"The Taming of The Shrew" By William Shakespeare is a play based around illusion and reality and looks at the roles of both men and women in the Elizabethan era. The play supports two plots. The primary plot represents the plays title, the tamer is Petruchio and the shrew is Katherina. In the sub plot, Katherina's sister Bianca courts Lucentio. Bianca is the complete opposite to Katherina; she is obedient and represents the perfect submissive woman. The connection between the two plots is the fact that Baptista, Katherina and Bianca's father will not let Bianca marry until the older Katherina is married, but because Katherina is so shrewd, Bianca's several suitors think she will never be married which means they cannot marry Bianca. .
Petruchio is a very wealthy gentleman from Verona. He has come to Padua to "wife and thrive" especially "one rich enough" which tells the audience that he is a very greedy man. He also goes on to say "wealth is burden of my wooing dance-be she as foul as Florentius" love- Petruchio only has money in mind. He doesn't seem to care what his wife looks like, as long a she is wealthy. In Elizabethan times, when a woman married all her money and estate belonged to her husband, so by having a wealthy wife Petruchio would benefit from it. He is not getting married to be in a stable loving relationship.
In act 2 scene 1, Katherina and Petruchio meet for the first time. The two characters match wits; the dialogue is lined with metaphors, puns and sexual innuendo. This makes the couples first meeting very humorous as Katherina resists Petruchio's attempts to control her. Petruchio takes her every insult in his stride, he "compliments" her despite the obvious fact that she is trying in every way to be unpleasant to him. Katherina is angry with Baptista for promising her hand in marriage to Petruchio. Petruchio seems delighted by Katherina's spiritedness as it matches his own.
