The Taming of the Shrew Act 5

Act 5, Scene 1 The Taming of the Shrew

Summary

The scene opens with Biondello helping Lucentio and Bianca escape to church for their secret marriage. They exit just as Petruchio, Katherine, Vincentio, and their party arrive at what Petruchio believes is Lucentio’s house. Vincentio knocks, and the Merchant (impersonating Vincentio) appears at the window, denying the real Vincentio entry and claiming he is Lucentio’s father.

A chaotic confrontation ensues. The real Vincentio is outraged, Biondello pretends not to know him (and gets beaten), and Tranio (still disguised as Lucentio) arrives with Baptista to confront the “madman.” The two “Vincentios” argue, and Tranio orders the real one arrested. Just as Vincentio is to be hauled to jail, Lucentio and Bianca return, newly married.

Lucentio confesses all, revealing the layers of disguise. Vincentio is relieved but furious at Tranio; Baptista is stunned but acquiesces. The imposters flee. In the midst of this public chaos, Petruchio tests Katherine once more, demanding a kiss in the street. After a moment’s hesitation, she publicly kisses him, and they depart together.

Analysis

1. The Unraveling of "Supposes"

The entire Bianca subplot, built on supposes (assumptions and disguises), collapses under the weight of reality.

• Theatrical Farce: The confrontation between the two Vincentios is peak comedy of errors, a public spectacle of confused identities that mirrors the earlier, more psychological spectacle of Petruchio's taming.
• Truth Triumphs (Barely): Reality is only restored when Lucentio, the one true fixed point in the deception (he was always himself to Bianca), chooses to reveal himself. The social order (fathers, rightful identities) is reestablished, but only after being thoroughly mocked and exposed as easily fooled.

2. Contrasting Models of Resolution

The resolution of the two plots highlights their fundamental differences:

• Lucentio's Method: Resolution comes through confession and apology ("Pardon, sweet father"). He must beg forgiveness for his deceptive, though ultimately romantic, rebellion.
• Petruchio's Method: Resolution is demonstrated through public performance of submission. He doesn't seek forgiveness; he demands a public display of his victory (the kiss). His method creates a new, stable hierarchy (his dominance), while Lucentio's temporarily overturned the old one.

3. The Public Kiss: Katherine's Final Test

The kiss is the culminating act of the taming plot, transferring their private dynamic into the public sphere of Padua.

• Shame and Obedience: Katherine's hesitation ("What, in the midst of the street?") shows her awareness of social decorum. Petruchio's retort ("art thou ashamed of me?") twists it into a test of her loyalty to him versus her concern for public opinion. By kissing him, she chooses him, signaling that his will has fully supplanted her own sense of propriety.
• Performance for Padua: This act is for the benefit of the city that knew her as a shrew. It is the final proof of her transformation, staged by Petruchio. His line "Is not this well?" is a proud director's comment on his successful production.

4. Satire of Patriarchal Authority

The scene relentlessly satirizes the fathers and the systems they represent:

• Baptista is shown as a gullible fool, easily duped by costumes and legal assurances, more concerned with the form of a deal than the truth.
• Vincentio is reduced to a sputtering, violent figure, his authority so fragile it can be usurped by a passing merchant.
• Gremio is comically marginalized, his wealth useless ("My cake is dough").
  The chaos reveals the instability of the very social order (patriarchal, mercantile) the play seems to uphold.

5. Integration of the Plots

The two main plots physically converge in this scene. Petruchio and Katherine are audience members to the unraveling of the disguise plot. This juxtaposition invites comparison: the play asks whether Tranio's theatrical deception in service of love is any more or less legitimate than Petruchio's psychological theater in service of domination.

6. Foreshadowing the Final Scene

The public kiss is a prelude to the even more spectacular public performance Katherine will give in the final scene—her long sermon on wifely obedience. Her transformation is now complete enough to be displayed, and Padua will be its stage.

In essence, Act 5, Scene 1 serves as the comic denouement for the Bianca subplot and the final, public proof of the taming plot's success. It clears the stage of the farcical deceptions to make way for the play's serious, and deeply problematic, finale: the formal, public demonstration of Katherine's new identity as the ideal, obedient wife. The chaos of mistaken identity resolves into order, while the engineered order of Petruchio's marriage is about to be unveiled as the play's ultimate, unsettling spectacle.

 

Act 5, Scene 2 The Taming of the Shrew

Summary

At a wedding banquet for Lucentio and Bianca, the three couples—Petruchio/Katherine, Lucentio/Bianca, and Hortensio/the Widow—gather. The women engage in witty banter, with Bianca and the Widow showing independent, sharp tongues. Petruchio, teased about being married to a shrew, proposes a wager: each husband will send for his wife; the one whose wife obeys most promptly wins.

Bianca and the Widow both refuse to come when summoned. Katherine, however, comes immediately. Petruchio then orders her to fetch the other wives, which she does. To cap his victory, he commands Katherine to lecture the two "disobedient" wives on their duty. Katherine delivers a long, eloquent speech extolling a wife's absolute submission to her husband as her lord, king, and governor, describing a woman's rebellion as ugly and treasonous. She ends by offering to place her hand under Petruchio's foot. Petruchio, triumphant, kisses her and leads her to bed, having won the wager and public acclaim for taming the shrew.

Analysis

1. The Ultimate Performance: Public Demonstration

The entire scene is a public staging of Petruchio's triumph. The wager is not about private affection but about public, performative obedience. Katherine's transformation is displayed for the entire community that once scorned her. Her obedience becomes a spectacle, the final act in Petruchio's theatrical production, proving his mastery to society.

2. Katherine's Speech: Submission or Subversion?

This is the most debated moment in Shakespeare. Interpretations range from:

• Genuine Transformation: Katherine has been psychologically broken and internalized patriarchal doctrine. Her speech is a sincere manifesto of her new, submissive identity.
• Ironic Performance: Katherine is performing obedience so perfectly it becomes a caricature. The speech's extreme length and rhetorical polish suggest a conscious performance, not a broken spirit. She has learned the rules of the game so well she can now "win" within it by giving Petruchio the public victory he craves, possibly securing peace and influence in return.
• Strategic Survival: Having understood that direct rebellion leads to suffering, she adopts the language of power to gain a measure of security and status. By becoming the chief exponent of obedience, she gains a new, powerful voice.

3. The Un-Tamed Wives: Bianca and the Widow

The other wives serve as foils, complicating any simple reading of the ending.

• Bianca: The seemingly "ideal" daughter is revealed as a disobedient wife. Her secret rebellion has turned into open defiance ("The more fool you for laying on my duty").
• The Widow: She is openly sharp and resistant. Hortensio's failure contrasts with Petruchio's success, suggesting his "taming school" methods work, but also revealing that not all women are tamed.
  This creates a ironic reversal: the "shrew" ends the play as the model wife, while the "ideal" women are the new shrews. This undermines any clear moral, suggesting the problem of female will is cyclical, not solved.

4. Commerce and Marriage

The scene is framed by wagers and monetary rewards (Baptista adds twenty thousand crowns to Petruchio's winnings). Marriage, even in its final "tamed" state, is still tied to financial transaction and competition among men. Petruchio's victory is both social and economic.

5. Power Dynamics: Who Truly Wins?

Petruchio wins the wager, public acclaim, and a seemingly compliant wife. However:

• Katherine commands the stage with her long, memorable speech; he has only short, commanding interjections.
• She becomes the authority figure lecturing the other women, granted a platform by him but using it with her own powerful rhetoric.
• Their exit to bed ("Come, Kate, we'll to bed") can be read as the ultimate patriarchal claim, or as a suggestion of mutual, private intimacy now that the public performance is over. Her final compliance might be the price of a truce, not a surrender.

6. The Induction's Echo: The End of the Play

The frame of Christopher Sly is typically cut from this scene in modern editions, but its original presence is crucial. The play ends, and the actors exit, leaving Sly to wake up back in his rags, rejected by the "wife." This breaks the illusion and reminds us that we have just watched a performance, a fiction. It forces the audience to question the "reality" of Katherine's taming. Was it any more real than Sly's belief he was a lord? This meta-theatrical layer makes the final scene even more ambiguous—is it a prescription for marriage, or a satirical presentation of a male fantasy?

7. A Problematic "Comedy"

The ending is deliberately uncomfortable. The laughter is uneasy. Shakespeare presents a "happy ending" that satisfies the comic structure (marriage, resolution) but leaves deep questions about power, consent, and identity. The play refuses to clearly endorse or condemn Petruchio's methods, forcing the audience to grapple with its meaning.

In essence, Act 5, Scene 2 is a brilliant, troubling conclusion. It provides the comic satisfaction of a resolved plot and a transformed heroine, yet simultaneously undermines that satisfaction through irony, reversal, and the unsettling spectacle of Katherine's speech. It is less a moral lesson and more an intricate puzzle about performance, power, and the stories we tell ourselves about marriage and gender. Whether Katherine is broken, brilliant, or both, her final performance ensures that she, not Petruchio, is the character who dominates the play's lasting memory.