TTOFS - AO1 Flashcards
Smart Talking Act 1 Scene 2
Following Tranio’s persuasive claim to court Bianca, Gremio remarks that, ‘this gentleman will out-talk us all’
Real or disguise Act 3 Scene 2
‘To me she’s married, not unto my clothes’: Petruchio says this in the presence of Tranio, pretending to be Lucentio, Biondello, pretending to be Tranio, and Lucentio, pretending to be a tutor. Perhaps he implies his relationship with Katherina is ‘real’ in a way Bianca’s romance is not.
Petruchio on marriage Act 3 Scene 2
Petruchio asserts, ‘I will be master of what is mine own’. As far as he is concerned this is the basis of his understanding of marriage. As with some of his other statements on the subject, he seems to be addressing it partly to Katherina, but also to those around him.
Understanding Petruchio’s motivation Act 4 Scene 1
Part of the fantasy Petruchio creates is that ‘all is done in reverent care’ of Katherina. While this can be seen as cruel mockery, it also allows the possibility of change - the derogatory labels inflicted on her by other men in the play do not. Perhaps Petruchio knows that, if he can make her change, this ‘reverend care’ can become real?
Katherina tries to explain Act 4 Scene 2
One of the most troubling moments in the play is Katherina’s impassioned assertion, ‘My tongue will tell the anger of my heart/ or else my heart concealing it will break’, during her speech when she is going to try on the clothes. Petruchio pretends not to hear, and may well get a laugh for his irrelevant reply - but Katherina has a point. To be perpetually silenced can cause harm. Our response to the ending of the play will depend to a great extent on how far we consider she is free to speak.
Understanding Lucentio Act 4 Scene 4
When Biondello is seeking to explain the situation to Lucentio, he summarises it by saying, ‘Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving father of a deceitful son’. In this context the word ‘deceiving’/’deceitful’ may mean nothing more than ‘pretended’. However, it may also have some moral connotations. May this also be a comment on Lucentio’s actions? He has never attempted to be honest with his father or Baptista.
Act 5 Scene 2 A kiss - not a test?
Petruchio’s ‘Why, there’s a wench. Come on, and kiss me, Kate’ heralds the last of several kisses Katherina gives or receives in the play. This one suggests that he feels it is time to consummate the marriage.
Key Quotation’s Petruchio
When Petruchio first sees his old friend Hortensio he says, ‘I come to wive it wealthily in Padua.’ This is an aim from which he never swerves. His final words are, ‘And being a winner, God give you good night’.
‘Winner’ sums up Petruchio, who at no point seems vulnerable. This can alienate the audience. If at any point his own happiness is at stake, the possibility of a genuine partnership within this marriage would seem more real to us.
Key Quotation’s Katherina
Katherina’s first words in the play are to her father: ‘… is it your will/ to make a stale of me among these mates?’.
Her resentment at the way her father exposes her to ridicule suggests that she is used to being betrayed by men. It is not a line the contemporary audience would necessarily expect from a traditional ‘shrew’ out of folk tales.
Katherina’s statement after her ordeals in Petruchio’s house go to the core of her character: ‘I will be free/even to the uttermost, as I please, in words’. Words are the source of Katherina’s power and personality. She is at her most wretched when she is silent. Whether we appreciate her eloquence at the end of the play will depend on whether we see her as free to speak or forced to use the worlds only of her husbands choosing.
Key Quotation’s Bianca
Bianca seems to know exactly how to annoy Katherina with this reminder she is the older sister who seems so unlikely to marry: ‘So well I know my duty to my elders’
She is equally assertive with her ‘tutors’ - the courtship will go at the pace she chooses: ‘I’ll no tied to hours nor ‘pointed times/ But learn my lessons as I please myself’
Key Quotation’s Baptista
Baptista feels very sorry for himself when Katherina is tormenting Bianca: ‘Was ever gentlemen thus grieved as I?’
Although Baptista largely causes his own problems, he behaves as if he is the victim of some kind of undeserved suffering because of his family.
Key Quotation Christopher Sly
Sly gradually starts to believe that he really might be a nobleman: ‘Or do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now?’
You might think of the play he watches as a sort of dream, with characters behaving in an extreme, unreal fashion.
Key Quotation’s The suitors
‘I burn, I pine; I perish’: This line by Lucentio is exactly what a courtly lover is supposed to say, and it could be used by any of the men in this section.
‘My cake is dough’: This is Gremio’s catch-phrase, to indicate things have turned out badly. He uses it more than once about the courtship of Bianca, and it would apply equally to the losers of the wager at the end.
Key Quotation’s The sevants
‘I am content to be Lucentio/ Because so well I love Lucentio’: Tranio explains his job and why he does it, expressed with his typical wit.
‘I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in an afternoon as she went for parsley to stuff a rabbit.’: Biondello is a country boy, and speaks like one - and, as usual, he is in a hurry.
‘Master, if I ever said ‘loose-bodied gown’, sew me in the skirts of it and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread.’: Like Katherina when she gets the measure of Petruchio, Gremio knows that the way to handle his master is through extravagant speech. Although apparently defiant, he is actually co-operating with Petruchio’s plan to leave Katherina without new clothes for Bianca’s wedding.
Key Quotation Petruchio’s expectations
Petruchio outlines his expectations for the future thus: ‘Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life/ And awful rule, and right supremacy / And, it be short, what not that’s sweet and happy’.
Do you think all these things can exist together in his marriage?
