Essential #8

Are Petrucio and Katherine in love?

Although Petrucio and Katherine are married, they are definitely not in love. Although Petrucio aggressively pursued Katherine, he did not do it because he was attracted to her. He wanted to tame her: "Thou must be married to no man but me. For I am he am born to tame you, Kate, And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate"(95). All that Petrucio wanted was the challenge of chasing Katherine. In addition to this, Petrucio does not respect Katherine at all. When people are in love, they love the person for who they are. Whether the person is in a good mood, bad mood, angry, sad, or happy, if people are truly in love, the love is always present. Petrucio does not feel this way about Katherine, his goal is to try to change who she is. If he loved her, he would not want her to change. Relationships are about making each other happy, and not about one person serving the other. Petrucio was extreme in forcing Katherine to obey him, even for the time period believing in "An awful rule, and right supremacy"(217). Katherine also knew that if she did not submit to Petrucio and change her ways that her marriage would be horrible. She would rather give up parts of herself to make things run smoothly. None of this is love. Relationships are based off friendships, partnerships, and equality.