"The Taming of the Shrew" Shakespeare
The two main characters of this play are Petruchio and Katherine Minola.
Petruchio is a nobleman from Verona. He is a very clever man and he has intentions
to marry and tame Katherine. Katherine is the daughter of a rich nobleman of Padua.
Katherine is a very shrew and stubborn woman.
There are also Baptista Minola the father of Katherine; Bianca Minola the
sister of Katherine; Lucentio, Gremio and Hortensio, who are the suitors of Bianca;
servants Nathaniel, Tranio, Biondello, Philip, Joseph, Grumio, Nicholas and Peter;
Vincentio the father of Bianca's suitor Lucentio; a Pedant and a Widow.
Themes
The main themes of this book are cruelty, as Katherine and Petruchio show out
cruelty to others as well as to each other throughout the play; gender relations, which
are displayed in Kate's final speech, where she explains the place of women in
relationships with men (pages 158-159); male perceptions of women, which are