Lucentio And Bianca's Relationship example essay topic

As a romantic comedy, The Taming of the Shrew focuses mainly on the romantic relationships between men and women as they develop from initial interest into marriage. In this respect, the play is a typical romantic comedy. However, unlike other Shakespearean comedies, The Taming of the Shrew does not conclude its examination of love and marriage with the wedding. Instead it offers a significant glimpse into the future lives of married couples, one that serves to round out its exploration of the social dimension of love.

In the conclusion of the play, we leave with three newly married couples all adjusting to married life, and some adjusting better than others. There are numerous things we can assume from the courtships of these marriages; including economic motives, the differences between Lucentio's poetic love for Bianca and Petruccio's aggressive love for Kate, and the comic marriage of Hortensio and the Widow. Inner emotional desire plays only a secondary role in The Taming of the Shrew's exploration of love. Instead, The Taming of the Shrew emphasizes the economic aspects of marriage-specifically, how economic considerations determine who marries whom. The play tends to explore romantic relationships from a social perspective, exploring the institutions of courtship and marriage rather than the inner passions of lovers. Also, the play focuses on how courtship affects not just the lovers themselves, but also their parents, their servants, and their friends.

In general, while the husband and the wife conduct the marriage relationship after the wedding, the courtship relationship is negotiated between the future husband and the father of the future wife. Marriage becomes a transaction involving the transfer of money. Lucentio wins Bianca's heart, but he is given permission to marry her only after he is able to convince Baptista that he is fabulously rich. Had Hortensio offered more money, Hortensio would have married Bianca, regardless of whether she loved Lucentio.

We also can find insight into Lucentio and Bianca's relationship. Lucentio reflects the sort of idyllic, poeticized view of love that Petruccio's simplicity dismisses: Lucentio is struck by love for Bianca at first sight, and says: O Tranio, till I found it to be true I never thought it possible or likely. But see, while idly I stood looking on, I found the effect of love-in-idleness And now in plainness do confess to thee, That art to me as secret and as dear As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was, Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, If I achieve not this young modest girl. Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst. Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt. (1.1.

148-158) He also says that he will die if he cannot win her heart, and in result puts into motion a romantic and unbelievable plan to do so. Whereas love in the play is often eased by economic and social concerns, Lucentio is swept up in a vision of courtly love that does not include the practical considerations of men like Petruccio. Throughout a good deal of the play, Lucentio and Bianca's relationship appears to be refreshing and pure in comparison to the relationship between Petruccio and Katherine. Petruccio's decision to marry is based on his self-proclaimed desire to win a fortune, while Lucentio's is based on romantic love. Moreover, while Petruccio devotes himself to taming his bride, Lucentio devotes himself to submitting to and flattering himself with his. While Petruccio stages his wedding as a public spectacle, Lucentio elopes with Bianca.

Through Lucentio and Bianca, the play looks beyond the moment when the romantic lovers are wed and shows the consequences of the disguises and tricks they have used to help their romance. Once the practical business of being married begins, Lucentio's preoccupation with courtly love seems a bit dated and ridiculous. In the end, it is Petruccio's disturbing, showy simplicity that produces a happy and functioning marriage, and Lucentio's poeticized instincts leave him humiliated when Bianca refuses to answer his summons. Love certainly exists in the world of The Taming of the Shrew, but Lucentio's theatrical love, attractive though it is, appears unable to cope with the full range of problems and considerations facing married couples in adult life. Katherine and Petruccio illustrate a whole different sort of relationship from Bianca and Lucentio's.

Because Katherine speaks freely and asserts herself she is labeled as "shrewish". When Hortensio describes her to Petruccio, he says she is "renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue". (1.2. 96) He also tells of her fair fortune if a suitable man comes courting and wins her hand in marriage. Petruccio sees dollar signs and rushes on in grand dress and motions to court the gracious "Kate". When he first begins his ritual of winning the family and Katherine to his love, he is seeking his fortune in her dowry. The mention of her being at all undesirable does not push him from his path.

He speaks of "One rich enough to be Petruccio's wife, as wealth is burden of my wooing dance be she as foul as was Florentius' love, as old as Sibyl, and as curs t and shrewd as Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse, she moves me not or not removes at least affection's edge in me, were she as rough as are the swelling Adriatic Seas". (1.2. 65-71) Despite the humiliations and deprivations that Petruccio adds to her life, it is easy to understand why Katherine might give in to marrying a man like him. In their first conversation, Petruccio finds that he is Katherine's intellectual and verbal equal, making him, on some level, an exciting change from the easily dominated men who normally surround her. Petruccio's aggressive treatment of Kate is in every way designed to show her that she has no real choice but to adapt to her social role as a wife. This adaptation must be attractive to Katherine on some level, since even if she dislikes the role of wife, playing it at least means she can command respect and consideration from others rather than suffer the universal dislike she receives as a shrew. Having a social role, even if it is not ideal, must be less painful than continually rejecting any social role at all.

So, Katherine's eventual compliance with Petruccio's self-serving "training" appears more rational than it might have seemed at first. By the end of the play, she has gained a position and even a respected voice that she previously had been denied. This voice is seen in her speech at the end of the play where she says, A woman moved is like a fountain troubled, muddy ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty, and while it is so, none so dry or thirsty will deign to sip or touch one drop of it. Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign-one that cares for thee, and for thy maintenance commits his body to painful labor both by sea and land, to watch the night in storms, the day in cold, whilst thou li " st warm at home, secure and safe; and craves no other tribute at thy hands but love, fair looks, and true obedience: too little payment for so great a debt... (5.2. 142-154) As Hortensio and Lucentio both vied for Bianca's affections, Hortensio gave up when he realized there was no hope left for him and Bianca. At this point, Shakespeare could have easily written Hortensio out of the plot.

Instead, the overview of Hortensio's unmasking is promptly followed by the arrival of a merchant of Mantua, who is deceived into masking himself as Vincent io. As for Hortensio, his role is even more complicated through his marriage to a widow, an enriching factor which permits the joke of situation of Act five Scene two when Hortensio's wife defies his summons. Their marriage is therefore used for comic relief. All of the marriages in The Taming of the Shrew are different and give the reader something to ponder. Whether or not readers agree with Petruccio's tactics of taming Kate, or Lucentio's motives for wooing Bianca, this play gives its readers a look into marriage from numerous standpoints. Though we laugh with Petruccio as he "tames" Kate, we also laugh at him, as we see him mock the very gender inequalities that the plot of The Taming of the Shrew ultimately upholds.