Bianca and Lucentio

Question 1

Lucentio: I read that I profess…

Bianca: And may you prove,

Lucentio: While you,

Answer 1

, the Art of Love.

sir, master of your art!

sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart!

Question 2

Bianca: I never yet beheld…

Answer 2

that special face
Which I could fancy more than any other.

Question 3

Bianca: Sister,

Answer 3

content you in my discontent!”

Question 4

Bianca: “gentlemen, you do me double wrong”

Answer 4

“I am no breeching scholar in the schools,”

“learn my lessons as I please myself”

Question 5

Bianca: That, being mad herself,

Answer 5

she’s madly mated.

Question 6

Bianca: The taming-school!

Answer 6

What, is there such a place?

Question 7

Bianca: “ Fie! what foolish…

Answer 7

duty call you this?”

“The more fool you for laying on my duty”

Question 8

Lucentio: Hark, Tranio,

Answer 8

thou mayst hear Minerva speak!

Question 9

Lucentio: Tranio, I saw her coral…

Answer 9

lips to move,
And with her breath she did perfume the air

Question 10

Lucentio: “I have it, Tranio.”

Answer 10

+ “Tell me thine first.”

Question 11

Lucentio: about swapping with Trainio.

Answer 11

“Tranio is chang’d into Lucentio.”

Question 12

Lucentio: “’Tis a wonder…

Answer 12

by your leave, she will be tam’d so.”

Question 13

Lucentio: I burn,

Answer 13

I pine, I perish, Tranio.

Question 14

Lucentio: Let me be a slave…

Answer 14

t’acheive that maid”

Question 15

Bianca: “Old fashions please me best.

Answer 15

I am not so nice to change the rules for old inventions.”

Question 16

Lucentio: I read that I profess, the Art of Love.

Bianca: And may you prove, sir, master of your art!

Lucentio: While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart!

Answer 16

-Romantics.

-satirizes overly sentimental language - hyperbolic + exclamatives.

-They juxtapose Kate and Petruchio in every way.

-”mistress” shows Lucentio has some respect for her.

-rhyming couplets - they are linguistically in harmony - comically infatuated.

-Ovid’s ‘The Art of Loving’ is a witty cynical textbook for seducers - anything but an actual manual for romantic lovers - Lucentio’s failure to notices this suggests naivety.

-Ironic he takes role of schoolmaster - turns out he is naives - does not look beyond appearance - ends up being the one in need of teaching.

Question 17

Bianca: I never yet beheld that special face
Which I could fancy more than any other.

Answer 17

-Foreshadows her and Lucentio’s romance.

-Portrays her as a romantic, who plans to marry based on her desire.

-Ironic - when she meets Lucentio he is disguised.

-Hyperbole - exaggerates her sentiment - looking for particular face - highlighting her romantic aspirations.

Themes: Mariage and Society.

Question 18

Bianca: Sister, content you in my discontent!”

Answer 18

-Shows clashing, incompatible relationship/dynamic between two sisters.

-the represent the ideal woman and her opposite, two ideas that clash comically.

-Bianca plays into her the victim to gain favor with Baptista and vilanise Katerina.

-Shows cunning - knows how to manipulate men to her wishes.

-Not feminist - puts other women down to gain favor with men.

Question 19

Bianca: “gentlemen, you do me double wrong”

“I am no breeching scholar in the schools,”

“learn my lessons as I please myself”

Answer 19

• reveals to us that perhaps Bianca is not the ideal “seen but never heard” woman of the Renaissance.
• strong, independent woman, who can stand her own ground.

-There infatuation with her empowers her. (Women only have sexual power)

-Assertive language - puts them in their place - declarative - calls them out.

-Comical reversal of power due to desire.

-Plosive ‘do me double’ - makes her sound angrier and more assertive.

Question 20

Bianca: That, being mad herself, she’s madly mated.

Answer 20

-Suggest that Petruchio and Kate are matched in some way.

-Sums up the whole play - alliteration of madly mated.

-Motif of madness - Bianca at least acknowledges Petruchios madness.

-Unkind from Bianca - shows she is not so gentle.

Question 21

Bianca: The taming-school! What, is there such a place?

Answer 21

-Shows fear of patriarchal control - even the ‘ideal woman’ is not safe from the shaping of patriarchal society.

-She is alarmed by the idea of the taming school.

-Exclamative - betrays her fear.

Question 22

Bianca: “ Fie! what a foolish duty call you this?”

“The more fool you for laying on my duty”

Answer 22

-Now that she is married and has completed her “societal duty”, she can drop the “perfect” act.

-exclamatives - shows dmeanding - volume (not meek).

-Question - questions patriachal practices.

-Use verb fool to describe Lucentio, showing she does not truly respect the patriarchy, it was only an act.

-Taboo language ‘fool’ towards husband - transgresses societal norms of respect towars husband/superior - very shrew like language/behaviour.

-Comical subverts her original behavior - “natural” hierarchy is overturned.

-exposes Lucentios naivity.

Question 23

Lucentio: Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak!

Answer 23

-Minerva is a reference to the goddess Minerva – creates juxtaposition between Bianca and Kate.

-Kate is referred to as synonymous to a devil or witch.

-Devil motif of Kate.

-Overly romantic sentiment satirized.

-Gender roles comically subverted - by referring to her as a goddess suggests he worships her - gives her power.

-Listens to her - respect - however only as long as she speaks with the voice of the Patriarchy.

Question 24

Lucentio: Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move,
And with her breath she did perfume the air

Answer 24

-Lucentio is very romantic.

-So over the top it seems Shakespeare is satirizing romantic language and sentiment.

-Objectifies Bianca - sexualises her - reduced to the sexual imagery of her lips - suggest he is shallow.

-Vivid imagery - creates sensory ecperience for the reader.

-metaphor of coral - vibrant beauty

-He does not listen to her words - only experiences then sensually.

Question 25

Lucentio: “I have it, Tranio.” + “Tell me thine first.”

Answer 25

-Suggests Lucentio views Tranio as more intelligent, knows Tranio has better ideas than him.

-Inversion of class and natural order of hierarchy - animal imagery subverted.

-Lucentio relies on the more pragmatic Tranio to succed - suggests Shakespeare believes practical approach to be better.

-Lucentios false idea and reliance of Tranio is comical - he is the butt of the joke - Shakespeare mocks upperclass view of self importance.

Question 26

Lucentio: “Tranio is chang’d into Lucentio.”

Answer 26

-Inversion of class.

-Uproots a society that relies on class for segregation, if class is down to nothing more than appearance then the system is flawed.

Question 27

Lucentio: “’Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam’d so.”

Answer 27

-Implies that Kate and Petruchio had teamed up to plan the Wager.
-Suggests Kate has found independence within her societal role.
-Wonder - cannotes it is a miricale - heavenly thing - Petruchio as god.
-Petruchio’s taiming achievements are glorified – presents him as comic hero – resourceful and successful.
-Shows other characters respect his achievement.
-Reveals misogynistic views of Elizabethan society about ideal women.
-Comical - Perhaps Lucentio is jealous as his wife seems the opposite.

Question 28

Lucentio: I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio.

Answer 28

-Mocking courtly lovers.

-Satirizes overly sentimental lovers/language.

-Rule of three – typical romantic - hyperbolic.

-Alliteration of pine and perish - links the too - mocks the self destructive nature of romance - audience can likely identify and laugh at this.

-Ironic, mocking lover at first sight and the superficial attraction being mistaken for love.

Themes: Marriage vs Romance.

Question 29

Lucentio: Let me be a slave t’acheive that maid”

Answer 29

-Lucentio is overly romantic.

-Perhaps Shakespeare is criticizing the nature of romantic love, in which one is in fact more enslaved than in a business-based marriage, due to real emotion being envolved.

-Subverts usual hierarchy - suggest only place women find true power is in seducing men - perhaps true at the time.

Question 30

Bianca: “Old fashions please me best. I am not so nice to change the rules for odd inventions.”

Answer 30

-Shows Bianca’s “good-girl” old fashioned nature.

-Appears as the ideal woman, willing to comply to whatever rules and restriction made by patriarchal society.

-Proleptic irony as she later rebels against old fashioned marriage.

Question 31

Gremio: Any man is a fool to be married to hell!

Answer 31

-Helish, hyperbolic metaphor comparing Katherina to hell.

-Foreshadows Petruchio as a fool.

-Foreshadows their hellish dynamic.

-Kate is again made synonymous with the devil, juxtaposing her to Bianca who is synonymous with heaven and goddesses.

-Shows the way the patriarchy viewed women who did not meet the ideal.

-Kate is the Comedic villain in his plot, obstacle between him and Bianca.

• suggest she has unnatural and inhumane persona.

-comicall - old man scared of young girl - exclamative betrays fear and hyperbole - paints him as the pantaloon.

Question 32

Description of Petruchio’s wedding behaviour: ‘stamped and swore’ at vicar. ‘threw sops all in the sexton’s face’ ‘Such mad marriage never was before’.

Answer 32

-Violence is transgressive and taboo – shocks and amuses.

• Petruchio has gone to far – much father that Katherina would be allowed to go.
  -gratuitous and self indulgent.

-Alliteration of mad marriage - suggests an equlity of madness in their marriage - each as mad as the other.

Question 33

Hortensio: ‘From all such devils, good Lord deliver us!’ ‘This fiend from hell’ fit only to go ‘to the devils damn’

Answer 33

-His apostrophe to god (seems very hyperbolic + excalamative) shows he is scared of Kate – weak in comparison to her - she is a young girl – amusing.

-Devil motif

-Mocks how society penalises women who transgress norms.

-Lexical field.

-Pathologise transgressive female behaviour.

-Does little to merit the opprobrium she attracts – suggests man have the power to define women.

Question 34

Gremio: ‘Woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her.’

Answer 34

-Proleptic irony – foreshadows Petruchio’s marriage to Kate – very unromantic.

-Show Kate is barely viewed as human.

-Comical due to his matter of factness - shows his urgency to get Bianca.

-Foreshadows her as a comic obstacle for Bianca and Lucentio plot.

-Marriage and Romance theme.

-Money and Society theme.

Question 35

Bianca: ‘Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, / And then pursue me as you draw your bow’

Answer 35

-Subverts Bianca’s role as the ‘ideal woman’ – she become the independent, protesting shrew.

-Bird links to the falconry motif of Kate and Petruchio – Bianca asserts here that she, unlike Kate, is not a tamed Falcon.
- Bianca remains at liberty can ‘shift’ her ‘bush’ as she pleases.