Well Rounded Petruchio

Petruchio is a round character in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. He comes onto the stage as a man who is very interested in the challenge of courting a young woman, Katherine, whom he only knows to be a horrible person with a rich father. He sets his eyes on his bag of gold and nothing he hears about Katherine can deter him from wanting to acquire her. He meets up with his old friend Hortensio who wants him to wed Katherine. Hortensio goes on to describe her as "a shrewd ill-favored wife... intolerable curst, and shrewd, and froward, so beyond all measure that, were my state far worser than it is, I would not wed her for a mine of gold...Renowned in Padua for her scolding tongue," to which Petruchio responds, "I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her." This makes Petruchio seem a bit odd right from the start. It seems as if the more he hears about how horrible this woman is, the more he wants her. He is not only greedy, but he seems to relish the challenge of Katherine. He is one of the only characters who really moves the story forward because he takes on the challenge in a very flamboyant fashion and he has very strong character traits that allow him to act in ways that create friction and action. He shows up at his wedding attired in a way made to humiliate Katherine at her own wedding, then goes on to treat her as an animal in order to tame her.

The amazing thing about Petruchio is that he is such an oddball, and treats people with such disrespect, yet his plan actually works... and works well! He does marry Katherine, an act which allows another portion of the story to move forward, that of Katherine's sister Bianca's marriage; he then goes on to tame her and make her into an obedient and gentle wife. He starts out with the woman no other man would want, and turns her into the one they all wish they had.