Petruchio's Power In The Taming Of The Shrew

Unlike Kat’s decision to partake in a relationship with Patrick, a man she is truly in love with, Katherine is manipulated and controlled to marry Petruchio and stay by his side. Her willpower is eliminated and she has no choice but to stay with a man who she believes has her best interests in mind. Petruchio’s abuse in Taming of the Shrew is far more than just verbal. He wants to ensure that Katherine is his subordinate that he starves her and takes away things she wants. As he states in Act IV scene i, “She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat. / Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not / ...And, if she chance to nod, I’ll rail and brawl, / And with the clamor keep her still awake. / This is a way to kill a wife with kindness. / And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor.” He believes that in starving his wife and keeping her awake, she will do anything he wishes to acquire these basic human necessities. Shuqair states it perfectly, “In Act IV, Petruchio's power is further established through Katherine's loss of identity and her subjective vision of the world. Starving her into submission and denying her sleep, Petruchio effects complete mastery over her. All of this violence is done, as Petruchio himself says, ‘in reverend care of her’(IV.i.204), and, as Katherine recognizes, ‘under

Young girls in high school are at a very impressionable age. Rather than the movie choosing to sugarcoat and glamorize the abuse, it changes it into basic sarcastic banter and a stereotypical “love/hate” storyline. Although many scholars have argued over whether or not the marriage in the play is abusive, the evidence is surmounting. Regardless of whether or not one sees Katherine as a likable character, she is not deserving of this mistreatment. Even a shrew should not be