Love and Beauty in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew
This essay examines the themes of love and beauty in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, arguing that the play critiques superficial, appearance-based attraction in favor of a deeper love grounded in mutual respect. Through close reading of the main plot—Petruchio's pursuit and "taming" of Katherine—and the subplot involving Lucentio and Bianca, the essay shows how Shakespeare contrasts relationships built on beauty or financial gain with one that, despite its troubling dynamics, ultimately develops genuine affection. Drawing on scholarly commentary by Beck, Brown, and Cole, the essay also addresses the play's darker elements, including Petruchio's misogynistic behavior, and considers how modern audiences might view the couple's relationship differently than Shakespeare's original audience did.
- Introduction: Comedy, Love, and Beauty: Framing the play's comedic and thematic context
- Katherine and Petruchio: A Match Beyond Beauty: Their combative courtship evolves into genuine respect
- The Bianca Subplot and Shallow Love: Lucentio's beauty-based love contrasted with Kate's marriage
- Taming, Dominance, and the Question of True Love: Whether Petruchio's taming reflects or undermines true love
- Money, Misogyny, and the Darker Side of the Play: Petruchio's financial motives and misogynistic behavior examined
- Conclusion: Shakespeare's Enduring Message: Beauty fades; respect-based love endures
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay integrates direct quotations from the play effectively, using them as evidence to support each analytical claim rather than as decoration.
- It balances primary-source analysis with secondary scholarly commentary (Beck, Brown, Cole), demonstrating engagement with critical perspectives.
- The paper acknowledges the play's ideological complexity—recognizing its comedic appeal while honestly confronting its misogynistic elements—which adds nuance and avoids oversimplification.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The essay consistently uses a compare-and-contrast structure at the micro level, setting the main plot against the subplot (Kate/Petruchio vs. Bianca/Lucentio) to illuminate the central thesis. This parallel analysis allows the writer to argue that beauty-based love is insufficient without having to dismiss romantic attraction entirely.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by framing the comedic and thematic context, then moves through close reading of the main courtship, the Bianca subplot, the "taming" scenes, and the financial motives underlying Petruchio's pursuit. It concludes by synthesizing the play's message about lasting love versus fleeting beauty. Each body section ties back to the central thesis, creating a clear, cumulative argument.
Introduction: Comedy, Love, and Beauty
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare is a classic Shakespearean comedy in every sense. It is not only funny and amusing for its audience; it contains themes audiences can connect with, basic themes such as love and beauty. This essay shows how the play demonstrates the comedic treatment of those themes. In Shakespearean comedy, a shallow, often narcissistic type of love at the start is grounded too heavily in conventional "beauty," and this leads to a mistaken notion of what beauty really is.
Early in the play, Katherine appears anything but beautiful, for she is sharp-tongued and disagreeable, arguing with anyone who shows the slightest interest in her, including the newly arrived Petruchio.
Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp, i' faith you are too angry.
Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
Petruchio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.
Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
Katherine: In his tongue.
Petruchio: Whose tongue?
Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail? (Shakespeare, II.i.207–214)
Katherine and Petruchio: A Match Beyond Beauty
Love is of course a central theme in the play, but from the first, Shakespeare shows this is not a "typical" love match. "At times Petruchio behaves like a bully and a brute, and his tactics with Katherine can be read as gratuitously severe and prolonged tormenting of her" (Brown, 1995, p. 286). Kate does not want to marry, and Petruchio seems more interested in the lands he will acquire than specifically in Kate's hand. Yet as he sets out to tame her, he falls in love with her in the process.
Kate is the ultimate representation of the "wife from Hell" in Shakespeare's time, and the other characters comment on it early in the play: "Gremio: I say, a devil. Thinkest thou, Hortensio, though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell?" (Shakespeare, I.i.122–124).
The most difficult sections of the play are those in which Petruchio breaks Kate down, and it is here that Shakespeare's idea of love is most tested. The true ideal of love means accepting a person as they are. While Kate is surely spirited, no one accepts her as she is, and even Petruchio feels he must mold her into the ideal wife of the era. Is this really love? In the end Kate accepts and loves him, but has Petruchio broken her spirit and thus altered who she is forever? At one point when they first meet she becomes so incensed she strikes him, yet he continues to bait her, informing her he will marry her whether or not she is willing: "will you, nill you, I will marry you" (Shakespeare, II.i.263). By today's standards their early relationship would not be viewed as funny in the way Shakespeare's audience viewed it; it seems more like the prelude to marital abuse by both parties.
The Bianca Subplot and Shallow Love
The subplot between Kate's beautiful sister Bianca and Lucentio also clearly illustrates the theme of love. All Lucentio has to do is look at the beautiful Bianca and he is madly in love — which is, at best, foolish. "Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, / And with her breath she did perfume the air; / Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her" (Shakespeare, I.i.169–171). He knows nothing of her beyond her appearance, and matches like these are often doomed.
Indeed, at the end of the play it is Bianca who refuses to obey her husband, while Kate meekly comes at Petruchio's command. Shakespeare seems to be saying that beauty is certainly not the only thing to consider in a marriage, for beauty is only "skin deep," and what lies underneath is often far less than beautiful. True love grows, and with love comes inner beauty — the beauty that Petruchio sees after they marry: "Now Kate, I am a husband for your turn, / For by this light, whereby I see thy beauty — Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well —" (Shakespeare, II.i.261–272).
Initially, love is not the issue for either Petruchio or Kate, but because they come to respect each other, they come to love each other. When love is based on looks rather than respect, the relationship has no foundation — it is built on air, and when the air collapses, there is nothing. Kate and Petruchio, through their feuding and emotional outbursts, exhaust their differences and come to respect what they have in common. They are both very strong characters, and in the end they respect each other, which is why Petruchio never allows Kate to place her hands under his feet in a show of complete subordination.
Conclusion: Shakespeare's Enduring Message
Shakespeare's play is delightful, distasteful, and demanding all at the same time. His themes of love and beauty are universal, and while his treatment of them may not stand the test of time in every respect, the message is still there. Love and beauty are two idealized endeavors in any age. Beauty may not last, but a love built on a strong foundation of mutual appreciation and respect will almost always endure. Beauty is a pleasing thing, but love is enduring — and that is Shakespeare's ultimate message in this well-loved play.
References
Beck, E. (1998). Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew 5.2.125–26. Explicator, 57(1), 8–11.
Brown, C. E. (1995). Katherine of The Taming of the Shrew: "A second Grissel." Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 37(3), 285–313.
Cole, D. W. (1995). Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Explicator, 53(2), 66–68.
Shakespeare, William. (1997). Taming of the Shrew. In The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
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