Wednesday, October 16, 2013

You're a reporter for the Paduan Enquirer, and have crashed the wedding of Katharina & Petruchio. What kind of scandalous events were in Act 3?

In Shakespeare's The Taming of the
Shrew
, there are several scandalous events that take place in Act III that
might well make the newspaper in Padua.


It might appear
scandalous that Bianca seems to accept Lucentio's intent to court Bianca, though he has
not formally received the blessing of Bianca's father (though the audience knows that
Bianca cannot marry before her sister Katharina).


As scene
ii begins place, Petruchio arrives late to his own wedding, dressed like a homeless
person, traveling on a broken down nag. Baptista and Tranio chastise Petruchio for his
manner of dress and encourage him to change; he
refuses.


During the marriage ceremony, Petruchio hits the
priest, and kisses Katharina so loudly, that the sound echoes throughout the church. By
comparison to Petruchio's roguish behavior, Katharina resembles a demure young woman,
quite unlike the town's usual perception of her based upon her
behavior.


After they are pronounced man and wife, Petruchio
announces that he must leave Padua immediately; he will not even attend his own wedding
feast. Katharina refuses to depart, defying her new husband. Petruchio rants on about a
woman's duties to her husband, and announces that a woman is the chattel of the man of
the house. He asserts that others may try to abscond with his new bride, so at sword
point, he threatens all, grabs Katharina, and takes off—leaving his guests and family
amazed.


Not the kind of behavior the townspeople expect of
or appreciate from Petruchio, these things would probably have made the newspaper, some
perhaps on the front page, with other pieces on the "society"
page.

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