Baptista's 'Shrew And Bianca In The Play'

Baptista is an extremely wealthy man who lives in Padua and has raised his two daughters, Katherina and Bianca. He has done whatever he could do to bring up his daughters to take an appropriate place in their society and has given both his girls an education. In the beginning of the play, Katherina is viewed as a “shrew” and Bianca is viewed as the “prize.” Baptista will not allow Bianca to get married first for two reasons: first, during the time, it was custom for the older sister to be married first, which makes sense why he wouldn’t want Bianca to be married first and second, he wanted Katherina to move out of his house and believed it would be difficult for her to find a husband because of her “shrewish” behavior, so he thought that if he made it forbidden for

Bianca, stand aside. Poor girl, she weeps. Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her. For shame, thou hilding of a devilish spirit, why dost thou wrong her that did ne’er wrong thee? When did she cross thee with a bitter word?” (2.1.23-28). He automatically assumed that Bianca was innocent throughout the entire fight. Although, he took Bianca’s side during the argument, he acted like a father and separated the two. All parents pick and chose sides when their children argue, so I do feel he is acting like a parent in this situation even though he could have handled the situation better because it left Katherina upset. She couldn’t deal with the favoritism anymore so she finally decided to speak up to her father by saying, “What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see she is your treasure, she must have a husband; I must dance barefoot on her wedding day and, for your love to her, lead apes in hell. Talk not to me; I will go sit and weep till I can find occasion of revenge,” (2.1.31-36). Baptista felt a fondness toward her, as well as exasperation just like any father