The Taming of the Shrew: Character Quotations (OCR A Level English Literature): Revision Note

“Be thou arm’d”

Baptista warns Petruchio that when he woos Katherina, he should prepare himself for some unkind words

Patriarchal gender roles

• Shakespeare presents Baptista as the aggrieved father who must find a suitable match for his eldest daughter, Katherina:

  • His haste to marry his daughters (and receive their dowry) is illustrated by his wish for Petruchio to woo with “speed” (meaning both with haste and success)

• Shakespeare often juxtaposes the patriarchal expectation of female silence with the sharp, vocal rebellion of women seeking autonomy:

  • Baptista’s experience of Katherina’s sharp tongue and disinterest in marriage is evident in his warning to Petruchio: he suggests she uses words as weapons

  • His military metaphor “arm’d” aims to prepare Petruchio for a battle, presenting Katherina as an enemy to suitors

  • Shakespeare highlights Katherina’s defiance towards gender expectations, and the response she receives from suitors and her father

“Deeds must win the prize” and “shame to your estate”

In Act 2, Baptista offers Bianca to the man with the higher social status and wealth; when Petruchio comes to marry Katherina dressed in ragged clothes (“habit”) he scolds him for disgracing his social status and the solemnity of marriage

Social class and hierarchy

• Shakespeare’s Baptista raises ideas about Renaissance hierarchy and marital customs:

  • As the patriarch, Baptista uses language that presents marriage as a financial transaction to improve a family’s status and wealth (“Deeds” and “dower”)

  • Further, he refers to his upper-class daughter Bianca as a “prize”, which begins a bidding war over her

• Shakespeare demonstrates the critical importance of social decorum during the Renaissance: Baptista reacts with outrage to Petruchio’s irreverent clothing:

  • The word “eye-sore” underscores 16th-century attitudes to clothing that denotes social class

  • Baptista considers it shameful that Petruchio shows disdain for his status 

  • He is indignant, too, that Petruchio has disrespected sacred marriage customs

“Crow too like a craven” and “spirit to resist”

In Katherina and Petruchio’s battle of wits, she rejects his position as a dominant “cock” (rooster) and adds that he talks like a coward; later, she justifies her need to assert herself to avoid becoming a “fool”

Patriarchal gender roles

• Shakespeare’s defiant daughter Katherina epitomises the impact of the rigidly patriarchal Renaissance culture on women:

  • Her only agency is to use her wit and sharp tongue to scare off prospective suitors in order to avoid marriage

  • Her riposte to Petruchio’s assertion is declarative: “no cock of mine”

• Katherina humiliates Petruchio by weaponising gender stereotypes: she suggests Petruchio talks too much and is cowardly

  • She emphasises her resistance to gender ideals by attempting to humiliate him in the alliterative insult “crow like a craven”

• Through Katherina, Shakespeare illustrates power struggles between genders:

  • She suggests it necessary to “resist” submission and fight against a system that ridicules females

“like a fountain troubled” and “bereft of beauty”

In the final act, Katherina tells the other women at the wedding feast it is better for women to be calm: she compares an agitated (“moved”) woman to dirty water that hides their beauty  

Disguise and identity 

• Shakespeare raises themes of identity through Katherina’s transformation

• In the denouement, Katherina appears to submit to gender expectations:

  • Her submission to her husband, Petruchio, is expressed in a monologue that includes an extended metaphor comparing women to flowing water

  • Katherina’s simile “like a fountain troubled” suggests ill-tempered women cloud the water and flout nature

  • The adjective “ill-seeming” alludes to angry women as unnatural

  • Through the alliterative phrase “bereft of beauty”, Shakespeare underscores conventional standards of female attractiveness

• Katherina’s monologue may be ironic: her shifting identity may simply be a disguise:

  • Certainly, it underscores the necessity to submit to patriarchal standards as a means of survival and to secure a peaceful marriage

“That which resteth in my choice” and “shift my bush”

In Act 3, Bianca tells her two suitors (disguised as tutors) that they do her “double wrong” fighting for her attention and assuming they can decide what she will study when she, in fact, has the “choice”; later, she scolds Petruchio, telling him that if he wishes to target her like a “bird” she can simply fly to (“shift”) another “bush”

Patriarchal gender roles

• Shakespeare presents both Katherina and Bianca as resistant to gender expectations, although they respond to their roles in different ways:

  • Bianca appears to trick the male characters with tactical politeness and manipulation to get what she wants

• While Bianca is considered meek and gentle by suitors and other male characters, her dialogue hints that she is less passive than they think:

  • Her distaste at the tutors’ competitive behaviour, and their attitudes to her as a passive and compliant subject, is suggested by the phrase “double wrong”

  • Bianca’s language is assertive: the phrase “resteth in my choice” subverts the patriarchal power dynamic

• In Act 5, Bianca’s sharp intellect and sense of agency is illustrated by her response to Petruchio’s taunting:

  • Bianca’s hunting metaphor alludes to gender roles, wherein males are the hunters and females are prey 

  • Her rhetorical question challenges his presumption that she is his prey (“bird”)

  • She adds that she would outmanoeuvre him by evading capture, thus presenting her as astute in matters pertaining to gender roles

Bianca

Key word or phrase to memorise:

What the quotation means:

Theme:

“madly mated”

Bianca responds to Katherina and Petruchio’s marriage: she tells Lucentio that Katherina’s unhinged behaviour has led her to an equally “mad” husband

Disguise and identity 

• Shakespeare explores the fluidity of identity by juxtaposing characters’ true selves with their deceptive appearance:

  • Bianca is considered to be “sacred and sweet”, yet she often comes across as cynical and shrewd

• Bianca cleverly uses alliteration and parallelism (opens in a new tab) to suggest that Katherina’s “mad” behaviour has been matched by an equally mad husband:

  • The pun of “mated” may indicate that Katherina has been check-mated (defeated)

• Shakespeare may be highlighting Bianca’s insight into the management of social expectations and duties:

  • It may be argued that Bianca’s conformity has been a disguise to secure success (she marries the mild Lucentio while her sister suffers abuse)

“Knock your knave’s pate” and “the mind that makes the body rich”

Petruchio makes full use of his social standing when he threatens to hit his servant Grumio’s head if he does not knock “well” on Hortensio’s door, yet later he tells Katherina that status and appearance is not as important as a healthy mind

Social class and hierarchy

• Shakespeare’s Petruchio is characterised as a comic villain:

  • His insults, frequent threats and violent outbursts create slapstick comedy while highlighting the power imbalance between masters and servants

• Petruchio’s rhymed iambic pentameter suggests his sophistication and higher class:

  • Yet his colloquial and rough language is misunderstood by Grumio who thinks he must “knock” him on the “gate”

  • The scene introduces Petruchio as a forceful character, foreshadowing his abusive behaviour towards Katherina, an upper-class daughter

• Petruchio’s complex characterisation raises questions about the nature of social class and Renaissance marriage:

  • In Act 4, he appears intent on humbling the upper-class Katherina, insisting she dress in “garments poor” to return to her father’s home

  • While he is introduced as a man who enjoys wealth, he uses a metaphor that juxtaposes “poor” with “rich” to suggest the superficial nature of appearance

  • His rough wooing and wedding of Katherina subverts societal norms and defies typical customs pertaining to courtly love

“As peremptory as she proud-minded” and “lusty wench”

Petruchio suggests he is as authoritative as Katherina is proud, later remarking on his attraction to her “lusty” passion and going so far as to say he loves her more because of it

Patriarchal gender roles

• Shakespeare presents the relationship between Petruchio and Katherina as complex:

  • While Petruchio’s harsh treatment and humiliation of Katherina to make her submit illustrates misogyny, Shakespeare also suggests the pair are equal 

  • Petruchio uses alliteration to emphasise their similarities: his dominant (“peremptory”) nature equals her strong-willed (“proud-minded”) behaviour

• Moreover, when he hears from Hortensio that Katherina has broken a lute over him, he professes that he loves her more for it:

  • Petruchio’s characterisation as a strong male conforms to masculine ideals

  • Yet he subverts gender norms in his love for Katherina, a “lusty wench” who is slighted by other male characters