Theme of love in The Taming of the Shrew Upeka Eriksen 12th Grade

Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ is a comedy focusing on the taming of the aggressive and verbose Katherine by Petruchio, and through this taming process, as well other elements of the play, the theme of love resonates. We see romantic love, as David Daniell states that is it a “fast moving play about various kinds of romances and fulfillment in marriage”, and also parental, filial and platonic love.

Perhaps the most recognizable form of love in the novel is romantic love, as the play forms almost a deep analysis on the nature of romantic love and the different variations of such love. We are first exposed to the typical Elizabethan courtly love and Lucentio is struck by love for Bianca at first sight, a desperate, overwhelming passion as communicated through the triple structure as he states “I burn, I pine, I perish”, capturing how instantly enthralled he is by Bianca. He continues on with such courtly love imagery as he uses the mythical allusion stating her beauty humbled Jove and he uses the metaphor as he speaks of her “coral lips”. Lucentio uses every cliché love poetry offers and falls in love with the picture of Bianca as he wants to see her, disregarding what she must be like as an individual, and so we see...