Once they are married, Katharina discovers that by adopting the values of a "traditional " wife, she can gain Petruchio's approval and adopt a happy life for herself.
Another idea that supports the belief that Katharina is tamed, is that she has learned to adapt to and make the best of her situation. Katharina's goal is obviously obtaining Petruchio for a husband; if this was not her desire she would have refused to marry him. The societal norms at that time required a woman to marry; in order to keep and secure a husband, Katharina allowed herself to be tamed. At the end of the play, Katharina answers to Petruchio while Bianca and the widow do not come to their husbands, and we are left with the feeling that both Petruchio and Katharina are pleased and contented to be together. It seems that Shakespeare could be demonstrating that an important quality in life is the ability to find happiness in one's situation no matter what the circumstances. In examining the play, some critics believe Katharina is in love by the end of Act V and that her speech demonstrates this. Critic Ruth Nevo wrote, "The man she has married has humor and high spirits, intuition, patience, self-command, and masterful intelligence; and there is more than merely a homily for Elizabethan wives in her famous speech: She wins her husband's wager but the speech bespeaks a generosity of spirit beyond the call of two hundred crowns "(Nevo, Shakespeare for Students, 358). This leads to the idea that Katharina could have been a kind, gentle, loving person all along, yet her circumstances brought out in her the characteristic of disagreeableness. It could be thought that Petruchio tamed Katharina by out-witting her with his psychological games and convincing her, through love, to adopt the quality of kindness that was always buried within her. She chose to be tamed in exchange for marriage.
The entire play, as well as Katharina's characteristics and intelligence, causes readers to question the sincerity and total submission she appears to exhibit by the end of the play.
