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Teaching The Taming of the Shrew

Tame this play.

  • Activities: 13
  • Quiz Questions: 201

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The Taming of the Shrew is the story of how Petruchio, the money-grubbing wife hunter, transforms the aggressive and bad-tempered Katherine Minola into an obedient, honey-tongued trophy wife.

Sound creepily sexist? Well, maybe it is…written by William Shakespeare between 1590 and 1594, it's one of Shakespeare's earliest Comedies—and it's also one of his most debated and criticized works. The play's been maligned for its representation of abusive behavior and misogynistic attitudes toward women, and has pretty much been dogged since it was first performed.

There's no denying that Shrew portrays patriarchy at its worst; the question is, what's the play's attitude toward such action and behavior? Does it condone domestic abuse and celebrate painful and humiliating tactics to reform "shrewish" behavior? Does it satirize unfair social attitudes toward women? Or, is it merely a light-hearted farce that's not meant to be taken seriously at all? Sure, these questions might have sparked centuries of debate, but our Shmoop Guide means you'll be answering them in no time (or at least getting close).

In this guide, you'll find

  • a deep dive into the play's controversial gender politics.
  • a look at Kate's supposed tranformation and chance to decide whether she's really been "tamed."
  • an opportunity for deep character analysis resulting in a reality show pitch.

Let Shmoop guide you and your students through the labyrinth that is the bard's gender politics, and give you a great excuse to watch 10 Things I Hate About You for the millionth time. 

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

  • 13 – 18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students
  • Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students
  • Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text
  • Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students
  • A note from Shmoop’s teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles

Want more help teaching Teaching The Taming of the Shrew?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.



Instructions for You

Objective: Being huge Willie Shakes fans, we're always eager to talk about Macbeth or the Henry Plays—those are paramount works, and everyone loves 'em. The Taming of the Shrew, however, is often met with trepidation and harsh criticisms for its misogynistic and abusive themes. But let's face it—the fact that it's so controversial also makes it pretty interesting.

When teaching The Taming of the Shrew, you can talk about different themes and analyze the characters, but you have to address the elephant in the room: does the play really condone the "taming" of woman, or is it just a fun "battle of the sexes" romp? It's wide open to interpretations. In this hour-long activity, your students will get the chance to explore some of their own.

Materials Needed: Shmoop's Questionable Behavior Worksheet, a copy of the text, and/or our Shmoop summary page

Step 1: Have a big class discussion to introduce the play's controversial nature. You might begin with something like this:

  • SAY: If you've anything to do with movies or plays or the theater, everyone always wants to do Shakespeare. Clearly, he's one of the most popular playwrights out there, and The Taming of the Shrew is one of his most frequently produced plays. It's been made into musicals, runs all the time on Broadway, has several movie adaptations, lots of pop references….etc.
  • ASK: Why do you think it's so popular? What do people like about it?
  • ASK: In addition to being one of the more popular plays, it's also one of the more criticized—not for literary technique but for content. What do you think some of these criticisms are?
  • DO: Write their responses on the board (some ideas may include treatment of woman, the idea of owning and taming a woman, physical and emotional abuse).

Step 2: Time to do some analysis. Break the class into five groups, assigning each group one act from the play.

Provide each group with our Questionable Behavior Worksheet to record their responses. The goal is to find five to seven examples of moments from the play that could be interpreted as questionable, inappropriate, abusive, etc. As they complete the activity, they should cite the example, explain the behavior, and identify how it might add humor or context to the story. See the examples at the top of the sheet.

  • If the groups are large, you may want to assign specific scenes to smaller teams within the group (For example, if there are five people doing Act IV, assign Scenes 1 and 2 to half the group, and Scenes 3 and 4 to the other half).

Step 3: When they're finished, have each group share two or three examples with the class.

A word of warning: Depending on the group, they might say that they can't find an example of one or the other, which could actually prompt some interesting discussion or debate. Just be prepared—in this play, it's all about interpretation. You never know what past experiences kids are bringing with them.

Debrief the exercise with a few closing questions:

  • ASK: Were there any other examples of questionable or inappropriate behavior you found that didn't add humor or context to play? Share these with the class.
  • ASK: Why do you think Shakespeare wrote the play? Was he condoning this kind of behavior toward women or was he making a statement about the way women were treated?

Step 4: As a final activity, have the students write an informal essay on their own on the following: What's Shakespeare's intent with Taming of the Shrew: condoning the "taming" of women, raising awareness about the poor treatment of women, or neither: is it just a simple comedy about two strong-willed people who deserve one another?

The essay should be between 300 and 400 words, have an introduction, at least one body paragraph, and use at least two quotes or specific examples from the play.

Instructions for Your Students

Being huge Willie Shakes fan, we're always eager to talk about Macbeth or the Henry Plays—those are paramount works and everyone loves 'em. The Taming of the Shrew, however, not so much. Lots of people find it offensive, put it on the banned book list, and heavily criticize the play for its treatment of woman as objects and things to be tamed. However, in our opinions, controversy usually makes something even more interesting.

In this activity, you're going to take a look at the text and determine whether it really condones the "taming" of women, or if it's just a fun old-fashioned battle of the sexes. It's all open to your interpretation, which we're going to ask you to share.

Let's do this.

Step 1: First up, your teacher's going to lead a class discussion about the following questions:

  • In your opinion, why do you think The Taming of the Shrew is so popular? What do people like about it?
  • In addition to being one of Shakespeare's more popular plays, it's also one of the most criticized. Why might this be?

Step 2: Time to do a bit of analysis. You'll break into groups, and each group will analyze one act from the play.

Get a Questionable Behavior Worksheet. Working with your assigned group, find five to seven examples of behavior in the play that could be interpreted as questionable, inappropriate, abusive, etc. As your group completes the activity, be sure to cite the example, explain the behavior, and identify how it might add context or humor to the story. See the examples at the top of the sheet.

Step 3: Assign a spokesperson for your group and share two or three examples with the class.

Think about the following questions:

  • Why do you think Shakespeare wrote the play? Was he condoning this behavior toward women, was he making a statement about the way women were treated, or was it all just for the sake of comedy?

Step 4: To round things out, you're going to write an informal essay on the following topic: What's Shakespeare's intent in The Taming of the Shrew: condoning the "taming" of women, raising awareness about the treatment of woman, or neither—is it just a simple comedy about two strong-willed people who deserve one another? Take a position and defend it.

The essay should be between 300 and 400 words, have an introduction, at least one body paragraph, and use at least two quotes or specific examples.