The Taming of the Shrew: Mrs F's Three Custom Questions O' Terror!

Kate is truly an unquiet women. She screams and yells to get her way, she throws things, she hits people with sticks and is overall very, very unpleasant. The reason why she is like this is probably because of her father and sister. When suitors came calling, it was always for her sister Bianca, never her. Kate's father made things worse by saying that no one could marry Bianca before Katherine. To revenge herself on Bianca, Katherine becomes even more undesirable.

Petruchio is a loud, boisterous fellow from Verona. He journeys to Padua to marry into a rich family, though he himself is already quite wealthy. He visits his friend Hortensio who, on hearing of Petruchio's goals, points him toward Katherine. Petruchio has attitude of a rich boy who has a high opinion of himself. This makes since because he actually is a rich boy, wandering the world in search of adventure.

Bianca is, at first glance, a quiet women, but on closer examination it is clear that she is a scheming, manipulative younger sister. She uses the goody two shoes act to get under Katherine's skin, and to make matters worse, for Katherine that is, her father adores her, doing anything she ask, short of marriage. Her manipulative sweetness is sort of revenge for her sister's abuse. In the scene where Katherine is chasing Bianca about the house with a stick, Bianca runs to her father for help.

Lucentio is a brave young rich boy from Pisa who had come to Padua to study at the university. He is lovestruck when he first catches sight of Bianca and uses deception and disguises to win her.

Did you think I was done? Haha, me too, but that was just the first question.....here goes.....

In her final speech, Kate outlines what she has learned marriage is. but is this view a biblical one?
In Gen. 3: 16 it says, "...Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Also, in Ephesians 5: 22, 23: "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church." So yes, Kate's speech does describe a biblical marriage.

It is my opinion that  Katherine and Petruchio tamed each other. For Kate it was more a more visible change, but Petruchio was definitely calmer at the end of the play. The last scene is a bet of a private joke between Petruchio and Kate.      

Lesson 4, Thought question 4: Pick Your Poison.

Claudio's reaction to finding out that Hero was innocent was a bit strange. He said that while Dogberry was telling what was what, that he had "...drunk poison whiles he uttered it." The imagery of poison in Shakespeare usually symbolizes death or deception, sometimes both. Borachio used it when hatching the evil scheme with Don John. Both times poison symbolism was used in the play it symbolized death, the near death of Claudio and Hero's marriage, and the death of Don John's deception.                        

Lesson 3 Thought question 3: Beauty

Some say that beauty is skin deep, and Claudio appears to share this option. "For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love, and on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, to turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, and never shall it more be gracious." What he is saying here is this, because of what he thinks Hero did to him he will evermore look upon beauty and see a deadly trap, nevermore to bring pleasure, nevermore to fall in love.     

Lesson 2 Thought question 7: Ill Words of Poison

"One doth not know how much an ill word may empoison liking." Hero may have been talking about the love between Benedick and Beatrice, but she was unknowingly foreshadowing events that would concern her closely. Such as Don John showing Claudio and Don Pedro Hero supposed unfaithfulness, leading up to Claudio ruining the wedding.

Lesson 1 Thought question 3: "The Benedick"

In act 1 scene 1 Beatrice heard that Claudio had become friends with Benedick she called Benedick "the Benedick" as if he were some sort of disease. She said that he was easy to catch, but one could spend a fortune and still not get rid of him. This is ironic because very soon in the play, she will be "infected" by his strange disease.  

Macbeth, Lesson 2, Thought Question 3: "Boy am I brave!"

In Act 2, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth says "That which hath made them [king Duncan's guards] drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire.". What she was saying there was that the liquor that she had given Duncan's guards has made her bold. But right after that an owl screeches and frightens her out of her wits. This confirms Macbeth's earlier statement that God's justice brings the poisoned chalice to our lips, the bad things we do to others come back and do just a much damage to us, if not more. This was an early sign of Lady Macbeth's oncoming madness, and judgement.        

Macbeth, Lesson One Thought Question Five, Concerning Witches

The First Witch was talking about how a women's, perhaps herself, sailor husband had left to go on a sea voyage and how she was going to curse him with all sorts of dreadful things. The events the Witch describes are much alike to the later events in the play, and Macbeth much like the man described by the Witch. Macbeth was cursed to "...waste away in agony." and never to "...catch a wink of sleep, either at night or during the day." One can almost pity Macbeth's situation, for he was a good man, done in by the tricks of the devil and by his own ambition.