He further employs the language of animal domestication by calling her a "wild Kate" that he will "tame." Not only does this speech set the terms for Petruchio and Kate's later relationship, but it is also important for what immediately follows: Kate, fully aware of Petruchio's intentions, implicitly consents to marry him by failing to protest against his false claims that she has already agreed to do so. Already we are being shown compliance from Kate, who was regarded as a shrew with a sharp tongue.
Earlier in the play, Hortensio, a man in Padua, being a friend, tries to offer warning to Petruchio about Kate's unlikable and socially unacceptable ways. .
Her only fault-and that is faults enough- .
Is that she is intolerable curst.
And shrewd and forward, so beyond all measure .
That were my state far worser than it is,.
I would not wed her for a mine of gold. (I, ii, 86-91).
Hortensio in a few lines establishes that Kate is "intolerable- and that he would never marry her despite his situation. To further strengthen the argument against Kate is that Hortensio is looking for a husband for Kate, as he wants to marry her younger sister Bianca. However, Bianca cannot marry until Kate does. Even though Hortensio wants Kate to find a husband, he blatantly describes her flaws. Given the role of women in society during this time period, Kate goes against and defies the supposed "natural- role, therefore she is unacceptable as a woman and regarded with disdain among her fellow peers. However, as more characters warn Petruchio about Kate's harsh tongue, he begins to view wedding her as a challenge rather than simply a moneymaking opportunity. Living with the shrew, he says, could not possibly be worse than enduring the hardships of war or the sea. .
Have I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,.
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?.
And do not you tell me of a woman's tongue,.
That gives not half so great a blow to hear.
