Monthly Archives: August 2011

Hi everyone. My name is Andy. Looking forward to a fun semester with all of you.

After reading the Induction and first two Acts of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, it feels like NOTHING is what it seems. Almost everyone is lying in one way or another such as Lucentio dressing as a poor Latin tutor and Horensio covering himself with a cloak to portray a musician. Like the characters within, even the entire play itself is sort of in a costume, disguised as a play within a play.

With this motif of disguise prominently displayed throughout the beginning of the story, I think Shakespeare is building all these lies to a ridiculous point just so the revelation will be that much more dramatic. Although I don’t know what will happen later on in the play, I would assume that Tranio disguised as Lucentio will eventually be exposed as well as Petruchio’s insincere marriage proposal.

Keeping all of this in mind, I want to focus on Lucentio and the manipulation of his identity. Why does he pretend to be Cambio the Latin tutor? Do you think it was necessary for him to act as someone else to try and win Bianca’s love? You can argue that disguising as a tutor allowed him to get closer access to Bianca but at the same time, didn’t it make the pursuit even more challenging? Wouldn’t courting Bianca as a wealthy, clean-cut young man be more attractive than as an ordinary poor tutor? Above all else, how do you think Bianca would feel if Lucentio wins her love and then tells her that he was deceiving her the entire time about who he really was?

Feel free to share your thoughts or add onto anything I mentioned!