The Taming of the Shrew

Characters:

• Katherine
• daughter of Baptista Minola
• "shrew" of the play's title
• sharp-tongued, quick-tempered and prone to violence
• eventually submits to her suitor Petruchio
• Petruchio
• gentleman from Verona
• wants nothing more than a wife with a large dowry
• succeeds in wooing Katherine and silencing her tongue and temper
• Bianca
• younger daughter of Baptista
• opposite of Katherine - sweet, soft-spoken and unassuming
• has many suitors because of her large dowry and mild behavior but Baptista will not let her marry until Kate is wed
• Baptista
• one of the wealthiest men in Padua
• good-natured but superficial
• desperate to find Kate a suitor
• Lucentio
• young student from Pisa
• falls in love with Bianca at first sight
• disguises himself as a classics instructor named Cambio and convinces Gremio to offer him to Baptista as a tutor for Bianca
• his impersonation gets him into trouble when Vincentio, his father, visits Padua
• Tranio
• Lucentio's servant
• assumes Lucentio's identity and bargains with Baptista for Bianca's hand
• Gremio and Hortensio
• Bianca's suitors at the beginning of the play
• although rivals, they become friends because of their rejection by Bianca
• Grumio
• Petruchio's servant and the fool of the play
• Biondello
• Lucentio's second servant who assists his master and Tranio in carrying out their plot
• Christopher Sly
• principal character in play's induction
• a drunken thinker tricked by a nobleman into believing he is a lord

Plot summary

• Christopher sly, a poor tinker becomes the target of a prank by a local lord. The lord's men take Sly, who is drunk, to his manor, dress him in his finery, and treat him as a lord.
• When Sly recovers, the men tell him that he is a lord and that he only believes he is a tinker because he has been insane for the past few years. Sly does not believe them at first, but when he hears about his "wife," a pageboy dressed in women's clothes, he readily agrees that he is indeed a lord. Sly wants to be alone with his wife but the men tell him that a troupe of actors has arrived to present a play for him. This play is the main story of the play.
• In Padua, a young man name Lucentio arrives with Tranio and Biondelook his servants, to attend the university. Lucentio immediately falls in love with Bianca.
• However, Bianca already has two suitors, Gremio and Hortensio. Furthermore, Baptista, Bianca's father, has declared that no one may court Bianca until her older sister, Katherine, is married.
• Lucentio decides to overcome these problems by disguising himself as Bianca's Latin tutor. Hortensio disguises himself as her music teacher. Tranio disguises himself as Lucentio in order to confer with Baptista the possibility of marrying his daughter.
• Hortensio's friend Petruchio arrives in Padua with the intention of marrying a rich wife. He agrees to marry Katherine without seeing her. When they meet, Katherine insults Petruchio, but Petruchio wants to marry her anyway and tells Baptista that Katherine has consented. A wedding is set.
• On the wedding day, Petruchio is late, and Katherine fears she will become an old maid. Petruchio arrives in a ridiculous outfit and on a broken-down horse. After the wedding, Petruchio forces Katherine to leave for his house before the feast, telling everyone that she is now his property. Once they are at his country house, Petruchio prevents Katherine from eating or sleeping for several days under the pretense that he loves her so much he cannot allow her to eat his inferior food or to sleep in his inferior bed.
• In Padua, Lucentio wins Bianca's heart by wooing her with a Latin translation that declares his love. Hortensio tries the same with a music lesson but Bianca loves Lucentio. Tranio secures Baptista's approval by proposing a huge sum of money to lavish on her. Baptista agrees but says that he must have this sum confirmed by Lucentio's father before the marriage. 
• Tranio and Lucentio enlist the help of an old schoolmaster to pretend to be Lucentio's father. However, while the pedant is speaking to Baptista, Lucentio and Bianca decide to simply elope.
• Katherine and Petruchio return to Padua to visit Baptista. On the way Petruchio forces Katherine to say that the sun is the moon and that an old man is a beautiful maiden. Katherine complies. The couple meet Vincentio, Lucentio's father, on the way to Padua to see his son. 
• In Padua, Vincentio is shocked to find Tranio masquerading as Lucentio. Bianca and Lucentio arrive to spread the news of their marriage and both fathers agree to the marriage.
• At the banquet following Hortensio's wedding to a rich widow, the other characters are shocked to see that Katherine seems to have been "tamed". When the three new husbands - Lucentio, Petruchio and Hortensio - stage a contest to see which of their wives will obey first when summoned, everyone expects Lucentio to win. However, Bianca sends a message back refusing to obey, while Katherine comes immediately. The others acknowledge that Petruchio has won an astonishing victory and the couple leave the banquet to go to bed.