What happens in Act II (Scene 1) of The Taming of the Shrew?
Act II, Scene 1 begins in the house of Baptista Minola in Padua, where Katherine has tied up Bianca's hands and is demanding to know which suitor Bianca likes best. Baptista steps in, sending Bianca away and scolding Katherine for her harshness. The suitors then arrive: Gremio introduces "Cambio" (who is actually Lucentio in disguise) as a tutor, while Tranio, pretending to be Lucentio, presents another tutor along with gifts. Petruchio boldly declares his intention to court Katherine, striking a financial deal with Baptista — he will receive Katherine's dowry upon their marriage, and Baptista’s estate will go to Bianca’s future husband if Petruchio dies first. Alone with Katherine, Petruchio engages her in a quick exchange of wits, remaining unfazed by her insults and physical attacks, insisting that she is gentle and mild. He tells the returning Baptista that Katherine has agreed to marry him on Sunday. Katherine, shocked, protests — but Baptista approves of the match. The scene ends with Gremio and Tranio competing to win Bianca's hand, a contest that Tranio (as the made-up wealthy Lucentio) wins decisively.
Analysis
This is the pivotal scene of the play, and Shakespeare crafts it with the precision of a trap. The opening image — Bianca bound, Katherine interrogating her — immediately complicates the audience's feelings: the "shrew" is also a woman craving attention, her cruelty reflecting the household's favoritism. Baptista's scolding is laden with dramatic irony; he is unaware of the dynamic he has fostered.
Petruchio's courtship is the centerpiece of the scene, constructed as a rhetorical duel with constantly shifting rules. His tactic involves systematic misreading: every insult Katherine hurls, he reframes as its opposite. This technique — let’s call it intentional re-description — is both humorous and unsettling, as it raises the question of whether identity can be reshaped by mere assertion. Katherine's act of physical violence (she strikes him) is the one move his wordplay cannot deflect, yet he absorbs it and continues, showcasing a kind of manic persistence that can be interpreted as either courtship or coercion, depending on the production.
The tone of the scene shifts sharply when Petruchio announces the wedding to Baptista. Katherine's protest is brief, almost drowned out by the plot's momentum — Shakespeare gives her no soliloquy or aside. This silence is a deliberate choice: it keeps her inner life unclear and the play's moral stakes effectively unresolved. The closing auction for Bianca's hand, conducted in cold commercial terms, reframes the entire scene: every "wooing" is a transaction, and the romantic plot is as mercenary as the farcical one.
Key quotes from Act II (Scene 1)
“Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain / She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.”
Petruchio outlines his strategy to himself before Katherine enters, making his method of wilful misreading explicit to the audience.
“I find you passing gentle. / 'Twas told me you were rough, and coy, and sullen.”
Petruchio deploys his tactic the moment he meets Katherine, flatly contradicting her behaviour to her face and refusing to acknowledge her hostility.
“She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, / My household stuff, my field, my barn, / My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing.”
Petruchio later asserts ownership of Katherine before the assembled company, using the language of property law to silence her public resistance.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act II (Scene 1)
- froward
- Stubbornly contrary, difficult to deal with, and refusing to be guided; used to describe Katherina's defiant and uncooperative temperament.
- curst
- Ill-tempered, shrewish, and sharp-tongued; an Elizabethan term applied to Katherina to emphasise her fierce and quarrelsome nature.
- jointure
- A legal settlement of property made on a wife, to be enjoyed by her after her husband's death; part of the marriage bargaining between Petruchio and Baptista.
- dower
- The portion of a husband's estate that the law entitles his widow to use after his death; distinct from a dowry and used in the financial negotiations over marriage.
- banns
- The public announcement in church of an intended marriage, made on three successive Sundays so that anyone with an objection may raise it.