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“I must, forsooth, be forced
To give my hand, opposed against my heart,
Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen,
Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure” (3.2.8-11).
Katherine delivers this line to her father, Baptista, on her wedding day. She is angry and humiliated because Petruchio is late to the ceremony, which the reader soon learns was an intentional move on Petruchio’s part to embarrass Katherine. Katherine laments her fate because the act of adhering to her prescribed social role has compromised her individual happiness. She, as the daughter of a wealthy man, must marry “against [her] heart” to whomever her father chooses.
“Mistake no more. I am not Litio,
Nor a musician as I seem to be,
But one that scorn to live in this disguise
For such a one as leaves a gentleman
And makes a god of such a cullion.
Know, sir, that I am called Hortensio” (4.2.16-21).
This line is delivered by Hortensio who is one of Bianca’s suitors. Hortensio, like Lucentio, disguised himself as a tutor in order to get close to Bianca after Baptista barred Bianca from getting married until Katherine did. Here, Hortensio is coming clean to Baptista and revealing his true identity, in an attempt to reset his social role in order to ingratiate himself to Baptista. Hortensio feels that this will lead to his happiness because his high social status entitles him to Bianca.
“Here’s Lucentio,
Right son to the right Vincentio,
That have by marriage made thy daughter mine
While counterfeit supposes bleared thine eyne” (5.1.99-102).
Here, Lucentio reveals to Baptista that he eloped with Bianca after wooing her while disguised as a tutor. While announcing this happy news, Lucentio makes a point to clarify that he is the real Lucentio and that the fake Lucentio who expressed an interest in Bianca to Baptista was actually Lucentio’s servant, Tranio. Lucentio’s clarification is a significant one—Shakespeare pointedly has Lucentio and Tranio assume their true social roles in order for the happy ending to commence.
“To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or amiable” (5.2.138-141).
This line is part of Katherine’s famous and controversial speech about female subservience. Here, Katherine says that if a woman is bitter and spiteful on the inside then she will eventually become ugly on the outside. She explains that it is especially shameful for a woman to direct her temper at her husband because she should regard him as her superior. Her argument is persuasive because she implies that a woman’s happiness and desirability depends on her ability to adhere to her allotted social role.
“Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband” (5.2.155-156).
This line is also part of Katherine’s lengthy speech at the end of 5.2. Here, Katherine continues the argument in the previous quote in which she compares husbands to figures of authority. She explains that every woman should afford her husband the same obedience and respect that a subject would afford a member of the royal family. Shakespeare describes marriage using the language of social status (lord, king, governor, prince) to argue that harmony can only be achieved in a marriage if both parties adhere to their allotted social role.
