Summary: Act 5: Scene 2
Lucentio throws a banquet to celebrate the three recent marriages in Padua: Petruchio to Kate, Lucentio to Bianca, and Hortensio to the widow he had spoken of before. As they sit around the table eating and chatting, Petruchio and the widow engage in some jesting (mostly at Hortensio’s expense). Kate joins in, and she begins to argue with the widow. The argument nearly turns to violence, with the men cheering them on to fight, but Bianca calms them, and the three wives go off together to talk.
Meanwhile, the men begin to chide Petruchio—Baptista, Lucentio, Tranio, and Hortensio still think that Petruchio has been stuck with a vicious shrew, and they give him some grief for it. Petruchio confidently suggests a test to see which of the three new husbands has the most obedient wife. Each of them will send for his wife, and the one whose wife obeys first will be the winner. After placing a significant amount of money on the wager, Lucentio sends Biondello go to get Bianca, confident that she will obey at once. However, Biondello returns to tell them that she is busy and will not come. Hortensio receives a similar response from the widow. Finally, Grumio goes back to get Kate, and she returns at once, to the great surprise of all but Petruchio. Petruchio sends Kate back to bring in the other wives. Again, she obeys. Upon their return, Petruchio comments that he dislikes Kate’s hat and tells her to throw it off. She obeys at once. Bianca and the widow, aghast at Kate’s subservience, become even further shocked when, at Petruchio’s request, Kate gives a speech on the duty that wives owe to their husbands.
In the speech, Kate reprimands them for their angry dispositions, saying that it does not become a woman to behave this way, especially toward her husband. A wife’s duty to her husband, she says, mimics the duty that “the subject owes the prince,” because the husband endures great pain and labor for her benefit (V.ii.
Read a translation of Act 5: Scene 2.
Analysis: Act 5: Scene 2.
Kate’s speech at the end of the play has been the focus of many interpretations. It is, for obvious reasons, abhorrent to many feminist critics, who take issue with Kate’s recommendation of total subservience to the husband—she says at different points that the man is the woman’s lord, king, governor, life, keeper, head, and sovereign. She also stereotypes women as physically weak and then suggests that they should make their personality mild to match their physique:
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth . . . But that our soft conditions and our hearts Should well agree with our external parts? (5.2. 169 –172 )
Petruchio agrees with Kate’s description of the ideal relationship. He explains to Hortensio what Kate’s obedience will mean: “Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life; / An aweful rule and right supremacy, / And, to be short, what not that’s sweet and happy” (5.2.
Yet, given the fact that the entire play challenges stereotypes and promotes an awareness of ambiguous appearances, both Kate’s final speech and Petruchio’s views may be open to question. In fact, in the last line of the play, Lucentio implies that Kate, in the end, allowed herself to be tamed: “’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tamed so” (5.2.
Lucentio’s marriage takes a different turn, however. Through Bianca’s refusal to come when called, Shakespeare suggests that this marriage will be hard on Lucentio. Bianca might turn out to be as stubborn in her role as a wife as she was mild in her role as a maid. Thus, in his last few lines, Petruchio observes, “We three are married, but you two are sped” (V.ii.
Read more about how the play offers a significant glimpse into the future lives of married couples.