The Taming of the Shrew Tranio Quotes

This dialogue sets up the idea that Petruchio is some kind of master teacher. He will teach Hortensio how to control the Widow while he teaches Kate to control her "tongue." The words "tricks" and "charm" are interesting as they make Petruchio sound like a magician. We're not sure if this implies a kind of supernatural ability on Petruchio's part because the terms can also suggest that Petruchio's tactics are not real – rather, they're like the slight of hand tricks magicians use to fool audiences. This makes sense, especially given that Hortensio doesn't really learn anything thing at the so-called "taming school." The whole concept, it seems, is mere fantasy.

Here, Tranio muses about finding someone to pretend to be Lucentio's father, Vincentio, in order to finalize Lucentio's wedding contracts. Tranio cleverly puns on "get" (to find a fake father) and to "beget" (to sire, or to father). This is significant because it points to the way typical parent/child roles are reversed. (Parents are supposed to be in charge but the actions of rebellious and deceitful children throw such relationships into chaos.) In this case, a child is going to beget (invent) a fake father figure, the Pedant, behind his real father's back. In the last line, Tranio also suggests that a child (Lucentio) is going to "get" Bianca's father. That is, he's going to gain a father-in-law and he's going to get the better of his new father-in-law by eloping with Bianca and fooling Baptista. All of which helps him get rich (a common 16th-century definition for "get") in the process. That's a lot of work for one little word.