One of Shakespeare's comedies, ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a good case of 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.

What follows is a regimen of [[MoreThanMindControl psychological abuse]] designed to "tame" her to his will, which ultimately succeeds in breaking her spirit. 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.

For obvious reasons, modern productions and adaptations (the latter including ''Kiss Me Kate'', ''10 Things I Hate About You'' and the "Atomic Shakespeare" episode of {{Moonlighting}}) tend to soften or twist the misogynistic message of the play.

Well, that's one point of view. It's hard to find a story more prime for AlternateCharacterInterpretation. Other 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. He certainly does not break her spirit. A broken girl couldn't play up to him as cleverly as the 'tamed' Kate does.

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.

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This play 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.
** There is a theory that this introduction is Shakespeare saying, "Hey everyone, this play is not what it seems (satire, parody, whatever), please take that into account before you throw shoes at me".
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: There is a theory that Kate doesn't genuinely submit to Petruchio but is putting on an act and merely becomes shrewd to get her way with her husband. Supporting this is how Kate doesn't gradually become submissive but, almost in exasperation, just starts agreeing with him in a completely unrealistic way, and this behavior gets Petruchio to do what ''she'' wants.
** Thus learning the very lesson he's trying to teach: one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar.
** Incidentally, a rival playwright wrote ''The Tamer Tamed'', which has Petruchio fall in love again after Kate's death. He ''has nightmares'' about their marriage.
* 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.
* BetaCouple: Bianca and Lucentio
* BreakTheHaughty
* DefrostingIceQueen: Kate
* DoesNotLikeMen: Kate
* DoubleEntendre: The first conversation Kate and Petruchio have consists of practically nothing but one after another.
* 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.
* TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry
* GoldDigger
* GuiseWillBeGuise: Tranio stands in for Lucentio, who is busy courting Bianca. A pedant stands in for Vincentio.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Dialogue between Kate and Petruchio.
* LikeAWeasel: Petruchio forces Kate to behave like this with him.
* LoveAtFirstPunch: Petruchio views Kate's hostility as a challenge.
* 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 aforementioned 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.
* PygmalionPlot: Petruchio molds Kate into his ideal wife.
* TheRedSonja: Kate, in some interpretations.
* RuleAbidingRebel: The play is praised by some as a proto-feminist work. Kate's speech at the end is taken by them to be ironic. It is likely not.
* ShowWithinAShow: The main plot is contained in a play being performed for the tinker.
* ShutUpKiss: Kate is unable to say the word "not" after "I will" during her unwilling marriage because her new husband grabs and kisses her.
** In the movie version, that is.
* SiblingYinYang
* {{Tsundere}}: Kate
* UpperClassWit: Petruchio
* ValuesDissonance: ''The Taming of the Shrew'' feels like a big chauvinistic AuthorTract nowadays. Kate, at one point, actually soliloquizes on why she's so self-willed, blunt, and (let's be honest) irascible... and sounds perfectly reasonable. This could make it either worse or better.
* 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.
** It's worth noting that earlier versions of the story include an ending for Sly. There's a theory that someone lost the script for Shakespeare's version of that ending.
* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack?
* 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.
* 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.

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