HORTENSIO
Confess, confess, hath he not hit you here?
PETRUCHIO
He has a little galled me, I confess.
And as the jest did glance away from me,
'Tis ten to one it maimed you two outright. (5.2.61-64)
Here again a character implies that painful words and insults have the ability to physically transform one's appearance. In this case, the thing that "maims" Hortensio and Lucentio is an accusation that their wives are disobedient and unruly. Petruchio implies that a wife's behavior has the ability to alter her husband's reputation or street cred. (It certainly leaves him open to insults from other guys and business associates.) Petruchio also alludes to the idea that Hortensio and Lucentio have married castrating women. Ouch.
PETRUCHIO
To her, Kate!
HORTENSIO
To her, widow! (5.2.35-36)
The behavior of Petruchio and Hortensio says a great deal about the way men use women as a means to interact and compete with other men in the play. The fact that Kate and the Widow fight in the last scene is also typical of the fact that there is no such thing as female companionship in the play, suggesting that women are incapable of friendship.
Quote 3
PETRUCHIO
Why came I hither but to that intent?
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puffed up with winds,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitchèd battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?
And do you tell me of a woman's tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chestnut in a farmer's fire?
Tush, tush, fear boys with bugs! (1.2.201-213)
Just one of many speeches Petruchio gives to assert his shrew-taming skills, this passage reflects the way Petruchio and the other men measure their masculinity by assessing their hierarchical relationships with women. The implication: if a man can't control his woman, he's effeminate rather than masculine.