Tag Archives: prejudice

Hello everyone!

As I was reading the play, deception and disguise are clearly prevalent – it almost becomes difficult to keep track of who is acting as who! However, something interesting I noticed was that the characters of this play not only seem to disguise themselves, but also they put their own “disguises” onto other characters through their prejudices of them. The one example that stuck out to me was Katherina’s reputation of being a “curst and shrewish” woman. In fact, so much so that Hortensio says she is “renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue,” and further along mentions that he wouldn’t “wed her for a mine of gold.”  At that point of the play, Kate only appears for a brief scene, and she speaks barely enough for her to prove that she is in fact a repulsive character. In addition, we don’t get any further insight on Kate since none of the characters thus far seem to know her well at all. These prejudiced views seem to disguise Kate. This perhaps puts, not just deception, but prejudice as one of the main themes to this play.