1 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2018
    1. BAPTISTA How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? GREMIO Believe me, sir, they butt together well. BIANCA Head, and butt! an hasty-witted body Would say your head and butt were head and horn.
      Act 5 Scene 2 shows a reverse in the roles the sisters assumed in the beginning of the play. As the couples observe Katherine and the Widow, engaged in a battle of wits, Gremio comments that they argue well together. Rather than displaying the silent and demure personality that had so many suitors calling on her, Bianca responds by saying a rash person may say Gremio was a cuckold, which was often symbolized by a horn. A cuckold is the husband of an adulteress, and considering the number of suitors Bianca had, this may not be a far reach. 
      Just as Katherine was slowly broken and reformed into what was considered the ideal woman, Bianca slowly becomes the “shrew” of the play. Perhaps she was hiding her true colors because she saw how it turned out for Katherine. As a married woman, though, she no longer needs to hide her opinions. However, her lines are no worse than what some of the men have said throughout the play and once again the gender norms are called into question. If a man had spoken these lines, it would have been met with laughter, but because Bianca delivers it she is berated, because it is not considered ladylike to make such obscene comments. These double standards are a large source of trouble throughout the play, not just in the terms of gender roles; but also when it comes to questions of status. The characters switching identities and clothing goes to show the frivolity of class, and in a way Bianca and Katherine switching traits displays the frivolity of laying a judgement or opinion on the qualities one openly displays. The roles of the sisters are reversed - not because the women have changed entirely, but because they are revealing who they really are rather than the façade they present to the world. And really the joke is on the men because all the attraction and attempts to woo Bianca were based off the fact that she was silent and therefore the ideal woman.