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Who had More Influence in the Shakespearean Novel "Taming of the Shrew"?
By Aadi Vasa
Petruchio
So, Who Has the Most Influence over the Resolution?
In the timeless novel “Taming of the Shrew,” by William Shakespear, Petruchio is one of the main protagonists in the play, and is also undoubtedly the most influential character to the resolution of the tale. Petruchio’s selfish taming of Katherine strongly impacted the storyline by transforming one of the main characters, Katherine, into a common housewife. He had gained this immoral motivation due to his greed of money, such as when he was offered it to marry Katherine, and even more when he realized he could get more money through Katherine herself, being the pipeline to the bank of Baptista Minola. At the beginning of the play we can see that Katherine generally had more power due to her selfish desires, as seen in the line graph, but as time progressed, she continued losing more and more power due to Petruchio’s selfish greed growing more powerful scene by scene, to the point where Katherine somehow becomes the exact opposite of herself, a fully selfless woman willing to do anything for her “beloved husband”. Looking at the bar graphs we can see that Petruchio’s abilities greatly outweigh that of Katherine’s in all fields except morality, which is clearly due to his abuse and lust for greed. However, the ability that best helps Petruchio in his influence to the resolution would be that of his superior intelligence and strength compared to that of Katherine. Throughout the play you can constantly see how Petruchio always seems to be one step ahead of Katherine, which eventually aids him in his goal of fully “taming” Katherine, such as how he knew that humiliating Katherine at the wedding would open her eyes to how people may potentially see her, and Katherine’s low confidence always makes her play puppet for Petruchio, constantly falling into his traps to beat down Katherine mentally, and brainwash her into being a slave to Petruchio. Due to Petruchio’s successful brainwashing on Katherine, he eventually conformed her to a common household wife, who who would do anything for their husband, which can be seen in the resolution of the whole play, at the wedding banquet for the three couples (Lucentio and Bianca, Hortensio and the Widow, and Petruchio and Katherine), where the husbands all have a competition over who has the most obedient wife, Katherine heeds the most obedient wife of them all, to everyone’s surprise, thanks to Petruchio’s great influence on her, and even more, the story as a whole.
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Katherine
In William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” Petruchio is a selfish character because he tries to “tame” Katherine throughout the story to transform her personality so that he has more control over her. As other men pursue Bianca, Katherine’s younger sister, Petruchio takes the risk and attempts to woo Katherine, a woman known to have a short temper. Petruchio starts the story with a greedy motive. When he hears from Hortensio that Katherine come from a wealthy family, he selfishly decides to woo her. “I come to wive it wealthily in Padua (Act 1. Sc. 2. 76).” He then forces Katherine to marry him without her agreement. “And, will you, nill you, I will marry you. (Act 2. Sc. 1. 267)” Petruchio gives Katherine no other option but to marry him and become his wife. To tame Katherine, Petruchio starves her, deeming the food that his servants cook unfit to eat, and does not let her sleep, acting like it is for her own good. “I tell thee, Kate, ‘twas burnt and dried away (Act 4. Sc. 1. 147).” These actions are self-centered because Petruchio does not consider Katherine’s feelings, and instead is bent on altering her attitude and personality just so she will be a better wife for himself, even if it means starving her and depriving her of any sleep. Throughout his actions, Petruchio proves himself the more selfish of the two characters.
Petruchio is best described as having a Pre-Conventional Level Stage 2 (Self-Interest) Moral Development.
A person who falls into the Pre-conventional Morality level stage 2 makes decisions based off of how much self benefit they get, thinking only for themselves and not the good of others. Petruchio falls into this category because, firstly, he is getting paid to marry Katherine. However, he takes it a step further and tries to change Katherine’s original personality into one that would be more beneficial to himself, as a slaved housewife. This shows just how selfish he really is. In retrospect, his entire relationship is based off an enticing amount of money offered to him. Throughout the story, Petruchio acts selfishly in order to gain what he wants. Even while at the wedding party, Petruchio refers to her as his house, home, clothes, and other objects that he owns, showing that he thinks of Katherine as more of an object to possess than a wife to love. This proves that Petruchio does not have an extreme or real love for Katherine at all, and is just keeping her as his wife for his own benefit. Petruchio falls into the level 2 conventional morality group because he is motivated to act selfishly.
"It's Me, Not You"
Petruchio has an egoistic philosophy of life. Egoism is a moral theory that actions should be based off of personal benefits and self interest. Petruchio does not care how he gets Katherine to conform to society, Petruchio believes is that money brings happiness, and to gain money for his own self interest, he decides to woo Katherine. His main motive in Padua was to wed a wealthy woman that would listen to his orders. “I come to wive it wealthily in Padua/If wealthily then happily (Act 1. Sc. 2. 76-77).” He plainly states to Hortensio that he will only be happy once he finds a wealthy bride, and that his main goal is to find money. Petruchio also believes that being confident and in control leads to success and happiness. His main goal of the story was to successfully “tame” Katherine, and make her more obedient. “Thus have I politicly begun my reign/And ‘tis my hope to end successfully (Act 4. Sc. 1. 165-166).” Overall, Petruchio’s philosophy of life of egoism leads to his selfish actions. He will only be satisfied when he acquires more money and successfully transforms Kathrine’s personality so that he can take control over her for his own personal benefits and gains.
Overall, Petruchio's traits dominate that of Katherine tremendously in nearly all categories. Petruchio’s intelligence level is very high. In order to transform Katherine, he knew that he had to show her what it was like to be on the receiving end. He cleverly gave Katherine “a taste of her own medicine” by showing her how others see and interpret her. He demonstrates such interpretations at their wedding, making her begin to realize that she is seen as a selfish and entitled crazed woman. Petruchio has lots of strength because he is able to control Katherine. Once he tamed Katherine, he can control almost everything she does because of her new obedience. To transform Katherine’s personality, Petruchio was willing to do anything from starving her to depriving her of any sleep, therefore bringing down his morality. Petruchio’s confidence level is extremely high. From the moment he heard of Katherine from Hortensio, he was positive that he would be the one to tame Katherine. Throughout the story, his confidence in his own abilities remain strong, with only very few scenes where he slightly doubts his own abilities. “For I will board her, though she chide as loud/As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack (Act 1. Sc. 2. 92.93)” Petruchio arrives in Padua, confident that he will be able to woo Katherine with his skills, even though he has heard from many others that Katherine is an untamable, short-tempered woman.
Throughout the world-renowned Shakespearean play “Taming of the Shrew” our protagonist, Katherine, has an interesting transformation from being the most selfish shrew in the land to one of the most selfless beings in the play. The event that made her this way was Petruchio’s taming, which included starving her and restricting her from sleep as well as publicly humiliating her. This forces her into obedience and therefore conforms her into a household wife. Throughout this mistreatment, Katherine develops her selfish attitude into a more selfless one, realizing this is the only way she will be treated to a decent life. Her original selfishness begins with her abusing Bianca and getting revenge out of jealousy. “Her silence flouts me, and I’ll be revenged. (Act 2. Sc. 1. 29)” In addition, the first time she met Petruchio, she fought back against his words in a verbal battle. However, after being wedded to Petruchio without her consent, Katherine’s personality slowly starts to change. After living without proper food or sleep for days because of Petruchio’s taming, her personality and attitude towards Petruchio drastically changes. Her ultimate act of selflessness comes with her jaw dropping speech to the other women about their behavior towards their husbands. “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, they sovereign, one that cares for thee…(Act 5. Sc 2. 155)” She sacrifices her original personality in order to please Petruchio, and put a stop to the mistreatment. Although Katherine’s personality started off as extremely rude, it was slowly developed into a tame one because of Petruchio’s taming. Throughout her drastic transformation, Katherine proves that she is capable of selfless actions.
Katherine is best described as having a Conventional Level Stage 3 (Good Boy Attitude) Moral Development.
Katherine falls into the category of Conventional level stage 3, the good boy attitude. These people act to avoid any type of trouble to prevent blame and punishment from falling upon them. Katherine is in this group because she obeys Petruchio in order to avoid punishment and blame. Throughout the story, Katherine goes through many different moral changes that stretch from loss in small amounts of power, to the loss of her entire right to freedom. During her experience with Petruchio she develops a strange new, and behaved, attitude. The most likely cause of this is the constant starvation and public humiliation forced on her by Petruchio. This new attitude begun Katherine’s submission to her new and limited lifestyle, which was just the tip of the iceberg. Even after many ignored complaints, Katherine realized that she had to submit to Petruchio’s power to have a decent lifestyle. By doing so she avoids punishment and blame from Petruchio as well as society. She loses a lot of her power to Petruchio by changing her personality into a caring, loyal, and trusting character. In Katherine’s speech to Bianca and the Widow, she states that their husbands do so much for them and only ask for “love, fair looks and true obedience-/Too little payment for so great a debt. (Act 5. Sc.2.162/163)” Throughout the story, Katherine transforms her own personality into an obedient character who conforms to society just to avoid pain, punishment, and blame from Petruchio.
Katherine's philosophy of life is that of contractarianism. Katherine finds herself in an implicit contract, a contract that she never actually agreed to, but found herself in as time took its course. She understands that sometimes sacrifices are necessary to lead a good life, especially one with Petruchio. Once Katherine realizes that she would not be treated well by Petruchio without submitting to him, so she sacrifices her original personality instead, therefore finding herself in an undeniably regretful “contract” with Petruchio. If she conforms to society, Petruchio will reward her with food and sleep, and the overall luxury of peace as a housewife. Katherine scolds the other women for being unloyal and uncommitted to their husbands, berating them with words such as “Such duty as the subject owes the prince/Even such a woman oweth her husband (Act 5. Sc. 2. 164-165).” In Katherine’s speech, she proves to Petruchio as well as the rest of society, that she is capable of being obedient. As a result of Petruchio’s “taming” Katherine’s personality went under a major change from rebellious and full of anger to caring and obedient. She understood that she would not live happily by continuing to fight back against Petruchio, so she submitted to him and decided to obey his commands and conform with society. By doing so, she sacrifices a major part of her identity, being the result of her philosophy of contractarianism.
Overall, Katherine's traits are extremely weak and low compared to that of Petruchio, and may be a cause for the breaking in character for Katherine throughout the play. Katherine’s intelligence level is mediocre. It took her awhile to figure out that Petruchio would not give her any food or sleep if she kept acting insolent, but she figured it out eventually. However, if her intelligence level was even higher, she would have found a way around Petruchio’s plan. Katherine’s level of strength and confidence are pretty low. At first, she is very in control of her life, free to do almost anything she wishes, as no one wants to defy someone with such a short temper, but as the story progresses, Petruchio changes this. Petruchio is someone who can control Katherine, and leaves her with little strength or confidence in herself. Katherine’s level of morality is at a 70 percent, because she is willing to sacrifice a large part of her identity for the well being of Petruchio, and has much more empathy for people as the story goes on, such as for when the servant was being beaten by Petruchio for something of Katherine’s fault, and Katherine rushed in to stop the harassment quickly.