acts upon her own desires, her speeches and her behavior curiously mirror Petruchio’s own behavior earlier in the play. The eloquent language both characters utilize in their moments of deception stands apart from their common dialect. Katerina, who speaks in quick, clever puns through the play’s opening, changes her speech to a more formal tone. During the preceding scene, she drops the colloquial second person “you,” and assumes the removed form of “thou.” Petruchio mirrors this alteration in his speech to Katerina in scene 2.1. When he begins to lie, he addresses Kate as “passing gentle” and “gamesome, passing courteous,” but refers to her with “thou,” rather than the familiar “you” (2.1.242-245). This similarity suggests that Katerina is mimicking her husband during these scenes, in which case her character never becomes tamed.Examining Katerina’s conversation in the final scene preserves the independence of her character. Evidence even implies that Petruchio is conscious of her maintained autonomy. When the widow, Hortentio’s wife, disputes Petruchio, Katerina intervenes. Rather than listening patiently and allowing her husband to defend himself, as an obedient wife should, Katerina interrupts, demanding to know the intent of the widow’s comments. Insulting Katerina, the widow retorts, “ your husband being troubled with a shrew, / Measures my husband’s sorrow by his woe / And you know my meaning . . . I mean you” (5.2.28-32). Katerina again refuses to fall back, but rather retorts again with a double-edged reply, “And I am mean indeed, respecting you” (5.2.33). The word “mean” in this statement may imply that Katerina’s behavior is moderate compared to the widow’s. However, the play on the word “mean” also suggests that Katerina intends “contempti...
