Essays on the Taming of the Shrew: The Development of Katherina Katherina's development in the play, The Taming of the Shrew, is a complicated dilemma for the reader to resolve. Is she really tamed by Petruchio? Or does he figure out his game and decide it's best to play along? Or does he recognize his own excessive behavior and decide to change of his own free will? Or does she really fall in love with Petruchio and want to please her lord? I think his evolution is a combination of all of the above. But do we readers want her to be tamed or was her initial independence a virtue? It is obvious that Katherina's father, Baptista Minola, did not treat her as well as he treats Bianca, her younger sister. On the other hand, is his "rudeness" a cause or a result of this favoritism? Katherina is obviously a very intelligent woman whose gifts have no outlet in domestic affairs. For example, in their first meeting, Katherina keeps up with Petruchio's pun and insult for insult. Perhaps his fury is simply the result of having no outlet for his exuberant spirit. And when Petruchio comes and treats her as an equal (the opposite of taming), I think she's taken by surprise and that's how he manages to swoop in and win her over. In this first meeting, Katherina receives, for the first time in her life, the kind word of a man. She seems moved by Petruchio's praise. Also, when it seems she has been left at the altar, she cries and wishes she had never met him. I think her pain is a sign of her genuine affection and perhaps even love for Petruchio. At the end of the play and in her final speech, Katherina may seem genuinely tamed, depending on your interpretation of the soliloquy: is it genuine or verbal-in-cheek? Is she really her lord's noble servant or is she indulging him and what he wants to hear? I think she wants to give happiness to her husband, but she knows that her husband will do the same for her. I think that Petruchio and Katherina would actually have a very balanced marriage based on mutual respect, because each knows what the other is capable of.