TOTS Act 1

• Katherine - an ill-tempered shrew full of rage and the older sister to Bianca
• Bianca - nice, well-mannered, and beautiful woman who is the younger sister to Katherine
• Gremio - a suitor to Bianca, teams up with Hortensio
• Hortensio - a suitor to Bianca, teams up with Gremio
• Petruchio - a resident of Verona, intent on finding a wife, but just worries about the woman's money. He is interested in marrying Katherine.
• Lucentio -  a studious man who came to Padua to pursue his education, but loses focus on his goals when he sees Bianca, in whom he instantly falls in love with
• Compare Katherine and Bianca to modern day people - Katherine and Bianca can very well portray a modern day sisterhood, barring the custom that older sister must first be wed before the younger sister can also. Many modern day siblings do in fact get angry at one another at some point, its just human nature. Like in the play Katherine seems to be angry all the time because her younger sister is getting more attention than herself, including more suitors. This is relevant and like modern day people because in today's society many people become jealous and as a result become ill-tempered and envious of the other.

1.

The Induction portrays role-playing. Who acts the part of whom? Why? How does such role-playing address issues of gender and class? What effects might these representations have on the play? The Lord acts the part of a servant and the Page acts the part of Sly's wife, because they are playing a prank on Sly, making him look as if he is a royal. The role-playing seen in the induction culminates both gender and class issues. One gender issue is that women were not allowed to do certain things in this time period and the men would sometimes have to act as a woman. At the same time social class played a critical factor in that the upper-class were not the ones dressing/acting as women, but the lower-class men was. The play could lose key elements that an audience may have perceived better with characters being the right gender.

2.

From the outset, we learn from Bianca's suitors that Katherine is the less desirable of the two sisters. Examine and question this claim. How are Biance and Katherine different? What makes Katherine rather than Bianca the shrew? Katherine is the less desirable because she is ill-tempered and angry all the time, as well as being claimed a shrew by many. The big difference in Katherine and Bianca are their mannerisms; Bianca is very well-mannered, nice and easy to get along with, but Katherine on the other hand is very brutal and full of rage. Katherine is the shrew because at the very outset of the play she is seen as ill-tempered, fiery, and sharp-tongued, while her younger sister is meager, fragile, and nice to everyone.