In the last line of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” the character Lucentio is awed by the change he has witnessed in his sister-in-law, Katherine, when he declares, “Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so.” How does one “Tame a Shrew?” Petruchio not only understood how, but he succeeded in genuinely winning Katherine’s love, affection, and devotion because of his unwavering virtue.
Upon arriving in Pudua, Petruchio seeks to increase his fortune by marrying rich. All he wants is a bride with an enormous dowry, and Katherine fits the bill. When he approaches her father to settle the terms of marrying Katherine, he is so honest and direct that he is chastised. “You are too blunt. Go about it orderly,” they chide. But Petruchio retorts, “You wrong me…give me leave.” On their wedding day, Petruchio arrives in what others deem to be very inappropriate clothing. When asked to change his attire, he declares, “To me she is married, not unto my clothes.”
Petruchio held a moral compass that few in his day possessed. Whenever anyone called Kate anything unkind, such as referring to her as a “shrew”, he protested and declared her to be virtuous and witty. Although he deprived Kate of shelter, food, sleep, and fine clothing, Petruchio did it all in the name of love. Because of the personal virtue he lived by, it enabled him to “kill a wife with kindness, and thus (I’ll) curb her mad and head strong humor.” It caused Kate to appreciate all an honest husband provides for a wife. She later publicly proclaims that, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper…and such duty as the subject owes the prince, even such a woman oweth to her husband.”
In contrast, Lucentio possessing no sense of morals, desired to win Katherine’s younger and more docile sister Bianca’s hand in marriage. Arriving in Pudua to study, he ironically declares to his servant, Tranio, “for the time I study virtue, and that part of philosophy will I apply that treats of happiness by virtue specially to be achieved.” Yet any scruples Lucentio possessed fled quickly when he beheld the beauty of Bianca. “I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, if I achieve not this young modest girl.” Upon hearing that Bianca’s hand cannot be had, unless the elder sister was tamed and married first, Lucentio and Tranio devise up a plan to deceive Bianca’s father in order to let Lucentio get close and woo Bianca. Their deceptive antics get so out of hand, that Tranio even attempts to send Lucentio’s father to jail in order to save face.
Does this lack of virtue bring the happiness to Lucentio that he specially wanted to achieve in the opening of the play? No. Although he does succeeded in wooing Bianca by winning her affection and love and eloping with her, Bianca does not respect or honor him. After Bianca denounces her sister Katherine’s duty to her husband, Lucentio miserably declares, “I would your duty were as foolish too. The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, hath cost me an hundred crowns since suppertime.” Bianca quips right back, “the more fool you for laying on my duty.” No wonder Lucentio is in awe of Katherine’s devotion to her husband. He contains no virtue that would demand the respect of anyone, least of all his wife’s.
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