As Act I opens, Shakespeare wastes no time in addressing themes that he has used to entice us in the Induction. Disguise, deception, love, marriage, and power all come to the forefront in this short but forceful scene. Baptista finds himself surrounded by an assortment of suitors for his younger daughter, Bianca, and forms the crux of the play's action by insisting on the time-honored tradition of the eldest child marrying first. Bianca quickly comes off as desirable, perfectly embodying everything men (and the society they dominate) deem as profitable in a woman: modesty, beauty, passivity. The obstacle standing in the way of the would-be suitors gaining the woman who would, quite literally, be their prize is her older and more boisterous sister: Katherine.
When we meet Kate, she seems fairly innocuous. Upon hearing her father's decree that she marry before Bianca, Kate offers a witty reply, questioning whether her father will "make a stale of [her] amongst these mates?" (58). Her reply is telling in two regards. First, it shows her facility with language, a customarily male trait, setting her up outside the womanly norm. We know from her clever punning on the notion of a stalemate that she is not going to be a stereotypically "good" woman (meaning: passive and controlled). Second, her remark reveals a bit about her judgment. Although we know from what Gremio and Hortensio say that Kate is perceived as devilish, headstrong, and wild, Kate's remarks reveal that she may not be as bad as they suggest. Her outright contempt for Bianca's would-be suitors is bold, to be sure, but not entirely unwarranted. In fact, in one light, it speaks well of her judgment.
