Back at Petruchio's house, Kate is beginning to lose patience with her husband's seemingly erratic behavior. After his friend Hortensio arrives, Petruchio finally provides Kate with some food but threatens to remove it if she doesn't thank him properly for providing it. Later he proclaims they will return to Padua dressed in the finest array but then rejects the goods of the haberdasher and tailor who were to dress them for their journey. As the party prepares to leave, Petruchio again turns tables on Kate, claiming (purposely in error) that it will be noon when they arrive. When she corrects him (rightly), he calls the trip off until such a time as she obeys what he says. Once they finally get underway, Petruchio still holds fast to his power. He claims the sun is the moon and refuses to let the travelling party continue until Kate agrees with him. She begins to see how Petruchio's system works: If she agrees with him, she gets something she wants. She is tested when Petruchio calls an old man (the real Vincentio) a young woman. Kate agrees, much to Hortensio and Vincentio's befuddlement, and her real transformation begins.
Upon arriving in Padua, Vincentio finds a man masquerading as him, and the disguises begin to become unraveled. After all the impersonators have been found out, the play ends with a banquet in honor of all the newlyweds: Kate and Petruchio, Bianca and Lucentio, and the Widow and Hortensio. As the feast is winding down, the women adjourn, and the men begin to wager on who has the most obedient wife. They wager 100 crowns, each man sure his wife will come when he calls. Lucentio calls for Bianca but she refuses to come. Hortensio calls for the Widow, but she refuses as well. Petruchio calls for Kate, and much to everyone's deep surprise and amazement, she comes directly. She then astounds everyone by not only following Petruchio's instructions to the letter but also offering a long and important speech on a woman's duty to her husband. The play ends with the banquet guests stunned at what they have just witnessed while the newly tamed Kate and Petruchio leave the party together.
