Taming Of The Shrew And Comedy Of Errors

4 Pages 977 Words

The concept of finding one’s identity, the process of it changing and the events that transpire that make or help it change is a prevalent theme in Shakespeare’s plays, especially Taming of the Shrew and Comedy of Errors. Taking a look at these two plays one can argue a strong case that everyone is in a daily process of finding their self and dealing with the changes they face.
The changes within Taming of the Shrew are both physical and internal. The physical changes are easily adapted by the characters in changing their appearance as Hortensio does as a school teacher and Tranio disguised as Lucentio (II.i.38). The internal lasting changes that take place within the play are ling developing and are shown that they do not happen over night but are slowly transformed over time and events. The biggest change of all the characters is Katherina. She begins as a belligerent daughter wanting nothing to do with her family or any suitors until Pertrutio comes along and persistently chases her and wins her hand from her father. By trying to test and push Pertrutio she slowly becomes obedient and one could say love him. They have a maturity about them and mutual respect for each other (V.ii.135) that the other couples at the wedding lack. Kate learned how to love and respect a man that was willing to put up with her fits and attempts at retaliation and Pertrutio saw this and gave her the respect of being able to deal with the changes, not her choice, in both their lives that ended up the both of them a better position than before. Kate’s change from the shrewd to an obedient, somewhat loving wife affected and changed the rest of her family because they saw what a different woman she had become and Baptista showed the loving father figure he always wanted to but could never get past his condoning voice towards her. Pertrutio was the most closely touched when he came into the picture he was using Kate as a means to get to the ric...