almost gets into one with the unnamed widow in the last scene; Petruchio heartily cheers his wife on.
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are based on ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to in stage notes as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Kate
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment
* DoesNotLikeMen: Kate
* DoubleEntendre: The first conversation Kate and Petruchio have consists of practically nothing but one after another.
--->'''Petruchio''': Come, come, you wasp; i’ faith, you are too angry.
--->'''Katrina''': If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
--->'''Petruchio''': My remedy is then, to pluck it out.
--->'''Katrina''': Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.
--->'''Petruchio''': Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
--->'''Katrina''': In his tongue.
--->'''Petruchio''': Whose tongue?
--->'''Katrina''': Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
--->'''Petruchio''': What, ''With my tongue in your tail?'' Nay, come again. Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
--->''[Kate slaps him]''
** Some productions merely have Petruchio giggle at the innuendo, as was the 1980s version with JohnCleese as Petruchio.
* DoubleStandard: This was meant as a comedy. Now hundreds of years later the other way round is played as comedy, whereas this would now be played for drama,if played full stop.
* EmergencyImpersonation: Tranio stands in for Lucentio, who is busy courting Bianca. A merchant stands in for Vincentio.
* EnemyMine: Bianca's suitors work together to get Katerina married off.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: If you take the text of the play literally instead of subversively.
* FanFic: ''The Tamer Tamed'' a play written by John Fletcher in 1611. Shakespeare apparently approved of the work.
* FramingDevice: A drunken tinker has been made to believe that he is really a lord, and the play is being put on for his amusement.
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both Lucentio and his servant, Tranio. They're on their way to study at the University of Padua when a ZanyScheme derails them, but they still show themselves to be well-educated.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Kate even hits her sister, and binds her hands. Incestuous BDSM or what?!
* GoldDigger
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dialogue between Kate and Petruchio.
* TheIngenue: Bianca
* TheJeeves: Tranio, to Lucentio.
* LikeAWeasel: Petruchio forces Kate to behave like this with him.
* LoveAtFirstPunch: Petruchio views Kate's hostility as a challenge.
* PlotParallel
* PropertyOfLove: Katherine at the end, if one takes the end literally.
* PussInBoots: Tranio.
* PygmalionPlot: Petruchio moulds Kate into his ideal wife.
* TheRedSonja: Kate, in some interpretations.
* ShowWithinAShow: The main plot is contained in a play being performed for the tinker.
* ShipperOnDeck: Tranio for Lucentio/Bianca. Also just about everyone for Petruchio/Katerina, if only because they want Katerina out of the way.
* SiblingYinYang
* SpankTheCutie
* TheTrickster: Tranio.
* {{Tsundere}}: Kate.
* UpperClassWit: Petruchio.
* WedlockBlock: Bianca can't get married until Kate does.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: There's growing discussion among critics about the induction scenes with Christopher Sly -- which starts the play and intermingles with it, then disappears and gets forgotten about. These scenes are often left out of modern performances.
* WritersCannotDoMath: Look for it during the placing of the bets near the end (of the play; the movie corrects it). It seems even Shakespeare isn't immune to Writers tropes.
** However the mistake has also been interpreted as intentional because it is done by Lucentio, [[TooDumbToLive who is not all that bright.]]
* ZanyScheme: Bianca's suitors disguise themselves as tutors, leaving Lucentio's servant to impersonate him in dealing with Bianca's father and dragging in another guy to impersonate Lucentio's father. It works.
** Lucentio is not the only one to come up with this scheme; he wins because he ''is'' the only one to both be a tutor ''and'' a normal suitor.
----
!! Tropes from adaptations of this play:
* TheMusical: ''KissMeKate'', where the original frame story is exchanged for Baltimore in 1947, and a theater company is putting on a musical production of the play. Kate's actress (Petruchio/the director's ex-wife) threatens to walk out, the [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily mob]] gets involved, and characters break character on stage as the "backstage" drama threatens to go out of control.
* ShutUpKiss: In the Franco Zeffirelli movie version, Kate is unable to say the word "not" after "I will" during her unwilling marriage because her new husband grabs and kisses her.
----
->''And kiss me, Kate; we will be married a Sunday!''
-->--'''Petruchio:''', ''The Taming of the Shrew''
''The Taming of the Shrew'' is one of {{William Shakespeare}}'s more famous comedies and an interesting exploration of historical ValuesDissonance in the realm of gender relations.
In the play ([[ShowWithinAShow within a play]]) there is a man with two daughters: kind, beautiful Bianca, sought by suitors everywhere, and loud, shrewish Katarina (sometimes spelled "Katherine," but in any case shortened to Kate), whom nobody likes. Their father declares that he will not marry Bianca off unless someone marries Kate first, which seems unlikely. However, a man named Petruchio is attracted by her large dowry and marries her over her objections.
Petruchio strives to tame her to his will, which ultimately succeeds in breaking her spirit, proving to her the existence of woman's natural need for man. When Petruchio returns to Kate's family, they do not believe in her new obedience, and he wins a second dowry from her disbelieving father. The play ends with three happy marriages, and a speech from Kate about the need for women to obey their husbands.
It's hard to find a story more prime for AlternateCharacterInterpretation. Some readers see 'sweet' Bianca as a manipulative little bitch who's got their father twisted round her finger and Kate 'acts out' just to get some of his attention. It is also clear that though it is the thought of a fat dowry that initially attracts him, Petruchio is also enchanted by Kate's quick wit. His challenge is to break what has become a conditioned reflex. YourMileageMayVary on whether he breaks her spirit.
Shakespeare's play is based on older works. Significantly, these versions emphasized women's inferiority. Shakespeare's Kate, on the other hand, argues that women should be obedient to their husbands because said husbands love them and want only what is best for them. Admittedly an arguable proposition, but it puts her in a different category from the patient Griselda who endured any kind of mistreatment as a duty.
----
!! ''The Taming of the Shrew'' contains the following tropes:
* AbortedArc: The play starts off with a wealthy man deciding to pull a prank on a drunkard, by fooling him into thinking he's suffering from amnesia and is actually incredibly wealthy, and the play itself is provided for his amusement. After this, the entire setup is pretty much forgotten, and outside of one of them remarking on the play briefly as they're watching, this beginning is never brought up again.
** Probably the scenes resolving this subplot are lost to history, along with quite a bit of Shakespeare's work thanks to the fact that he didn't bother to preserve his plays himself in any form and many of the written texts of the period were bad knockoff versions penned by others. It's also been speculated that the frame story was added to the play later, probably by someone other than Shakespeare.
** In some collections, a resolution to the Christopher Sly arc IS added (though it's unclear whether it was actually written by Shakespeare or by someone else). In the ending in ''The Norton Shakespeare'', [[spoiler: Sly falls asleep before the end of the PlayWithinAPlay and the men dress him back up in his regular clothes and when he wakes up, he's back where they found him. He thinks it's a dream, and the bartender tells him that he should go home to his wife. Sly agrees, and muses that in the dream, he learned a thing or two about taming a shrew, and maybe he'll try it out]].
*** These scenes are from Taming of A Shrew, a play that, for complicated reasons, may either be based on or be a basis of Taming of THE Shrew. Much debate occurs over this stapling on of another (much worse) play's ending.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: '''Averted''', though not obviously so. Tranio’s father was a ‘sail maker’ from land-locked Bergamo. Bergamo is the nearest large city to Lake Iseo and close to Lake Como, creating a Bergamo boat-making and sail-making industry which started long before the 16th century and continues to this day.
* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. For some reason, he feels the need to tell his servant where they are, why they're here, where he was born, and where he was raised. We later find out that Tranio was taken in by Lucentio's family at the age of ''three''. [[FridgeLogic There is no excuse for him not to know any of this stuff]].
* AttractiveBentGender: In the play outside the play, the tinker Christopher Sly is lusting after a page who the local lord has dressed up as a woman as part of an elaborate joke. (This is MetaHumor, of course.)
* BelligerentSexualTension: Most interpretations of Petruchio and Kate.
* BetaCouple: Bianca and Lucentio, though they seem like the OfficialCouple at first, if you think the ZanyScheme below is the actual main plot.
* BreakTheHaughty
* CatFight: Kate almost gets into one with the unnamed widow in the last scene; Petruchio heartily cheers his wife on.
* CommediaDellArte: Quite a few elements of the plot are based on ''Commedia'' situations and character types. Gremio is actually referred to in stage notes as "a pantaloon", and Lucentio and Bianca serve as the ''innamorati'', with Tranio as the [[TheTrickster trickster]] servant who gets them together.
* DefrostingIceQueen: Kate
* DeniedFoodAsPunishment
* DoesNotLikeMen: Kate
* DoubleEntendre: The first conversation Kate and Petruchio have consists of practically nothing but one after another.
--->'''Petruchio''': Come, come, you wasp; i’ faith, you are too angry.
--->'''Katrina''': If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
--->'''Petruchio''': My remedy is then, to pluck it out.
--->'''Katrina''': Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.
--->'''Petruchio''': Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
--->'''Katrina''': In his tongue.
--->'''Petruchio''': Whose tongue?
--->'''Katrina''': Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
--->'''Petruchio''': What, ''With my tongue in your tail?'' Nay, come again. Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
--->''[Kate slaps him]''
** Some productions merely have Petruchio giggle at the innuendo, as was the 1980s version with JohnCleese as Petruchio.
* DoubleStandard: This was meant as a comedy. Now hundreds of years later the other way round is played as comedy, whereas this would now be played for drama,if played full stop.
* EmergencyImpersonation: Tranio stands in for Lucentio, who is busy courting Bianca. A merchant stands in for Vincentio.
* EnemyMine: Bianca's suitors work together to get Katerina married off.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: If you take the text of the play literally instead of subversively.
* FanFic: ''The Tamer Tamed'' a play written by John Fletcher in 1611. Shakespeare apparently approved of the work.
* FramingDevice: A drunken tinker has been made to believe that he is really a lord, and the play is being put on for his amusement.
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both Lucentio and his servant, Tranio. They're on their way to study at the University of Padua when a ZanyScheme derails them, but they still show themselves to be well-educated.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Kate even hits her sister, and binds her hands. Incestuous BDSM or what?!
* GoldDigger
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dialogue between Kate and Petruchio.
* TheIngenue: Bianca
* TheJeeves: Tranio, to Lucentio.
* LikeAWeasel: Petruchio forces Kate to behave like this with him.
* LoveAtFirstPunch: Petruchio views Kate's hostility as a challenge.
* PlotParallel
* PropertyOfLove: Katherine at the end, if one takes the end literally.
* PussInBoots: Tranio.
* PygmalionPlot: Petruchio moulds Kate into his ideal wife.
* TheRedSonja: Kate, in some interpretations.
* ShowWithinAShow: The main plot is contained in a play being performed for the tinker.
* ShipperOnDeck: Tranio for Lucentio/Bianca. Also just about everyone for Petruchio/Katerina, if only because they want Katerina out of the way.
* SiblingYinYang
* SpankTheCutie
* TheTrickster: Tranio.
* {{Tsundere}}: Kate.
* UpperClassWit: Petruchio.
* WedlockBlock: Bianca can't get married until Kate does.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: There's growing discussion among critics about the induction scenes with Christopher Sly -- which starts the play and intermingles with it, then disappears and gets forgotten about. These scenes are often left out of modern performances.
* WritersCannotDoMath: Look for it during the placing of the bets near the end (of the play; the movie corrects it). It seems even Shakespeare isn't immune to Writers tropes.
** However the mistake has also been interpreted as intentional because it is done by Lucentio, [[TooDumbToLive who is not all that bright.]]
* ZanyScheme: Bianca's suitors disguise themselves as tutors, leaving Lucentio's servant to impersonate him in dealing with Bianca's father and dragging in another guy to impersonate Lucentio's father. It works.
** Lucentio is not the only one to come up with this scheme; he wins because he ''is'' the only one to both be a tutor ''and'' a normal suitor.
----
!! Tropes from adaptations of this play:
* TheMusical: ''KissMeKate'', where the original frame story is exchanged for Baltimore in 1947, and a theater company is putting on a musical production of the play. Kate's actress (Petruchio/the director's ex-wife) threatens to walk out, the [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily mob]] gets involved, and characters break character on stage as the "backstage" drama threatens to go out of control.
* ShutUpKiss: In the Franco Zeffirelli movie version, Kate is unable to say the word "not" after "I will" during her unwilling marriage because her new husband grabs and kisses her.
----
