Use this page when you know the book but need the right person, force, or relationship to carry the argument.
Come here when you need to sort out who matters, what they want, and where they actually help your argument in The Taming of the Shrew.
Contents
The older Minola daughter, labeled a shrew from the start. She fights back verbally and physically against everyone who tries to control her. Petruchio's campaign wears her down, or she decides to stop fighting openly. By the end she is either changed or strategic. That ambiguity is what makes her the most interesting character in the play.
A gentleman from Verona who marries Katherina for her dowry and then sets about breaking her resistance through psychological pressure. He is loud, confident, and completely immune to embarrassment. The play presents his tactics as comic, but they are also calculated and relentless.
Katherina's younger sister, presented as sweet, obedient, and desirable. Three men compete for her. She secretly marries Lucentio. At the final banquet she refuses to come when her husband calls, which quietly undermines everything the play seemed to say about her being the ideal wife.
The father of Katherina and Bianca. He controls both daughters' access to marriage. He sets the rule that Bianca cannot marry until Katherina does, which drives the whole plot. He negotiates dowries and marriage terms like a merchant, not a father.
A young scholar from Pisa who falls in love with Bianca at first sight and immediately abandons his studies to pursue her. He disguises himself as a tutor, secretly marries Bianca, and then has to confess everything to his furious father. His arc is romantic comedy by the numbers.
Lucentio's servant who takes on his master's identity to negotiate with Baptista. He is clever, quick, and more competent at being Lucentio than Lucentio is. His disguise drives much of the subplot's comic energy.
One of Bianca's suitors who disguises himself as a music teacher to get close to her. When he realizes Bianca prefers Lucentio, he gives up and marries a widow instead. He is also the one who introduces Petruchio to Katherina.
The drunken tinker in the Induction who is tricked into thinking he is a nobleman. He watches the play about Katherina and Petruchio. Shakespeare never brings him back at the end, leaving his fate unresolved. His presence reminds the audience that everything they are watching is a performance staged for someone else's amusement.
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