Katherine's Final Speech in The Taming of the Shrew

Katherine's final speech in The Taming of the Shrew, promotes an opposition of critical analyses for the notion of transformation, more specifically it incurs a difference of opinion over the transformation of Katherine from an unrelenting shrew to the compliant ideal of 17th century womanhood. Some may argue that her final speech represents her sincere transformation to a subservient wife, that Petruccio helped to unlock her true self in his taming methods, while others contend that she is simply a broken woman who can no longer profess herself due to the torturous methods of taming enforced upon her by Petruccio. However, both of these explanations gloss over many aspects of the play and Katherine and Petruccio's relationship that formulate her final speech as a complex web of both transformation and role-playing.

Before one can begin to interpret whether or not Katherine endured a complete transformation to a domesticated, subservient wife there must be an understanding of the true nature of Katherine's relationship to Petruccio. Katherine's quick-witted tongue and spirit is what initially attracts Petruccio. Their first meeting is evident to this claim as their banter is filled with spirited insults and sexual metaphors:

Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
Petruccio: My remedy then is to pluck it out.
Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies.
Petruccio: Who knows not where a wasp does where his sting? In his tail
Katherine: In his tongue
Petruccio: Whose tongue?
Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
Petruccio: What with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again good Kate, I am a gentlemen. (2.1 208-214)
Katherine, too, is wooed by Petruccio's clever tongue in this scene, since she has finally found her match in character and demeanor. Petruccio persistently disarms Katherine with his refusal to acknowledge the "shrew" in her. When she chides him, he responds in flattery:
Katherine: I chafe you when I tarry. Let me go.
Petruccio: No, not a whit. I find you passing gentle. 'Twas told me you were rough and coy and sullen, and now I find report a very liar, for thou art gamesome, passing courteous…(2.1 234-239)

Katherine is aware that her actions are far from "courteous"; yet she never claims his flattery to be lies. It is perhaps the first time a man has ever deemed her as worthy of compliments and she accepts them in her own way.
It is apparent through Katherine's and Petruccio's dialogue that they are equals is language and spirit; however they are not equals in social and political aspects and it is this fact that drives both Petruccio and Katherine to redirect her stubborn and aggressive spirit away from himself, and men in general, towards people deemed acceptable to receive her abuse, such as women.

It is hard believe that Petruccio intended to annihilate Katherine's spirit, as it was her spirit that originally entranced him. Instead he intended to tame it, to bring it under his control in order to give Katherine the means necessary to be his wife. Petruccio says, "For I am born to tame you, Kate and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate comfortable as other household Kates" (2.1 268-270). He sees the untamed nature of Kate as a hindrance to her ever finding the necessary financial and social security that only a husband can bring to a woman at this time. His taming methods are harsh, even cruel at times, but they are successful in manipulating her behavior towards him.

His domination over her is finally complete when in 4.6 Kate calls the sun the moon and an old man a "budding virgin" simply at his request. Katherine acquiesces to him and in a way transforms to the obedient feminine ideal in order to comfortably reside as his wife.

Her worldly wants and needs may be met by Petruccio if only she can serve his will, and thus she learns to do so. Her want of a husband and the things that he is capable of providing is apparent in her final speech when she says, "Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee…" (5.2 150-151).

However, this speech does not accurately depict the complete transformation of Katherine. Just as Petruccio won Katherine over with flattery that was obviously not based on his true perception of her, Katherine wins Petruccio as a loving and endowing husband with her compliance to his will in this concluding speech. Both Petruccio and Katherine are aware that her spirit of aggression is not dead, just redirected towards others, such as the widow in 5.2. Petruccio is even proud of her temperament towards the other women exclaiming, "A hundred marks my Kate does put her down" (5.2 36). Her spirit survives but it is her role that changes from unmarried shrew to obedient wife. It is through this change, or transformation, that she enables herself to survive in a world solely dominated by men.