Is Katharine a victim of a brutal patriarchal society, or are men presented in the play as fools deceived by women?

Does Katharine only appear to accept the role of a dutiful wife, or has she genuinely relinquished her shrewish nature for that of a good Elizabethan wife? Has Katharine learnt from her husband’s slyness by seeming to conform to Petruchio’s demand for absolute obedience only so she can win the bet that has been made at the play’s end?

Does this perhaps give Katharine every reason to be angry with men? How is Katharine presented as a mere possession of her father’s who can simply use her as an item for trade? Does this perhaps give Katharine every reason to be angry with men? Is Katharine’s anger somewhat driven by Bianca, who places enormous pressure on her elder sister via Baptista’s insistence that Kate must marry first?

Does the marriage scene evoke humour as it was unnatural for Elizabethan women to be as assertive as Katharine? That she refuses to be regarded as Petruchio’s ‘property’? Is the scene making a farcical statement about the convention surrounding arranged marriages? Or is Shakespeare actually confirming that there is some sense to the practice of arranged marriages, especially when the audience, at the play’s end, is presented with a dutiful Katharine and a shrew like Bianca? Which of the marriages does the audience believe will be successful?

Is Petruchcio’s desire to tame Katharine an act of a wicked, mischievous bully? Is Shakespeare displaying his male chauvinism in the play, or is the play about how men, given the opportunity, can abuse women?

Is there the possibility that Katharine has become aware that Petruchio has actually fallen in love with her because of her feisty spirit? And that Katharine is aware of this, leaving the play’s end with some degree of ambiguity as to who got the better of who?

At the play’s end, what irony is the audience presented with when the apparently dutiful Bianca and the Widow are shown to be shrew like?

What makes the play a sophisticated comedy rather than a reinforcement of Elizabethan customs?