resort to deceit to obtain their own desires. Another character who plays a common man in society is Lucentio, a young man from Pisa, who will go to all extremes to obtain Bianca’s love. Lucentio orders his servant, Tranio, to act as a suitor in pursuit of Bianca as well to distract the attention of the other suitors in order to give Lucentio a change to gain Bianca’s love. In Scene I of Act I, Lucentio declares to Tranio, “If thou ask me why, sufficeth my reasons are both good and weighty” (Shakespeare 250-253). Lucentio plays a game of trickery and takes on a false identity to benefit his own desire of gaining Bianca’s love. Shakespeare uses other common characters such as Lucentio and Biance in The Taming of the Shrew so that all people of society can relate to the feeling of the characters in the play.Harrison also declares that Shakespeare, “can understand and sympathize more than any other men.” Katherine, the older daughter of Baptista, is viewed as a cold-hearted shrew lacking emotion and the expected reaction of the reader is disgust. However, Shakespeare refrains from this stereotype and rather creates a sense of pity for Kate reasoning that her stubborn behavior was a cause of her father’s negligence. Katherine herself displays this feeling in Scene I of Act II when she proclaims, “Bianca is your treasure, she must have a husband; talk not to me, I will go sit and weep till I can find occasion for revenge.” Kate also predicts she will become an old witch because of Baptista’s favoritism (Shakespeare 36-40). Shakespeare reverses a similar misconception with the character of Petruchio, who takes on the task of taming Kate. In his methods of taming Kate, Petruchio often starves and scolds her and is perceived as a “villain.” However, in Scene I of Act IV, Petruchio states, “this is a way to kill a wife with kindness” (Shakespea...
