Line #36 Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew


1	!!As the play is OlderThanSteam and most twists in Shakespeare's plots are now [[ItWasHisSled widely known]], all spoilers on this page are [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked]].
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3	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew_1967_01_724.jpg]]
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5	->''"And kiss me, Kate; we will be married a Sunday!"''
6	-->-- '''Petruchio''', ''The Taming of the Shrew''
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8	''The Taming of the Shrew'' is one of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's more famous and controversial comedies, and an interesting exploration of historical ValuesDissonance in the realm of gender relations.
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10	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.
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12	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.
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14	It's hard to find a story more prime for AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. Some readers see "sweet" Bianca as a little manipulator 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. Many adaptations do something to undercut the Kate-submits-to-Petruchio ending.
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16	Shakespeare's play is based on older works. Significantly, these versions emphasized women's inferiority, and built up to a HumiliationConga that was truly shocking in its violence. 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.
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18	The play was adapted to film several times. A 1929 version starred Hollywood power couple Creator/MaryPickford and Creator/DouglasFairbanks in her second talking film and his first, and the only film they appeared in together. Probably the most well-known adaptation is the 1967 version, directed by Creator/FrancoZeffirelli and starring another Hollywood power couple, Creator/ElizabethTaylor and Creator/RichardBurton (it's the source of the page image). The Italian movie ''Film/IlBisbeticoDomato'' is also loosely based on this. The movie ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' is a HighSchoolAU adaptation of the story, treating it as a teen comedy. It also inspired the Music/ColePorter musical ''Theatre/KissMeKate''.
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21	!! ''The Taming of the Shrew'' contains the following tropes:
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23	* AbductionIsLove: Petruchio essentially kidnaps Kate after the wedding ceremony.
24	* TheAllegedSteed: The horse Petruchio rides to his wedding has just about every disease a horse could possibly have, and the moth-eaten saddle and broken bridle probably don't help appearances. (Sadly, this being a stage show, [[TakeOurWordForIt we never actually get to see it]].)
25	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Lucentio claims Padua is in Lombardy, when in fact it is in Veneto.
26	* AsYouKnow: Lucentio's opening speech to Tranio. [[{{Exposition}} 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''. There is no excuse for him not to know any of this.
27	* 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 LeaningOnTheFourthWall, since in Shakespeare's plays, the female roles were traditionally played by young boys in getup.
28	* BadBoss: Petruchio treats his servants pretty horribly.
29	* BavarianFireDrill: Essentially how Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) dupes a random passerby and passes him off as Vincentio--he asks the guy where he's from, and on his reply (Mantua) claims that the dukes of Mantua and Padua are feuding, and that any citizens of one city found in the other would be arrested and executed. It would've worked, too, [[ConfrontingYourImposter if the real Vincentio hadn't shown up.]]
30	* BelligerentSexualTension: Most interpretations of Petruchio and Kate.
31	* BestHerToBedHer: Kate, in some interpretations.
32	* BetaCouple: Bianca and Lucentio (though they seem like the OfficialCouple at first), if you think the ZanyScheme below is the actual main plot, as 99% of directors do.
33	* BettyAndVeronicaSwitch: By the play's end Kate has become the docile champion of obedience to one's husband ... while Bianca now rules Lucentio with an iron fist.
34	%%* BreakTheHaughty
35	* CatFight: Kate almost gets into one with the unnamed widow in the last scene; Petruchio heartily cheers his wife on.
36	* 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 {{t\|heTrickster}}rickster servant who gets them together and Vincentio and Baptista as their respective forbidding fathers. Meanwhile, Grumio and the rest of Petruchio's wacky household staff engage in ''zanni''-like slapstick and pratfalls.
37	* ComedicSpanking: Traditionally Kate receives one from Petruchio, although the text itself doesn't do more than suggest it (such as making a pun on the wasp having a "sting in his tail.") They both slap each other around as well.
38	* TheConfidant: Tranio to Lucentio, who compares him to a famous example of the trope in Virgil's ''Literature/TheAeneid'': "That are to me as secret and as dear/As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was."
39	* CouldSayItBut: Grumio not telling Curtis all about what happened on his journey with Petruchio and Kate.
40	* DecoyProtagonist: Lucentio is set up as the main character in the first scene, with his goal of wooing Bianca as the major plot thread. Tranio very quickly switches places with him, and Petruchio - the actual main character - is introduced in the second scene. Luciento is then reduced to a supporting role in the B-plot for the rest of the play.
41	* DefrostingIceQueen: Kate
42	* DeniedFoodAsPunishment
43	* {{Deuteragonist}}: Tranio is TheProtagonist of the B-plot, trying to get Lucentio and Bianca together. In terms of lines, he's second only to Petruchio.
44	* DoesNotLikeMen: Kate
45	* DoubleEntendre: The first conversation Kate and Petruchio have consists of practically nothing but one after another.
46	-->'''Petruchio''': Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.\
47	'''Katrina''': If I be waspish, best beware my sting.\
48	'''Petruchio''': My remedy is then, to pluck it out.\
49	'''Katrina''': Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.\
50	'''Petruchio''': Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.\
51	'''Katrina''': In his tongue.\
52	'''Petruchio''': Whose tongue?\
53	'''Katrina''': Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.\
54	'''Petruchio''': What, ''With my tongue in your tail?'' Nay, come again. Good Kate; I am a gentleman.\
55	''[Kate slaps him]''
56	* EmergencyImpersonation: Tranio stands in for Lucentio, who is busy courting Bianca. A merchant stands in for Vincentio.
57	* EnemyMine: Bianca's suitors work together to get Katerina married off.
58	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: If you take the text of the play literally instead of subversively.
59	* FakeRelationship: 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.
60	* ForgottenFramingDevice: The play starts off with a wealthy man deciding to pull a prank on the drunkard tinker Christopher Sly 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 forgotten, and outside of one of them remarking on the play briefly as they're watching, this beginning is never brought up again. Possibly 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. These scenes are often left out of modern performances.
61	* 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".
62	* FriendlyRivalry: Bianca's suitors maintain this throughout. Tranio at one point offers to take the other to a tavern, advising that they may "strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends." In other words, fight tooth and nail for Bianca's affections but still be on friendly terms with each other.
63	* {{Gaslighting}}: The turning point comes when Kate submits to Petruchio and agrees with his insistence that it's 7 am and time to go out, when it's really no later than 2 am. Shortly thereafter she agrees with his insistence that the sun is really the moon and that an old man passing them on the road is really a young maid. Kate gives Petruchio no trouble thereafter.
64	* GentlemanAndAScholar: Tranio specifically advises Lucentio to be one of these (for instance, to get some friends to discuss logic with and practice rhetoric on, rather than simply studying his life away and not having any fun).
65	* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry: Kate even hits her sister, and binds her hands.
66	* GoldDigger: Petruchio, oh so much. Hortensio settled for being this after Bianca rejected him.
67	* GuileHero: Tranio, who manages to arrange a marriage between Lucentio and Bianca through a series of bluffs and manipulations.
68	* HairTriggerTemper: What makes Kate a shrew. Petruchio pretends to have one as part of his taming scheme, though it may be more real than not, depending on how he's played (the very first time we see him he's beating up on Grumio).
69	* HenpeckedHusband: The men assume that Petruchio will become this; however, the play's end implies that Hortensio and Lucentio have gone this route instead.
70	* HurricaneOfPuns: Dialogue between Kate and Petruchio.
71	* TheIngenue: Bianca
72	* InLoveWithYourCarnage: Petruchio is not at all put off by the fact that Kate has just ''broken a lute over someone's head''--"Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench! I love her ten times more than ever."
73	* InSeriesNickname: Kate for Katarina. When she first meets Petruchio, she tells him not to call her Kate; so of course he does for the rest of the play, just to annoy her.
74	* TheJeeves: Tranio, to Lucentio--in stark contrast to Petruchio's oddball servant Grumio.
75	* KidSidekick: Biondello.
76	* LaserGuidedKarma: Considering that Kate started out abusing tutors, servants, and her sister, her treatment by Petruchio could be seen this way.
77	* LikesOlderWomen: Hortensio, who ends up marrying a widow.
78	* LoveAtFirstPunch: Petruchio views Kate's hostility as a challenge.
79	* 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.]]
80	* LysistrataGambit: According to some interpretations, Petruchio giving Kate a "sermon of continency [abstinence]" on their wedding night is a gender-reversed example of this, just as much a taming method as withholding food and sleep. (The other possibility is that since she hasn't warmed up to him yet, he's simply showing the common decency not to force anything while continuing to [[ObfuscatingInsanity feign insanity]].)
81	* TheMasochismTango
82	* MathematiciansAnswer: This exchange concerning Petruchio:
83	-->'''Babptista''': When will he be here?\
84	'''Biondello:''' When he stands where I am and sees you there.
85	* MeaningfulName:
86	** "Bianca" means "white", referring to [[TheIngenue the purity of her nature]] (this could be an IronicName depending on your interpretation).
87	** "Tranio" and "Grumio" were named after a pair of slave characters in Creator/{{Plautus}}'s play ''Mostellaria''--a well-bred, clever town slave with GentlemanSnarker tendencies and a low-born, much-abused country slave, respectively.
88	* MetaFiction: Is this a misogynist play? Or an overblown farce about how men like watching misogynist plays? Thanks to the induction, either interpretation is up for grabs.
89	* 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]].
90	* ObfuscatingInsanity: Petruchio--although as in the case of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', he seems to be pretty crazy anyway and how much of it is faked depends on interpretation.
91	* OverlyLongGag: Biondello describing Petruchio's attire and horse. And just when you think he's done, he gets started on what ''Grumio'' is wearing.
92	* PassThePopcorn: Tranio is manifestly entertained by the argument in the street between Baptista, Kate and Bianca's suitors, referring to it as "some show to welcome us to town".
93	--> "Husht, master! here's some good pastime toward;
94	--> That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward."
95	* ParentalFavoritism: Baptista prefers Bianca, leaving Kate as TheUnfavorite.
96	* PersonAsVerb: "I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated!"
97	* ThePhilosopher: Lucentio's opening speech pegs him as one of these, but he instantly throws his plans to study ethics out the window when he sees Bianca, which is only a few lines later.
98	* PlayedForLaughs: The play is a more comedic version of a plot [[OlderThanFeudalism dating back to]] UsefulNotes/AncientGreece. As mentioned above, usually the source plots were far more nasty and written to emphasize women's inferiority by grinding the woman down through a HumiliationConga. Shakespeare's play is far more lighthearted.
99	* PlotParallel
100	* PropertyOfLove: Katherine at the end, if one takes the end literally. The play ends with Kate giving a speech where she says in no uncertain terms that wives should obey their husbands.
101	--> "Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper...Such duty as the subject owes the prince/Even such a woman oweth to her husband."
102	* PrivateTutor: Lucentio disguises himself as Bianca's one.
103	* PygmalionPlot: Petruchio moulds Kate into his ideal wife.
104	* ServileSnarker: Grumio, and Tranio to a lesser extent.
105	* ShipperOnDeck: Tranio and Biondello for Lucentio/Bianca. Also just about everyone for Petruchio/Katherina, if only because they want Katherina out of the way.
106	* ShowWithinAShow: The main plot is contained in a play being performed for the tinker.
107	* SiblingYinYang: Bianca and Kate
108	* SlapSlapKiss: Kate and Petruchio, arguably enough
109	* TheSocialExpert: Tranio.
110	* TeacherStudentRomance: Hortensio and Lucentio sign up to be Bianca's tutors just so they can woo her. Cue lots of learning-based flirtation.
111	-->'''Lucentio''': Now, mistress, profit you in what you read?\
112	'''Bianca''': What, master, read you? first resolve me that.\
113	'''Lucentio''': I read what I profess, ''[[Creator/{{Ovid}} The Art to Love]]''.\
114	'''Bianca''': And may you prove, sir, master of your art!
115	* TranslationConvention: When Petruchio greets Hortensio in Italian, Grumio thinks he's speaking Latin.
116	* TwoPlusTortureEqualsFive: For a very mild form of torture, anyway, but Petruchio ''does'' withhold food and drink in order to bring Kate to heel. The turning point comes when she submits to him and agrees with his insistence that it's 7 am and time to go out, when it's really no later than 2 am. Shortly thereafter she agrees with his insistence that the sun is really the moon and that an old man passing them on the road is really a young maid. Kate gives Petruchio no trouble thereafter.
117	* UnderdressedForTheOccasion: Upon hearing Biondello's account of the bizarre getup Petruchio is wearing to his wedding, Tranio says, "oftentimes he goes but mean-apparelled." To give an idea of what an {{Understatement}} this is, the "No Fear Shakespeare" edition translated the line thus: "from time to time he has been known to dress down".
118	* TheUnfavorite: Katherina.
119	* TheWatson: Lucentio; in one scene Tranio drops him several hints about what's going on, then leaves Biondello to explain them to him (and thus the audience) in fuller detail.
120	* 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 marry into money]].
121	* WedlockBlock: Baptista will not give his younger daughter Bianca's hand in marriage before he finds a husband for Katherina, his older daughter.
122	* WouldHitAGirl: Petruchio's "I swear I'll cuff you if you strike again." (Kate counters by telling him he'll be no gentleman if he does so, and it's never brought up again, as they just continue their punning[[note]]Of course, the threat could also be interpreted as her threatening to cut his arms off.[[/note]])
123	* WritersCannotDoMath: Look for it during the placing of the bets near the end. However the mistake has also been interpreted as intentional because it is done by Lucentio, who is not all that bright.
124	* 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.
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126	!! Tropes from adaptations of this play:
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128	* ActionizedAdaptation: Creator/RichardBurton gets to exercise his SwordAndSandal muscles in the 1967 Franco Zeffirelli adaptation. Kate and Petruchio's first scene together becomes a romp through the family estate, complete with some RoofHopping (as mentioned below) and a part where Petruchio ''bursts through a wall'' after Kate locks the door on him.
129	* AdaptedOut: Christopher Sly and the framing device usually aren't included in adaptations.
130	* DemotedToExtra: In the abridged book made for 30 Minutes, every character that isn't Kate, Petruchio, Baptista, Lucentio or Tranio.
131	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In the 1929 film Mary Pickford is introduced throwing various pieces of furniture and artwork at servants as they flee in terror.
132	* FanFic: ''The Woman's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed'', a play written by John Fletcher in 1611. Shakespeare apparently [[ApprovalOfGod approved of the work]]. The play reverses the gender politics of the original (where Petruchio is tamed by his new wife after Kate's death) and indicates that even in Shakespeare's day, the play was considered a bit too misogynistic for comfort.
133	* LargeHam: Petruchio is often played as this. Check out Marc Singer's performance in the filmed 1976 production. Kate is equally hammy in this production as well.
134	* LysistrataGambit: In John Fletcher's sequel ''The Woman's Prize or The Tamer Tamed''.
135	* TheMusical: ''Theatre/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.
136	* RoofHopping: In the Zeffirelli version Kate tries to flee from Petruchio's wooing by roof hopping across the mansion. Petruchio gives chase, and they wind up falling into the storeroom (fortunately onto a load of cotton) when the roof gives way.
137	* 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.
138	* SilentSnarker: One famous way of handling the ending is, after her speech, having Kate turn and wink silently to the audience as she leaves with Petruchio, establishing that her entire speech was sarcastic. Whether it works or not depends solely on how the dialogue is spoken; it requires no change to the text whatsoever.
139	* SlapSlapKiss: Certainly not arguable in the 1929 version. Kate chucks a stool at Petruchio and hits him square on the forehead.

Context Theatre / TheTamingOfTheShrew