PLOT QUESTIONS:

1. This play is about what happens to the family of Baptista Minola, a rich gentleman of Padua. Who are the two "daughters to Baptista"?
2. Browse the list of characters that you found while answering question 1. One of Baptista's daughters has a young man in love with her and two more suitors. Name these three characters.
3. Baptista will not "bestow" his younger daughter in marriage until he has what?
4. Because his younger daughter takes delight in "music, instruments, and poetry," whom will Baptista allow into his house?
5. Petruchio comes to visit his friend Hortensio and to find something in Padua. He says, "I come to" do what "in Padua"?
6. Hortensio says, "I can, Petruchio, help thee to" what?
7. Read along in Kate and Petruchio's first conversation. When Petruchio says that Kate is "too angry," to what animal does he compare her? Read the next few lines; why does she strike him?
8. Even though Petruchio and Kate fight, what does Petruchio tell Kate he will do "will you, nill you" (i.e., whether she wants to or not)? Why does he want to do that?
9. What does Signior Gremio say happened in the church?
10. At Petruchio's house, a servant brings in a roast of mutton; what does Petruchio do to the dinner? At the end of Act IV, scene i, Petruchio talks about his plans. What will he do to Kate?
11. When Kate and Petruchio prepare to "return unto thy father's house," what does he promise her?
12. Read a little further in the scene. When will Kate have the cap she likes?
13. As they travel, what does Petruchio say is "bright and goodly"? What does Kate say?
14. When Vincentio comes in, what does Petruchio call him? What does Kate say? What causes her "mistaking eyes"?
15. There's a fuss at the Minola house when they arrive and Kate wants to "see the end of this ado"; what happens then?
16. The last scene celebrates three weddings: Kate and Petruchio are one couple. name the other two.
17. After the women leave, Petruchio proposes the bridegrooms make a bet "for assurance." What do they bet?
18. What happens?
19. Petruchio still doesn't like Kate's cap. What does he say she should do with it?
20. What does he ask Kate for at 5.2.180? Where are they going now?

Here are a few more exercises for The Taming of the Shrew, especially effective with WordCruncher.

a. By entering the appropriate speech prefix (e.g. Kath for Kate), you can look at all of a character's speeches. You might use Katherine's speeches to find out about her use of the formal pronoun "you" and the familiar "thou":

• (1) Is there any consistency in what Katherine calls people?
• (2) When does she shift from "you" to "thou" for Petruchio?
• (3) Does her pronoun use suggest anything about her attitude to her family?

b. To look at the play's clothing imagery, enter a word list that includes cloth* garment* gown* Then browse through these passages and decide if the play suggests that clothing is or is not important in deciding one's worth.

In WordCruncher, you can press the F4 key and choose number 1. That will show you a list of frequencies. If you use the shift key and the cursor keys, you can move the light bar in the middle column down to Shrew and see where the words occur in that play. Account for the distribution of the terms, i.e., why so many references in 4.3?

c. Hawks: Another image pattern is the one associated with hunting, especially hunting with birds of prey like hawk* haggard* falcon* Again, using the F4 key (to check the frequency with which the terms are used) suggests that the image pattern is peculiar to Shrew. And using the shift key and the cursor to find out where the terms are used, one sees that they occur during the induction and in the last two acts. Why?

d. Wives and Husbands: In the first word list, insert wife. In the second, insert the personal pronoun "my" and the articles "a" and "the"; press enter. Press the b key to tell the machine to show you "wife" after the adjectives, and press c and type 10 to ask to see the passages when the words occur within ten characters of each other. Now use enter to reach the passage list; pressing the ALT key and the B key will move you directly to Shrew. Who speaks most often of "my wife"? What do characters say about "a wife"? Next, try the same process for "husband" instead of wife. Any differences in use?