Summary & Review of the play 'The taming of the Shrew', by William Shakespeare (circa 1591)

SUMMARY

INDUCTION. At an alehouse, a Lord and his huntsmen find Sly, a soundly sleeping drunken man. The Lord decides to have fun with him, so the servants take Sly to the castle and dress him in the Lord's clothes. When Sly awakes, he's treated as the Lord of the castle and offered a comedy for his enjoyment, which will in fact be the rest of the play. There is no evident reason for this induction. It seems that it will follow up, and at the end of act I, scene I it does, with a comment on the scene – but after that it just disappears. Maybe in a comedy of impostors the induction served to the purpose of de-criminalizing imposture before the audience.

ACT I. Lucentio, son to merchant Vincentio, arrives in Padua for studying, along with his servant Tranio - just in time to witness Baptista's predicament in the streets of Padua. Baptista struggles to marry conveniently his daughters Katherina and Bianca. But in spite of Baptista being a rich man, the task is made difficult because of the fierce personality of Katherina that earns her the nickname of the Shrew. Before Bianca's suitors, Baptista makes the stern decision that Bianca will only marry after Katherina, setting suitors Gremio and Hortensio into despair. Baptista also asks the suitors for help to find schoolmasters to instruct his daughters. Lucentio, having fallen under the spell of Bianca's beauty, takes advantage of being a stranger in Padua and develops a plan: his servant Tranio will take his place, and he will pass as a schoolmaster so he will have the opportunity to court Bianca. Hortensio receives the visit of his bad-tempered friend Petruchio, having left Verona in search of fortune after the death of his father Antonio – and Hortensio immediately seizes the opportunity to suggest him to court Katherina.

ACT II. After Baptista stops Katherina from tormenting Bianca, three suitors arrive to Baptista's house accompanied by schoolmasters. Petruchio declares himself to be a suitor to Katherina and present Baptista with schoolmaster Licio, who is in fact Hortensio, who has had the same idea as Lucentio - he succeeds in passing as an schoolmaster as Baptista inexplicably fails to recognize him in spite of their conversation in the previous act. Then comes Gremio, suitor to Bianca, who presents schoolmaster Cambio, that turns out to be none other than Lucentio. Then comes Tranio passing as Lucentio, declaring himself to be a suitor to Bianca too, and presenting Baptista with books and a lute. After the schoolmasters exit, Hortensio returns with his head broken by Katherina, so Baptista sends him to instruct Bianca instead. Petruchio gets acquainted with Katherina in a battle of wits that ends with the arrangement of their wedding for next Sunday. After that, Baptista pretty much auctions Bianca between Gremio and the fake Lucentio. Lucentio, only son to Vincentio, is the heir of the biggest fortune, and Baptista gives his preference to him provided that Vincentio himself makes the assurance. Tranio is left alone musing that fake Lucentio needs an also fake father.

ACT III. Fake schoolmasters Hortensio and Lucentio instruct Bianca whilst at the same time they compete for her love and reveal their true identities to her. Katherina's wedding day arrives at last and so does Petruchio, eccentrically clothed and spoken, making for a crazy ceremony. Afterwards, the newly-weds immediately depart.

ACT IV. Grumio arrives to Petruchio's country house and get the servants alerted of the master's imminent arrival. He narrates the disgraceful journey, with Katherina falling from her horse and Petruchio beating Grumio rather than rescuing her. Petruchio and Katherina arrive. The bad-tempered Petruchio keeps chastising the servants on any mistake, real or imaginary, and he rejects the dinner as burnt. Petruchio and Katherina retire to their chamber, and the servants tell that their wedding night consists of Petruchio admonishing Katherina about continence. Finally, Petruchio returns to the hall to voice his mind, revealing that deprivation of food and sleep is part of his plan to tame the Shrew. Back at Baptista's house, Lucentio has won Bianca's love over Hortensio, who resolves to marry a widow. Tranio meets a pedant arriving from Mantua and fools him, making him think that a death sentence is proclaimed in Padua against anybody from Mantua – and then he offers the pedant to pass as Vincentio, getting for free the fake Vincentio he needed and gratitude on top of it. Back at Petruchio's house, he continues frustrating Katherina by rejecting the clothes made for her, then he sets up another journey for them in the middle of the night as he completely misinterprets the time. Back at Padua, the pedant and Tranio represent for Baptista's deception the play of Vincentio making the assurances for Lucentio's wedding. On the road, Petruchio's insistence on mistaking the sun for the moon finally breaks Katherina and she starts dancing to his tune. By chance they come across the real Vincentio and inform him about his son getting married to Bianca.

ACT V. As the wedding between Lucentio and Bianca starts, the real and the fake Vincentio meet outside, and a showdown ensues. To avoid getting their ploy exposed, the liars cannot but insist even more on their lies. First the pedant, then servant Biondello, then Tranio deny Vincentio, and the scandal keeps growing until an officer is called in to take the real Vincentio to the gaol. In the end, Lucentio appears and reveals the truth to everybody and implores his father's pardon. Finally, the three married couples enjoy a banquet. A battle of sharps tongues is fought between Katherina and Hortensio's wife. Then, a wager is set between the three husbands for who is the most obedient wife -and Katherina emerges as the winner. Finally, Katherina preaches to the other wives a full sermon about obedience to their husbands.

REVIEW

Anybody who has had to suffer a shrew would like to see her being put through her paces, so the topic gets the sympathy of the audience from the beginning. And the Shakespearian shrew, Katherina, is certainly one hell of a shrew -she abuses the people around her physically as well as verbally. But to change someone's mind is always a delicate topic –how to do that, and what if she is just stubborn? The plot walks on the verge of the cliff of being unilateral.  Taming means getting someone to change in a forced way, which bears resemblance to torture. How to make a convincing case of getting to influence someone's mind?

In order to produce the most dispassionate tamer, Shakespeare makes Petruchio a well-off man, recent orphan and heir, free of attachments. Shakespeare also makes Katherina the older sister, so the taming gets an interested audience from the younger sister's suitors who need Petruchio to succeed. In order to break Katherina, Petruchio deprives herself and himself of most things.  First, through his careless attire, he demonstrates indifference to the opinion of others.  Then he uses deprivation of food and sleep on Katherina as well as on himself –a somewhat questionable choice on Shakespeare's part, as a change for want of food and sleep is a change full of interest and empty of sincerity.  Finally, Petruchio deprives Katherina of fine clothes, a deprivation whose meaning probably escapes us in the XXI^st century, but that in the Shakespearian times would mean downgrading Katherina's social class.

The taming must be, of course, proved with a demonstration. And being the woman not an animal but someone expected to run a house, the demonstration must go beyond performing tricks to actually putting all of her capacity to the man's service – which Shakespeare fulfils rightly by having Katherina deliver the speech that closes the play.

Is the case convincing? Well, it can never be convincing enough as getting someone to change his or her mind will always remain a controversial topic. Let's just say that it gets as close as it can get, and that can it be enjoyed not by everyone but by an understanding audience. The exchanges between Petruchio and Katherina, with some of the typical Shakespearian word-play, are the best of the play.

The play tells also other story, that in spite of being non-titular actually gets most of the play. Lucentio's quest for the love of Bianca and his convoluted plan to win the acquiescence of both Bianca and his father makes for an enjoyable comedy of liars.

All in all, not a masterpiece but a great comedy for an understanding audience.