Katherine's Transformation and Shakespeare's View on a Woman's Role in Marriage

In Shakespeare’s plays the climax usually occurs in the third act, but in The Taming of the Shrew, it occurs in the second act. When Petruchio confronts Katherine for the first time, he does exactly as the title says; he defeats Katherine emotionally to the point where she has no retorts to his witty, sexual comments. At the end of the act, Petruchio declares them to be engaged and she has nothing to say. It is very unlike Katherine to hold her tongue, so the audience is left to wonder what Shakespeare is implying about a women’s role in marriage.

I believe that Shakespeare is telling us that a woman needs to be submissive to her husband and allow him to dominate their relationship. In the beginning of the play Katherine speaks freely and is not afraid to verbally attack Bianca’s suitors because she finds them dim witted. When Petruchio confronts her, she is unable to stand her ground. He defeats her in a battle of words and she is forced into marriage. Katherine falls so far, so quickly because she finally meets a man of her intellectual equal. She loses her will to stand up for herself due to the fact that she is a woman. Shakespeare is saying that no matter how brash a woman may act, they are all looking for one thing: to get married. They just need the right man to find them. This portrays the beliefs of the era, where women had little to no rights and had to listen to whatever their husband told them to do. Shakespeare takes one of the strongest characters in the play and immediately turns her into a wimp.