Setting the Scene

In act 3 scene II of The Taming of the Shrew, the setting starts out in the daytime before Kate and Petruchio’s wedding is to take place. This is evident when Petruchio says to Baptista “But what a fool am I to chat with you/ When I should bid good morrow to my bride” (lines 123-124). Petruchio officially declares that it is morning time. Another indication of the time is the many times the characters say the word “day.” In Shakespeare’s time, the word “day” typically signifies morning as oppose to a specific date. Baptista says “this is the ‘pointed day/ That Katherine and Petruchio should be married” (lines 1-2).
Shakespeare also hints at the scene’s mood through the characters’ language. When Biondello enters the scene with the description of Petruchio’s ridiculous wedding attire, readers get an idea of the wedding’s unserious environment. If the groom did not care about looking traditionally appropriate for his wedding, why should anyone else take the event seriously? Katherine’s and Petruchio’s wedding turns out to be a joke not only because of Petruchio’s ridiculous attire, but also due to the lack of love and gravity. Bapatista’s reply to Petruchio’s attire is “I am glad he's come, howsoe'er he comes” (line 73), which basically means he did not care about anything other than getting Katherine married away, it did not even matter if the husband is rude, arrogant, selfish, stubborn, and very odd. Petruchio displays the lack of love in his marriage to Katherine when Katherine bids him to stay by saying “Now, if you love me, stay” (line 209), to which Petruchio replies “Grumio, my horse” (line 210). The shrew’s one attempt at being a polite and kind woman is unnoticed and shot down by her very own husband. In addition, Petruchio claims Katherine as his property, no different than “my goods, my chattels; she is my house,/ My household stuff, my field, my barn,/ My horse, my ox, my ass, my anything” (lines 236-238). Although Petruchio’s and Katherine’s marriage is legitimate under the law and God, Petruchio treats the marriage as a lighthearted event even though a lifelong commitment is a very serious pledge. Other characters contribute to the unserious mood as well, such as Baptista and his disregard to Petruchio’s behavior and Katherine’s feelings.