PETRUCHIO   Come, come, you wasp; i’ faith, you are too angry.  
KATHARINA   If I be waspish, best beware my sting.  
PETRUCHIO   My remedy is then, to pluck it out.  
KATHARINA   Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.  
PETRUCHIO   Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? 
In his tail.     
KATHARINA   In his tongue.  
PETRUCHIO   Whose tongue?  
KATHARINA   Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.  
PETRUCHIO   What, with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again.  Good Kate; I am a gentleman. (2. 1. 209-219)

I find you passing gentle. 
’Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen, 
And now I find report a very liar; 
For thou are pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous. (2. 1. 243-246) 

And be it moon, or sun, or what you please.  
An if you please to call it a rush-candle,   
Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me. (4. 5. 15-17)

Then God be bless’d, it is the blessed sun:  
But sun it is not when you say it is not,  
And the moon changes even as your mind. (4. 5. 21-23) 

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband. (5. 2. 164-174)

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The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of The Taming of the Shrew occurs, according to the first definition, in the fifth scene of Act IV when observes during the daytime how brightly the moon is shining. Katharina corrects him, saying he means the sun. No, he says, it is the moon. Katharina insists that it is the sun. Petruchio says it shall be a moon or a star or whatever he says it is. Frustrated, Katharina agrees: It is the moon. Petruchio then says she lies: It is the sun. All right, says Katharina, it is the sun. But if he says it is the moon, she adds, then it is the moon. Whatever he says it is, it is. This exchange marks Katharina's complete submission to Petruchio's will. He has tamed her. According to the second definition, the climax occurs when in Act V when Tranio attempts to bruise Petruchio's ego, saying Katharina controls him. Baptista says it is a fact that Petruchio has a shrew as a wife. Petruchio then lays down a wager with Lucentio and Hortensio. Each man will send for his wife. The husband of the wife who arrives first wins a hundred crowns. Katharina, of course, proves the most obedient. She arrives pronto while the other two women sit chatting in a parlor. 

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Animals and Objects 
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Shakespeare frequently uses imagery that compares Katharina to animals. For example, the title is a metaphor comparing Katharina Minola to a shrew, a mouse-like mammal that is extremely mean-tempered. Other metaphors compare her to animals that require considerable training before they are docile enough to serve their masters. These animals include hawks, falcons, asses (known for their obstinacy), and horses. Shakespeare also uses Imagery that compares Katharina to objects, such as flowers and hazel nuts. Both types of imagery appear in a passage in Act III, Scene II, when Petruchio says:
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..............I will be master of what is mine own:
..............She [Katharina] is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,
..............My household stuff, my field, my barn,
..............My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing.
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It is not only Petruchio who regards poor Katharina as a mere thing. Earlier, in the first scene of Act I while Hortensio and Gremio evaluate their chances of finding a husband for her, Hortensio–assessing Katharina's qualities–says, "There's small choice in rotten apples" (Line 137). Katharina herself likens her worth, and that of all womankind, to a thing in Act V, Scene II, when she says: 

..............A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,  
..............Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. (Katharina, Act V, Scene II, Lines 143-144)  

Epigrams and Other Memorable Passages

In the dialogue of The Taming of the Shrew and other Shakespeare plays, characters sometimes speak wise or witty sayings, or epigrams, couched in memorable language. Among the epigrams in The Taming of the Shrew–as well as other memorable passages–are the following:

There’s small choice in rotten apples. (1. 1. 118)
In a metaphor, Hortensio compares Katharina to a rotten apple.
 
A little pot and soon hot. (4. 1. 3)
The rhyming of pot and hot, as well as the homely wisdom, makes memorable this line spoken by Grumio.
 
A woman mov’d is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. (5. 2. 160-161)
In a simile, Katharina compares a woman mov’d to the muddy waters of a fountain.
    
And if the boy have not a woman’s gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift. (Induction, Scene 1, Lines 123-125)
The Lord uses a metaphor to compare the crying of a woman to a rainstorm. This passage suggests that actors in Shakespeare’s day–and perhaps Shakespeare himself when he performed in plays–used onions to coax reluctant tears from their eyes in emotional scenes. 

Type of Play 

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy that satirizes silly or unfair social customs and courting practices, often through farce. Farce is a type of comedy that relies on exaggeration, horseplay, and unrealistic or improbable situations to provoke laughter. In a farce, plotting takes precedence over characterization.
Number of Words in Public-Domain Text: 22,183 
Individual Copies for Schools: Folger Shakespeare Library Edition (Low Cost) 
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Structure: A Story Within a Story

The Taming of the Shrew is a story within a story. The play resembles the structure of the so-called frame tale, a literary work in which one story presents another story, or several stories. For example, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, begins with the story of a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket. To entertain themselves on the way, various pilgrims tell stories. Thus, the outer story about the pilgrimage becomes the frame of the inner stories, which focus on unrelated topics. The inner stories are like a painting; the outer story is like its frame–hence, the term frame tale. In The Taming of the Shrew, the story of Christopher Sly is the frame. The five-act play, presented before Sly by an acting troupe, is the inner story. The play has two story lines: the main plot, involving Petruchio and Katharina, and the subplot, involving Bianca and her suitors.
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Did Shakespeare Visit Italy?
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Shakespeare's writings suggest that he visited Italy, although no other evidence is available to indicate that he ever set foot outside of Britain. As for the evidence in his writing, consider that more than a dozen of his plays–including The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, All's Well That Ends Well, Othello, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Winter's Tale all have some or all of their scenes set in Italy. Consider, too, that plays not set in Italy are often well populated with people having Italian names. For example, although The Comedy of Errors takes place in Ephesus, Turkey, the names of many of the characters end with the Italian ''o'' or ''a'':–Angelo, Dromio, Adriana, Luciana. In Hamlet's Denmark, we find characters named Marcellus, Bernardo and Francisco. Practically all of the characters in Timon of Athens bear the names of ancient Romans–Lucullus, Flavius, Flaminius, Lucius, Sempronius, Servillius, Titus, Hortensius. Of course, it is quite possible that Shakespeare visited Italy only in his imagination 
Taming of the Shrew  Film From the Shakespeare Collection 
Taming of the Shrew  Film Starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor 
Taming of the Shrew: 1929 Production  Film Directed by Sam Taylor 
Taming of the Shrew: 1996 Production  Film Directed by Peter Dews 
Kiss Me Kate  Film (Musical) Based on Play; Available at Amazon.com 
 

What Was a Dowry?

In Europe, it was customary for a bride or her family to provide the groom a dowry. In The Taming of the Shrew, Baptista Minola offers a generous dowry to the man who marries his daughter, Katharina. Generally, a dowry was a grant usually consisting of real estate, valuables, or money. It was not an outright gift to the husband. Rather, it was a reserve asset with any or all of the following purposes:

• To insure fair treatment of the wife by the husband. For example, if a husband committed a serious wrong against his wife, he had to forfeit the dowry. He also had to forfeit it to her or her family if he divorced her.
• To provide income for household necessities as the husband and wife were beginning their marriage.
• To provide the wife income if the husband died.

1.. Baptista Minola arranges marriages for his daughters, Katharina and Bianca. How widespread was the practice of arranged marriages .....in the age of Shakespeare? 
2.. Do any countries observe this practice today? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this practice? 
3. .How does the divorce rate in arranged marriages compare with the divorce rate in marriages of people who choose their spouses?
4.. How important is (or was) money in your choice of a spouse?
5. .How import are (or were) position and social status in your choice of a spouse?
6. .Which character in the play do you most admire? Which character do you least admire?
7.. In an essay, analyze the psychology that Petrucchio uses to tame Katharina.
8. .In an essay, argue that the courting and wedding customs of today are just as silly as those in the time of the fictional Petruchio and .....Katharina. (Or argue that these customs are beautiful and memorable.)        
9. .Write an essay comparing and contrasting Katharina and Bianca.
10. Write an essay comparing and contrasting Petruchio with Bianca’s successful suitor, Lucentio. 
11. At the end of the play, are Petrucchio and Katharina in love?