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In the beginning, Kate appears to be quite a shrew. However, this is due to her father's treatment of her. Kate is not a shrew; she has merely put on a shrew-like act to cover up the humiliation and embarrassment that her father has caused her. Her father seems as though he wishes to be rid of her, and will pass her off to any man willing to marry her, without regard for her own feelings. He will not allow Kate's sister Bianca to marry until he has ensured that he will be rid of Kate, even though Bianca has more than one suitor.
Lucentio is the suitor that ends up marrying Bianca. Their relationship takes a turn at the end of the play, when Petruchio makes a wager that he has a more obedient wife than Lucentio or Hortensio. Bianca refuses to come to Lucentio, saying that she is busy and she cannot come, while Kate comes to Petruchio right away. In this, Bianca seems to have taken on shrew-like qualities, while Kate has turned into a loving and obedient wife. It seems the relationships between the two couples have switched, with Kate and Petruchio having the more loving relationship in the end, while in the beginning Kate was against marrying him at all. Kate did not deserve any brutality, but Petruchio wasn't unnecessarily brutal to her.
Some things he did may have seemed brutal, but he did them to bring out Kate's real, loving self. Her new personality is not a fraud, but what she could be when shown love and respect. Her father didn't seem to show her much love or respect, rather he humiliated her, bring out the shrew. Petruchio taught her love and mutual respect, bringing out a kind and respectful person. Rather than her new personality being a cloak for the old, shrewish one, her old personality was a cloak for her new one. Being a shrew was her defense for her father's treatment of her.
It may be said that Kate was 'tamed, ' but it also seems that she was merely brought out of a defensive shell that she had put up to protect herself from her father. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Obedient Wife Beginning Kate Shrew
