Like many other of Shakespeare's comedies, The Taming of the Shrew features a woman as one of the story's chief protagonists. Katherine Minola is a fiery, spirited woman, and as such, the male dominated world around her doesn't quite know what to do with her.
Much of what we know about Kate initially comes from what other people say about her. In Act I, for instance, we see her only briefly and hear her speak even less, yet our view of Katherine is fairly well established. Shakespeare, though, is setting up a clever teaching lesson, helping us later to see the errors of our own hasty judgment (just as characters in Shrew will also learn lessons about rushing to judgments). Right after Baptista announces that Kate must marry before Bianca may take suitors, Gremio colors our interpretation of the elder daughter by declaring "She's too rough for me" (1.1.55). Later in the scene, Gremio reiterates his dislike for Kate, demeaning her as a "fiend of hell" (88) and offering that "though her father be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell" (124–126). He finishes off with the declaration that to marry Kate is worse than to "take her dowry with this condition: to be whipped at the high cross every morning" (132–134). Hortensio, too, is quick to add to the foray, calling Kate a devil (66) and claiming that she is not likely to get a husband unless she is "of gentler, milder mold" (60). Tranio, Lucentio's servant, is perhaps the only man in this scene not to disparage Kate, diagnosing her as "stark mad or wonderful froward" (69).
Kate, in her own defense, offers telling commentary on her situation. Although other characters encourage us to see her as unmannerly and incorrigible, deserving of marginalization and abuse, looking more closely at what Kate actually says reveals she may not be as domineering as some characters would have us believe. For instance, the first lines we hear her speak are to her father, imploring him not to wed her to a fool (57–58). Although it is somewhat nervy for her to speak out against her father, the fact that she does so in order to make what seems to us to be a fairly reasonable demand helps us see her as reasonable rather than shrewish.
