The Taming of the Shrew: A Level York Notes

In this play, lots of characters want to marry for money and this is a very important main idea that Shakespeare is exploring. It was very normal for fathers to make their daughters marry who they chose rather than who they loved, so this reflects that in what happens with Baptista.

The most obvious thing which Shakespeare shows about marriage being like a market, is that Tranio and Gremio have to battle it out for Bianca’s hand. Gremio is an old rich man and he offers vivid images of his lovely house. ‘In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns.’ This means that he has lots of money. He also states that he has a farm, and that Bianca will get all this but Tranio beats this hands down because he says he has, ‘three or four’ houses which are just as good. The fact he says ‘three or four’ shows he is making it up but no one catches on! The point is that it is like a market with them haggling for the best price for Bianca. At the end though, Tranio wins and says Gremio is ‘out-vied’. This is a word meaning ‘outbid’, like in a game of cards.

Petruccio is also out for what he can get money-wise. He starts the play by saying, ‘I come to wive it wealthily in Padua;/If wealthily, then happily’. Then, when he hears how bad Kate is, he tells Hortensio, ‘Hortensio, peace; thou knowst not gold’s effect.’ This means he’ll do anything for money, even marry a shrew like Katherina. Shakespeare is presenting the men as very money-minded, as if that’s all they care about. This feminist viewpoint shows that Shakespeare doesn’t just present the male angle on things.

But there is love in the play too. Shakespeare shows that Lucentio cares very deeply for Bianca. When he sees her he doesn’t mention money like Petruccio but says, ‘Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,/And with her breath she did perfume the air;’. This shows that he just finds her very attractive and isn’t thinking about her father’s money. But Tranio still has to prove that Lucentio has the money to deal with her father, so that’s when they have the bidding part.

I think another thing that Shakespeare is telling us is that it takes two to do the deal. This is because the bride’s father has to say what the man will get for marrying his daughter and the fiancé must say what he will give in return, so both sides are in the market not just one. This is why Baptista tells Petruccio that when he dies she will get ‘one half of my lands/And in possession twenty thousand crowns.’ This links Katherina to money even more.

There is not much love shown when Petruccio and Katherina meet properly for the first time, in fact it is pretty vicious. Katherina slaps Petruccio and he tells her he’ll do it back if she does it again. He says, ‘I swear I’ll cuff you if you strike again.’ He would not put up with all this if it wasn’t for money, so this shows he values money more than love.

When he finally tells her why he’s doing all this he doesn’t just say, ‘I want to marry you’ but tells her he’s spoken to Baptista and ‘your dowry ’greed on’ so even then he is thinking about the money he will get. This was very normal in Shakespeare’s day so we can’t be surprised but it does seem very harsh when compared to now. This makes it difficult for audiences now to relate to, so they tend to see Petruccio as a villain when really it’s no different in other plays like ‘Romeo and Juliet’, when people are made to marry for money.

The final straw is after they have had their battle and he tells everyone they are going to be married. He says, ‘’Tis bargained ’twixt us twain, being alone,/That she shall still be curst in company.’ He uses ‘bargained’ which is a money word and this means that they have made a deal. So Kate will get something out of it.

Looking at it overall, you can say it’s very obvious that Shakespeare makes the play a ‘marriage market’. It is all to do with what you can get and what a marriage is worth. The only person that this doesn’t apply to is Lucentio who chooses Bianca because he loves her and he thinks she is beautiful. Everyone else has to do a deal to get the person they want.