Petruchio's Treatment Of Women In Taming Of The Shrew

The shakespearean play Taming of the Shrew, is a classic story of the battle of the sexes. Kate and Petruchio have a struggle of wills to decide who has the power in their marriage. In this battle, Petruchio ends up winning the battle, and Kate ends up tamed. Petruchio set up an elaborate plan to tame his shrewish wife, and through various schemes, he turns Kate from a temperamental shrew, into an obedient wife. Petruchio carries out a predetermined, intricate strategy to suppress Kate’s ill humor and to win this power struggle. Initially, Petruchio demonstrates the effort and thought he put into taming Kate in a speech in Act 4: “My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, And, till she stoop, she must not be full-gorged, For then she never looks upon her lure… Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not… Ay, and amid this hurly I intend that all is done in reverend care of her” (IV.1.190-204).
In Scene 2 of Act 5; Petruchio, Hortensio and Lucentio have a competition to see who has the most obedient wife. Kate is the only wife that obeys her husband, shocking everyone. Kate has always been the most disobedient girl in her family and out of everyone her family knows, and the fact that she is obedient to her new husband reveals that Petruchio holds the power in the relationship. Additionally, later on in that scene, Petruchio orders Kate to remove her hat and throw it on the ground, and Kate obeys. This is where Petruchio becomes the clear winner of the battle of the sexes, because earlier in the play, Petruchio told Kate not to wear a dress, and Kate fought him on it. (IV.iii.106-09). Finally, Kate delivers a speech that truly shows her submission to Petruchio, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper” (V.ii.162). Very quickly, Petruchio is able to transform Kate from a shrew, into a submissive wife that is almost unrecognizable compared to the old