Bianca as the Shrew
In The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Katherine is the shrew the title is referring to, but her sister Bianca has quite the personality of her own.
When we first see how Bianca manipulates people to get her way, she is alone in a room with her sister. Katherine has her tied up and is chasing her around. Bianca says, “Yea, all my raiment to my petticoat, / Or what you will command me will I do, / So well I know my duty to my elders.” Here she seems to be acquiescing to her sister by pledging to do what she asks, but she really doesn’t plan on telling her sister anything.
Katherine asks which of her suitors she likes the best, but Bianca says she hasn’t decided. She answers the rest of the questions in a seemingly compliant attitude, but is following her orders in a
white mutiny just to get her mad. Katherine strikes her just as
Baptista comes into the room. Bianca starts crying in order to get protection from him. He scolds Katherine and protects Bianca long enough to separate her from her sister. She perfectly
manipulated both her sister and her father to get what she wanted, her sister to leave her alone and her father’s favor and protection, while still seeming to be well-mannered.
Later, she discourages her suitors from pursuing her, so she can be with Lucentio. She also probably knows about the pedant pretending to be Lucentio’s father, but doesn’t care to tell her father.
At the end of the play, Shakespeare makes it very obvious who is now the shrew. Petruchio makes a bet that Katherine is now more docile than both Bianca and Hortensio’s widow. Bianca says she is too busy to come to her husband, but Katherine comes immediately. Bianca is exerting her independence and power over her husband, while Katherine is proving to be docile and obedient.
Bianca means ‘white’ in Italian, which is usually associated with purity and gentleness. Shakespeare lets us think in The Taming of the Shrew that Bianca is a very pure and gentle woman, but her actions later in the play prove otherwise.
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