Kate Quotes

Question 1

(To Baptista about him making her marry Petruchio.): Call me your ‘Daughter’?

Answer 1

Now I promise you/ You have showed a tender fatherly regard/ to wish me wed to one half lunatic.

Question 2

O then, belike, you fancy riches more:…

Answer 2

You will have Gremio to keep you fair.

Question 3

In Kate’s end speech she refers to a husband as…

Answer 3

the “Lord”, “life”, “keeper”, “Sovereign”, “head” of the wife.

Question 4

“Place your hands…

Answer 4

below your husband’s foot” - Act 5, scene 2.

Question 5

“Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp; i’ faith, you are too angry.
Kates reply…

Answer 5

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” Act 2, Scene 1.

Question 6

“My mind hath…

Answer 6

been as big as one of yours,”
-Act 5, scene 2.

Question 7

“But now I see our lances…

Answer 7

are but straws, our strength as weak, our weakness past compare” -Act 5, scene 2.

Question 8

I see a woman may be made…

Answer 8

a fool, if she had not a spirit to resist.

Question 9

“Be it moon,…

Answer 9

or sun, or what you please.”

Question 10

“If you please to call…

Answer 10

henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

Question 11

“It is the blessed sun. …

Answer 11

/ But sun it is not, when you say it is not. /And the moon changes even as your mind.”

Question 12

Petruchio: Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly/hast thou beheld a fresher gentle woman?

A few lines later…

Answer 12

Kate: (to Vincentio) Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet.

Question 13

“No shame…

“He’ll woo a thousand,” …

Answer 13

but mine.”

“Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed.”

Question 14

“Forced to give…

Answer 14

my hand, opposed against my heart”

Question 15

My tongue will tell…

Answer 15

the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.

Question 16

Final Speech, refers to women’s bodies as…

Answer 16

“soft”, “weak”, “smooth” and “unapt to toil and trouble”

Question 17

(To Baptista about him making her marry Petruchio.): Call me your ‘Daughter’? Now I promise you/ You have showed a tender fatherly regard/ to wish me wed to one half lunatic.

Answer 17

-shows how Katherina feels rejected and unloved.

-Baptista has patriarchal power to choose Katerinas Fate.

-Motif of madness.

-Comical use of insults to her social superior Petruchio ‘one half lunatic’.

-She challenges and stands up to his mistreatment - femenist heroine.

Question 18

O then, belike, you fancy riches more:
You will have Gremio to keep you fair.

Answer 18

-Jealous, shows desire to fit in and get married.
-Double Entendre - keep you fair - both meaning beauty - as he has the riches to maintain her wellfare - but also control her - mocks Bianca conformity to convention.

Question 19

In Kate’s end speech she refers to a husband as the “Lord”, “life”, “keeper”, “Sovereign”, “head” of the wife.

Answer 19

-Lexical field of power.

-Power imbalance of relationship.

-Kate either sarcastic or broken (becoming the woman she swore she would never be). - could be very comical if said sarcastically.

-Final scene – images suggesting one natural order has been achieved – other two subverted.

-Very performative - almost like a trained animal doing a trick - hawking/animal motif.

-Description of husband connotates holiness, as though he is a god.
-language of rulership - tyranical rule over her.

Question 20

“Place your hands below your husband’s foot” - Act 5, scene 2.

Answer 20

-Subservient.

-implies she is in service to him.

-they are not equals.

-anachronistic representation of marriage, references as wedding tradition banned for forty years before the play was written. - even look old fashioned to Shakespearean audience.

-If doen sarcastically - then humorous - if not very sad - a shadow of the woman she was.

Question 21

“Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp; i’ faith, you are too angry.

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” Act 2, Scene 1.

Answer 21

-matches his wit. (They are each other’s match, intellectually, in passion and in temper)

-Stands up for herself.

-Powerful - animal imagery yet she takes on his dehumanising comment and uses her wit to turn it to power.

-Foreshadows their turbulent relationship.

-Battle of the sexes - humorous potentially interpreted as flirtatious.

Question 22

“”My mind hath been as big as one of yours,”

“But now I see our lances are but straws, our strength as weak, our weakness past compare” -Act 5, scene 2.

Answer 22

-She has begun to think of herself lowly, has conformed to society’s ideas about women.

-However, it is such an extreme change from her opinions before that it almost seems entirely sarcastic.

-Hyperbolic metaphors – perhaps used to create sarcasm.

-rule of 3 - elegance and eloquence - language is performative - not that of a broken woman.

Question 23

I see a woman may be made a fool, if she had not a spirit to resist.

Answer 23

-Shows Kate’s meaningful, emotional intellect.
-Powerful Feminist Heroin.
-Proleptic irony as she later becomes submissive - comical yet almost tragic.

-An important feminist perspective.

-Taming foreshadowed.

Question 24

“Be it moon, or sun, or what you please.” +

“If you please to call… henceforth I vow it shall be so for me.”

Answer 24

-Submission/surrender.

-Petruchio’s victory of Katherina becomes inevitable.

-Kate submits in open air – nature – is this due to acceptance of a natural hierarchy?

-direct link to title - this is when she is tamed.

-Petruchio’s control over the natural world - god like imagery - the extremity of inequality in their relationship.

-Comical is she daid it with dismissive frustration - as though he were a tantrum todler getting his why.
-Comedic victory for comic hero - what are his reactions?

Question 25

“It is the blessed sun. / But sun it is not, when you say it is not. /And the moon changes even as your mind.”

Answer 25

-She Equivocates (to speak in a way that is intentionally not clear and confusing to other people, especially to hide the truth).

-Changesever as your mind - she suggests he is mad/halucinating things - perhaps mocks him.

-Shows her wit and intelligence, that even in submission she can almost outwit him - comical outwitting him.

Question 26

Interaction just after sun + moon scene, to Vincentio)

Petruchio: Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly/hast thou beheld a fresher gentle woman?

A few lines later…

Kate: (to Vincentio) Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet.

Answer 26

-Her addressal of Vincentio is funnier and wittier than Petruchio’s.

-She has submitted to his game but has gained control.

-Rule of three, emphasizes her eloquence.

-Ironic – he is an old mad.
-Comedy caused by misapplication of description of the ideal woman.

-Embraces her husband’s wilful craziness.

-Vincentio not offended – madness has changed from antisocial actions to linguistic game-playing - far more accepted than her other forms of transgression - perhaps even freeing.

-Shows couple are ready to take their place in society.

Question 27

“Forced to give my hand, opposed against my heart”

Answer 27

-Shakespeare uses Kate as a mouth tool to criticize then treatment of women as a commodity, used as a business transaction against their will.

-Men dictated women’s futures, despite Kathrine not liking Petruchio, marriage is her only form of survival in a way, as she cannot look after herself because she is a woman and cannot work etc.

-Synechdoche - hand and heart - uses language of marriage ‘take thy hand’ - to show there is a mismatch between her heart and her marriage - subversion.

-Kate is ironically upset about Petruchio not marrying her, despite not wanting to marry him. Links to A03.

-Themes: Marriage and Society.

Question 28

My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart concealing it will break.

Answer 28

-Desire to speak her authentic voice.

-metaphor, an expression of authentic emotion.

-She is the only one in the play who does not play a role.

-Shows vulnerability beneath her strong exterior.

-Not comical - almost tragic - the silencing of women in society is shown to break them.

-A womans tongue related to the devil at this time - here she powerfully reclaims her tongue as a tool for her authentic voice - conveying a powerful feminist message

Question 29

Final Speech, refers to women’s bodies as “soft”, “weak”, “smooth” and “unapt to toil and trouble”

Answer 29

-Using her own sexuality to empower her.

-Sexual connotations.

-could be undermining women and their strength.

-taboo sexual undertones - comical.

-Plays into masculine ego - as Bianca initially did - performative and manipulative - powerful.
-Sibilance of s - seductive.

Question 30

Katherina: ‘Warm at home, safe and secure.’ While husband goes out ‘to painful labor both by sea and land’ he works for her ‘maintenance’ she owes him ‘love, fair looks and true obedience’

Answer 30

-Overuse of rule 3, extravagant language – could be interpreted as sarcasm.

Could be interpreted as degrading and defeat – a woman broken by abuse.

-Suggests both sexes have distinct roles in marriages.

-Sibilance – soft sounds reflect values of submission and silence in ideal woman – sounds soft on stage – compared to her earlier language.

-transactional nature of relationships – Romance is primarily concerned with practicality.

-Ironic - Petruchio does not work - he has her dowry - reality undermines performance - just boosting masculine ego - matcho ‘painful labour’.

-Housework theory.

Question 31

P: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.

K: In his tongue.

P: Whose tongue.

K: Yours if you talk of tales, and so farewell. (She turns to go).

P: What with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again./ Good Kate, I am a gentleman -

Answer 31

Comedic repartee - she matches his wit - intellectual equal - true match.

-Sexual innuendos - tail in tongue - comical sexual flirtation mixed with wit.

-Perhaps the scene is one of unconventional courtship - mutual desire.

-Oral sex - promises her pleasure - pun on ‘come’ (sexual) and claims he is a gentleman - give her pleasure - unconventional for the time - fact that she strikes him shows she understands his joke.

-If we believe this - problematic for a feminist reading - suggests when a woman says no she is merely playing hard to get.

-Undertone of physical violence throughout scene - no longer amusing “I’ll cuff you if you strike again.”