Christopher Sly, a drunken peddler, is ejected from a pub and falls asleep in the street.

A passing lord discovers the sleeping Sly and plots to trick him into believing he is a wealthy nobleman.

Lucentio arrives in Padua with his servant Tranio, intending to study at the city's famous university.

Baptista declares he will not allow Bianca to marry until someone first agrees to marry Katherine.

Lucentio falls in love with Bianca at first sight and devises a disguise scheme with Tranio to get close to her.

Petruchio arrives in Padua and agrees to woo Katherine, openly declaring his main motivation is her wealthy dowry.

Petruchio and Katherine meet for the first time and exchange a fierce, witty battle of insults.

Petruchio tells Baptista that Katherine has secretly agreed to marry him, and the wedding is arranged for Sunday.

Petruchio arrives at his own wedding absurdly late and wearing outrageous, mismatched, worn-out clothing.

Petruchio refuses to stay for the wedding feast and forces a furious Katherine to depart with him immediately.

Petruchio sends back Katherine's dinner at his estate, claiming the meat is too burned for her to eat.

Petruchio delivers a private monologue revealing his plan to tame Katherine the way a falconer tames a hawk.

Lucentio and Bianca secretly elope while the fake Vincentio keeps Baptista occupied with a marriage agreement.

The real Vincentio arrives in Padua and discovers a merchant has been impersonating him as Lucentio's father.

Katherine delivers a lengthy speech on wifely obedience at the wedding feast, and Petruchio wins the husbands' wager.

The Taming of the Shrew opens with a lord tricking a drunken peddler named Christopher Sly into believing he is a nobleman, framing the entire play as a performance put on for his entertainment. The story proper follows Lucentio, who falls instantly in love with Bianca upon arriving in Padua, while her father Baptista refuses to let her marry until someone agrees to take the famously sharp-tongued Katherine off his hands. Petruchio steps forward as Katherine's suitor, motivated chiefly by her dowry, and after a fierce battle of wits the wedding is arranged — though Petruchio's outrageous behavior at the ceremony shocks everyone present. Back at his estate, Petruchio denies Katherine food and sleep under the guise of protecting her, a calculated method he compares openly to training a falcon. While Katherine endures this taming, Lucentio secretly elopes with Bianca, triggering a confrontation when Lucentio's real father arrives in Padua and finds an imposter in his place. The play concludes at a wedding feast where Katherine delivers an elaborate speech on wifely obedience, winning Petruchio the husbands' wager and leaving the assembled guests marveling at how thoroughly the shrew has been tamed.

The headline events that drive the main story from start to finish.

Sly wakes in the lord's lavish house, initially bewildered, but quickly warms to his new identity as a nobleman.

Bianca quietly agrees to return to her studies while waiting for Katherine to find a husband.

Hortensio and Gremio reluctantly agree to cooperate in searching for a man willing to marry Katherine.

Katherine ties Bianca's hands behind her back, interrogates her about which suitor she prefers, and strikes her.

Baptista interrupts the sisters' quarrel, and a weeping Katherine runs off accusing her father of favoring Bianca.

Hortensio staggers back into Baptista's room bleeding, with a lute Katherine has broken over his head.

Gremio and the disguised Tranio compete with increasingly extravagant financial offers for Bianca's hand in marriage.

Baptista insists whoever marries Bianca must have Lucentio's father Vincentio provide a financial affidavit to back the offer.

Hortensio presents Bianca with a musical scale sheet that is secretly a written declaration of his love.

Bianca coolly rejects Hortensio's disguised love declaration, giving Lucentio a clear advantage in winning her affection.

Tranio tricks a travelling merchant into agreeing to impersonate Lucentio's wealthy father Vincentio.

Petruchio's servants refuse to bring Katherine food, and she must grudgingly thank Petruchio before he hands her a meal.

Petruchio takes Katherine to a haberdasher and tailor but violently rejects every hat and gown they are shown.

The merchant disguised as Vincentio meets Baptista and successfully agrees to a marriage contract for Bianca.

At the wedding feast, Bianca and Hortensio's widow both refuse to come when their husbands call for them.

Beyond the headline drama of Katherine's taming, The Taming of the Shrew is filled with comic secondary moments that reveal the characters' true natures and keep the plot's many schemes in motion. In Baptista's household, the sisters' rivalry erupts in physical violence before the suitors even arrive, and Katherine's weeping exit hints at genuine hurt beneath her sharp exterior. The competition for Bianca's hand quickly becomes a financial auction, with Gremio and the disguised Tranio outbidding each other in increasingly extravagant promises — leaving Tranio in urgent need of a fake father. On the subplot front, Hortensio's disguise as a music tutor backfires when Bianca coolly dismisses his hidden love letter disguised as a musical scale, and he later catches Bianca and Lucentio openly flirting. After abandoning the chase for Bianca, Hortensio quietly exits the competition and Tranio recruits a travelling merchant to play Vincentio, sealing a fraudulent marriage contract with Baptista. At the climactic wedding feast, the true natures of both Bianca and the widow are exposed when they refuse their husbands' summons, setting Katherine's surprising obedience in sharp relief.

The supporting scenes that flesh out the comedy's world and characters.

A pageboy is dressed as a woman to pose as Sly's wife during the lord's elaborate trick.

Lucentio and Tranio swap clothes to begin their disguise scheme, and a bewildered Biondello is brought into the plan.

Hortensio warns Petruchio that Katherine is notoriously ill-tempered throughout Padua, but Petruchio declares he is completely undeterred.

Petruchio privately resolves to use reverse psychology on Katherine, praising her for the opposite of whatever she does.

Petruchio presents his friend Hortensio to Baptista as a music tutor so Hortensio can spend time near Bianca.

Lucentio secretly reveals his true identity to Bianca by embedding a message inside a Latin translation lesson.

Hortensio catches Bianca and Lucentio openly canoodling during a lesson and throws off his tutor disguise in disgust.

Hortensio abandons the pursuit of Bianca and resolves to marry a wealthy widow who has long admired him.

Grumio arrives at Petruchio's estate ahead of the newlyweds to warn the household servants of Petruchio's wild behavior.

Biondello secretly informs Lucentio that everything is in place for him and Bianca to elope that evening.

Petruchio insists the blazing sun is actually the moon, and an exasperated Katherine finally relents and agrees with him.

Petruchio greets the real Vincentio as a beautiful young maiden on the road, and Katherine enthusiastically joins the game.

Vincentio reveals his identity and learns with displeasure that his son Lucentio has secretly married without his consent.

Petruchio refuses to travel onward until Katherine agrees to kiss him in the street, and she does so willingly.

Katherine offers to kneel at Petruchio's feet as a token of submission, and he requests a kiss instead.

The Taming of the Shrew is driven by a series of pivotal decisions and revelations that shift the direction of every subplot. The play's interest in performance begins immediately with the lord's trick on Sly, which is extended by dressing a pageboy as a woman — a moment that quietly reminds the audience that all identity is costume. Lucentio and Tranio's decision to swap roles sets the entire Bianca subplot into motion, while Petruchio's private resolution to use reverse psychology on Katherine marks the moment his calculated taming campaign truly begins. The campaign reaches its emotional turning point on the road to Padua, when Katherine finally agrees to call the sun the moon, signaling not just defeat but the beginning of a playful collaboration between husband and wife. This new partnership is tested joyfully when the couple encounters the real Vincentio and Katherine joins Petruchio in teasing him as a beautiful young maiden. The cascade of unmasking that follows in Padua — the fake father exposed, the eloped couple revealed — forces every deception into the open at once, setting up a final act in which Katherine's surprising kiss in the street and her closing gesture of submission bring the play's themes of performance and identity to their complex, ambiguous resolution.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that turn the story at every stage.