Shakespeare's Stage

Act three, scene two does a great job at using language to get the reader to imagine what the characters looked like and how they acted during the wedding. The wedding isn’t actually staged in front of us, but rather it is described to the reader by someone who was at the wedding. Shakespeare also writes in clues to the reader earlier in the scene about the time of day it takes place, where it takes place, and how strangely Petruccio was dressed for the wedding.

The scene opens with clues about the time of day and which day it is. Baptista says, “Signoir Lucentio, this is the ‘pointed day/ That Katherine and Petruccio should be married…” (1-2). Petruccio, after he arrives says, “The morning wears. ‘Tis time we were at church” (112). From these clues worked into the dialogue, we get the day, the time of day, and the setting and purpose of the scene. The main conflict in the scene is the ridiculous manner in which Petruccio arrives to his own wedding. His clothing is described in lengthy detail by a servant who has arrived ahead of Petruccio and Grumio. This is a completely overwhelming description to Baptista and Tranio, but to the audience it is easy to find the comedy in his appearance even before he arrives. The audience is also able to guess at why he is dressed so absurdly. Tranio says, “’Tis some odd humor pricks him to this fashion…” (71). This gives a huge clue to the audience that Petruccio dressed like this on purpose, and we are able to infer that it is to embarrass and bewilder Katherine. Later in the scene, we don’t actually witness the wedding, but Shakespeare writes in a brilliantly humorous description of the unorthodox wedding. Gremio says, “This mad-brained bridegroom took him in such a cuff/ That down fell priest and book, and book and priest” (165-66). When we get a description of something funny from another person, it becomes funnier as we try to relive it in our imagination. This is why this secondary view of the wedding was so effective at capturing the humor and ridiculousness of the situation Petruccio is causing.