All Six Rounded Up
‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is one of the books that were written by William Shakespeare, the famous English literature writer. There are different characters that were created by Shakespeare in this book that make up the book and help to develop the overall theme that is found in this book. To understand these characters better, this essay will analyze their nature by putting them in pairs and then comparing them to each other.
Following this point, Vincentio will be compared to Baptista, Bianca to Katherina, and Petruchio to Kathrine. The main focus of this comparison will be on the conflict that arose between and among them because of their personal characters.Character Pair: Bianca and KatherinaTo begin with, Bianca and Katherina are sisters or rather daughters of Baptista. Katherina is older than Bianca and the two grew up with two different characters. In line with this, their father Baptista favors Bianca who is younger.
Therefore, when suitors propose to marry Bianca, her father, who is stooped in traditions argues that the younger sister cannot in any way get married before the elder sister is married. As a result of this, one of Bianca’s suitors convinces his friend to propose to Katherina (Shakespeare 38).There are various conflicts that emerge as this book develops its theme between the two sisters. First, the tradition in which this society is set in does not allow the younger sister to get married before the older one. Therefore, this creates a conflict of interest in the sense that marriage accomplishments of Bianca depended on Katherina being marriage (Shakespeare 24).
Similarly, there is a conflict between their characters. Bianca, who is more favored her father has a mild character whereas her sister Katherina is rude, sharp-tongued and foul-tampered at the beginning of the play. In addition, when this play approaches to an end, their characters are reversed, with Bianca being rude and disrespectful whereas Katherina had been tamed by her husband and therefore was more respectful and mild in character.Vincentio and BaptistaVincentio is a wealthy character that is introduced in this play at the end of the play. He is the father of Lucentio, a young man who was studying in a high class University in Padua.
However, during the course of his studies, Lucentio is diverged from the core course of his studies by a beautiful woman named Bianca. He disguises himself as a tutor and wins her hand in marriage. On the other hand, Baptista is the father of Bianca, a lovely woman that was loved by Vincentio’s son. In line with this, Vincentio and Baptista are related in the sense that their children, Vincentio’s Lucentio and Baptista’s Bianca were in love and wanted to marry each other (Shakespeare 118). However, there is a conflict between these two characters that emerges at the end of the play.
First, when Vincentio comes to visit his son Lucentio, he believes that his son is dead when he finds Tranio impersonating him. On further inquiry, Vincentio discovers that he has also been impersonated and his son has been allowed to marry Bianca. This raises a conflict between Baptista and Vincentio on the legality of the marriage of his son Lucentio to Bianca and how Baptista allowed Vincentio to be impersonated. However, as the play draws to an end, Vincentio and Baptista are able to solve their conflicts and end up celebrate the marriage of their children together (Shakespeare 163).Petruchio and KatherinaThe relationship between Petruchio and Katherina is based on the fact that Petruchio is Katherina’s who finally married her. When it is realized that Bianca cannot be given in marriage to Hortensio, he convinces his friend Petruchio to woo and marry Katherina.
In this regard, whereas Petruchio ends up marrying Katherina, the origin idea on this marriage emanated from the fact that he was helping his friend Hortensio to get Bianca as a wife. In the same way, marrying Katherina gave Petruchio an opportunity to get her an enormous amount of dowry (Shakespeare 180). This however matures into a serious marriage, whereby Petruchio marries Katherina.Despite the fact that Petruchio loved and married Katherina at the end, he became a madman in order to tame her. This conflict between Petruchio and Katherina creates a hostile environment which resulted in Katherina being starved, given poor clothes and mistreated as a way of taming her hostile, proud, foul-tempered and sharp-tongued character (Shakespeare 95). In actual sense, the cruelty that is exposed by Petruchio was not part of his character but simply a means of taming Katherina.
The relationship between Bianca and Katherina emanated from the fact that these were blood sister who had been begotten to Baptista. Katherina was the eldest whereas Bianca was the younger one. ‘For I have firmly am resolv’d you know; that is, not to bestow my youngest daughter before I have a husband for the elder’ (Shakespeare 24). In this society, marriage traditions were highly observed and a younger daughter could not be married before the eldest.However, having been born to one father did not allow them to grow up with the same character. In fact their character differs like day and night.
Similarly, their marriages are totally different with Katherina’s marriage being a happy one whereas Bianca’s marriage was full of disrespect. ‘The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time’ (Shakespeare 177). This reflects that somebody’s character can be transformed from either good to bad or bad to good.Vincentio and Baptista can be compared as two wealthy men whose children, Lucentio and Bianca had decided to get married. Therefore, they were father-in-laws to each other since their children ended up getting married. ‘But do you hear, sir? Have you married my daughter without asking my good will?’ (Shakespeare 163).
It is important to note that despite the fact that Vincentio’s son married Baptista’s daughter, they eloped, i.e. Lucentio and Bianca.However, it is important to note that a conflict emerges between them when Vincentio appears to visit his son and finds Tranio disguising himself as Lucentio. When he confronts this issue, he is imprisoned since it is thought that he is a madman. Things are made worse between him and Baptista when his son appears and presents Bianca as his wife.
In reference to Shakespeare (2004), ‘I will slit the villain’s nose that would have sent me to the gaol’ (163). In this regard, conflicts are a stumbling block to peace in this particular society. On the other hand, Petruchio was a suitor of Katherina who proposed to her with the aim getting large dowry for her while at the same time helping his friend Hortensio to marry Bianca. According to Shakespeare (2004), ‘And, for that dowry, I’II assure her of Her widowhood, be it that she survive me’ (62). In this case, Petruchio is attached to wealth when it comes to marriage and as a result he can maintain his faithfulness when he is assured that he will get a large dowry for his wife.
After marrying Katherina, Petruchio became a hostile man and shrew towards her as a way of taming her volatile character. Therefore, Petruchio deprived Katherina most of her needs including clothing and food in order to induce discipline and especially respect in her. ‘The poorest service is repaid with thanks; and so shall mine, before you touch the meat’ (Shakespeare 130). This shows that whereas one might have had a bad character while young, one is capable of changing and becoming a better person.
