Relentless Relationships

One theme in the play Taming of the Shrew is relationships are determined by the way you treat others and the way others treat you. Throughout the play, there are accounts of deception, misleadings, and cunning evations from the truth. Many of these scenes are from the actions of Lucentio, Tranio, Grumio, Hortenio, and Petruchio in their attempt to achieve their desires, whether that is Bianca or money by taking on disguises or the identity of another person. In the poem "Daddy", the speaker is feeling distant, neglected, and thinks badly of her father because of the way she was treated by her father. The speaker thinks so badly of her father that she goes to the length of comparing their relationship to the Holacost, her being a Jew and her father a German. The relationships may be different in the two works of literature, but both express a common theme: relationships are deternined by the way you treat others and the way others treat you.

-Sydney B