The Taming of the Shrew

Act 4
Presented By
Umar Bashir
Kumail Abbas
Muhammad Abdul Wahad
Abeer Riaz
Hibah Zahid
Mishal Pervaiz
Nafeesa
Scene 1

Summary
• Grumio

• The other servants

• Relates the story

• Petruchio and Katherine arrive

• Petruchio’s ill behavior

• How he will tame her

Analysis
• Petruchio’s indifference & violent behavior
• Subjugated lower class
• 2 Hierarchies
“how she was bemoiled, how he left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me because
her horse stumbled,”
• Lord >Christopher Sly

• “You loggerheaded and unpolished grooms. Where is the foolish knave I sent before?”
• “You peasant swain, you whoreson malt-horse drudge!”

• Curtis: “He is more shrew than she” Grumio: “Aye”

• Petruchio sings
Happy?

• “Sit down, Kate” “Be merry, Kate”

• Sympathetic Kate/Changing Kate

“Patience, I pray you, ’twas a fault unwilling.”

“how she waded through the dirt to pluck him off me, how he swore, how she prayed that
never prayed before,”

“I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet.”

• Servants’ comments

“she (poor soul) Knows not which way to stand, to look, to speak,”

“He kills her in her own humor.”

• Subjugated womankind/Patriarchy
• Inequality in marriage
• Her warden, her master

“To make her come and know her keeper’s call”

“She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat. Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not.”

• Stockholm Syndrome
• Male Dominance

“My falcon now is sharp and passing empty,”

• Ironic & Outrageous

“This is a way to kill a wife with kindness. And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor.”

• Themes
Patriarchy/Power
Subjugation of the class

• Motifs
Hunting
Act 4
Scene 2
 Summary
• Lucentio flirts with Bianca

• Hortensio And Tranio’s Oath

• Marrying Widow

• Spy of Tranio- Tranio tries to trick merchant

• Impersonating merchant
 Analysis
• “Unconstant womankind”
O despiteful love, unconstant womankind! I tell thee, Litio, this is wonderful!
• Oath
“Here is my hand, and here I firmly vowNever to woo her more, but do forswear her
As one unworthy all the former favors That I have fondly flattered her withal.”
• “Proud disdainful Haggard”

• “Taming School”
“Ay, mistress, and Petruchio is the master,That teacheth tricks eleven and twenty
longTo tame a shrew and charm her chattering tongue.”
“Wife-Taming Tricks”
 Themes
• Deception/illusion
The disguises worn by everyone to achieve their goals
How Tranio uses lies (theme of deception) to convince the merchant to be Vincentio

• Male Domination
“He’ll tame her” “the taming school” “Petruchio is the master”
• How the concept of a suitable wife is presented here where the wife should be obedient
and is someone who needs to be subdued

• Money
“I will be married to a wealthy widow”
shows the importance of money that has been portrayed throughout the play
 Motifs
• Disguise/secret identity

The secret identities have been present from the very beginning of the induction in the
play

These “masks” were useful in hiding their true intentions

Act 4
Scene 3
Summary
Katherine questions about food.

Grumio rages Katherine when she asks for food.

Petruchio brings food made by him for Katherine and asks her to be thankful.

Petruchio calls for a tailor for the wedding dresses and caps.
Cont..

Makes fun of the cap and says he doesn’t like it.

Katherine contradicts and says that she likes it.

Petruchio then makes fun of the dress and bashes the tailor.

Katherine again likes the dress.

Finally a tiff between the tailor and Grumio.

Analysis

• Grumio deliberately asks Katherine for food that is delicious but then gives a side effect of
eating it.

• Katherine is weak but still is able to fight back Grumio with anger and Petruchio with
arguments.

• Hortensio and Petruchio planningly annoy Katherine by comparing the gentle cap with
Katherine’s aggressive personality. Petruchio says, “When you are gentle, you shall have one,
too, and not till then”.
Cont…
• Katherine argues for having the dress but as usual Petruchio
contradicts it and wants to go as it is. He ends the conversation
with ”Our purses shall be rich, our garments poor. After all, it’s
the mind that enriches the body, and just as the sun shines
through the darkest clouds, well, that’s how clearly honor peeps
through even the humblest style of dress”.
THEMATIC ANALYSIS:
 THE REAL FACE OF MARRIAGE IN
ELIZABRTZHAN ERA

• Brutality on Woman’s birth rights.

• Treating her worse than an animal
• Taming her wishes as her husband’s
• Surpressing het voice
• Inshort, making her obedient.
SOCIAL STATUS AND GENDER ROLES

A man having absolute power and freedom to do

anyyhing with her wife
Negotiation of a woman’s right on the basis of
wealth
More money, highet status, more power
• Considering a woman as a show piece
• Buying a wife instead of marrying her
• Fathets of daughters looking for rich husbands
 SYMBOLISM

• Haberdasher’s tailored clothes and Pettuchio’s rejection towards it ( a true

symbol of power and dominance over his wife specifically woman)

• Food being offered to Katherine after immense begging to het servants

itself ( a symbol of ill treatment anf brutality of husbands or the men in
power)
 MOTIFS

• Taming/ Domestic Abuse

• Relationship of a man and a woman being like the relationship of a
lion tamer.
Disguising True Personalities under false charactrs or even clothes.
Hiding behind false identities to define their worth.
ACT 4 (SCENE 4)
 SUMMARY:
In Padua, Tranio (still disguised as Lucentio) brings the merchant,
who is dressed up as Vincentio, to Baptista's house.
 Baptista is convinced that the merchant is Vincentio. Baptista, the
merchant, and Tranio decide to go to Lucentio's lodging to discuss
the financial particulars of the marriage in private.
Textual reference:
The old priest at Saint Luke’s Church is at
your command at all hours.
 ANALYSIS :
The real Lucentio and Bianca are not even in this scene (except for
Cambio being used as a messenger).
In asking for Cambio to bring Bianca to the banquet, Baptista
unwittingly sends Lucentio to Bianca.
Lucentio and Bianca’s elopement may be the only way for them to
have a marriage that is (potentially) more about love between two
people than economic exchange between two families- at least, until
Baptista and Vincentio find out.
 THEMES:
1. Marriage:
Lucentio seems to desire with
Bianca and, as the two develop affection for
each other, their relationship seems to
exemplify this idealistic version of marriage.
2. Disguise:
In this play, the concept of disguise
as a major factor of the plot.
MONEY :

• Money is so important in securing

marriage that the characters in Shrew
are driven to desperate, even ludicrous
measures in order to prove their wealth.
ACT 4
SCENE 5
Summary

• Petruchio, Katherine, Hortensio, and some servants are making the journey from Petruchio's
house to Padua.
• Petruchio finally “tames” Katherine and it is now visible to Hortensio.
• Vincentio claims he is the father of Lucentio.
• Petruchio asks Vincentio to join them on their journey.
Analysis

• Petruchio demands Katherine's complete obedience, even when he is clearly wrong. This is, for

him, the ideal structure of a marriage.

• She gives up her rebellious self and obeys Petruchio.

• Petruchio’s preplanned wedding is now almost successful.

 THEMES
MARRIAGE

• Over the course of the play, there is a significant tension between what marriage is.

• Is it simply the union of two people who are in love or more about power, status and
money.

• Marriage is simply portrayed a power structure, a way of enforcing female

obedience to a male husband shown by Petruchio and Katherine.
Male Chauvinism / Patriarchy

• The play is filled with idea male as dominant and the female as submissive.

• Male dominance clearly be shown in the play that Petruchio tamed his wife Katherine into a
traditional wife.
“Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet”

• She is less highly valued as a potential wife than her sister and humiliated by various male
characters.
 SYMBOLS
Horses
Through the image of the horses, Shakespeare described the nature of women.

• Spirited animals of great spirits.

• They cannot take their place in an organized civilization until their nature have been
tamed.
 CONCLUSION

• How the themes of patriarchy, subjugation of the lower class, money are
present. We also witness the change in Kate’s behavior in this scene where
slowly, little by little, she submits to her devil of a husband.
• The readers will witness the her complete submission/taming in the next act.