The Meeking of the Shrew: Converging Perversions and Conversions in Katherine and Petruchio

Abstract

At the end of Act 4, Scene 1, Petruchio describes his method of training Kate, his kite, and asks us: “He that knows better how to tame a shrew, / Now let him speak (4.14.197-98).¹ Petruchio is unlikely to be challenged because the precepts by which Katherine the curst (1.2.127) is beatified are similar to the guidance given for the creation of a new self by the Master in the Sermon on the Mount.