What would a character study of taming of the shrews Katharina be like?

When you analyze a character in a Shakespeare play, you
need to find how the character behaves and speaks and also note what the other
characters say about your character. This way you can find clues about the character’s
appearance and personality.

Take Act 1 scene 1, for
example, where you may find a wealth of information introducing Katherina, her behavior,
and how others perceive her. First, notice that Baptista, father to Katherina and her
sister Bianca, enters with his both of his daughters. Katherina, however, speaks her
mind forcefully in this scene while Bianca’s words are modest and humble. This is
revealing because of the status of women Shakespeare’s time: if unmarried, they were
obedient to their fathers; if married, subservient to their husbands. Katherina says
what she thinks and protests to her father, loud enough to be overheard, when he has
resolved to Bianca’s suitors that he will not consider letting Bianca marry until
Katherina is married.

Next in this scene, notice what the
gentlemen say about Katherina. When Baptista invites Gremio and Hortensio to court
Katherina, Gremio replies: “

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To cart her rather. She’s too rough for
me.

Hortensio
adds:

No mates
for you,
Unless you were of gentler, milder
mould.

Read the play closely
and look for other scenes which reveal Katherina’s character through her behavior and
her speech; in addition, note how other characters behave towards her, and what the
other characters say to her and about her. Once you have compiled your notes from the
text, form your own interpretation of Katherina and gather quotations plus their act,
scene, and line numbers for use as support of your interpretation. Include supporting
details you find about her behavior, appearance, personality, thoughts, and
emotions.

As you draft your paper, remember to include in
the introduction the title of the play and the playwright. Include a general thesis
statement that shows your interpretation of Katherina. Add a forecasting preview of the
supporting points you will discuss—appearance, behavior, and emotions, for example.
Before beginning your character study, remember to briefly summarize the play. The body
of your paper can address each of the characteristics you find to support your
interpretation of Katherina in at least a paragraph for each characteristic. Include and
embed quotations from the play to support your points. Finally, your conclusion can
emphasize and summarize your thesis statement and supporting
points.

Write in third person objective so that your
emphasis is on your subject. Remember that a literary analysis is always in present verb
tense. A work of literature comes alive in the present any time it is read—or often in
the case of a play, viewed in performance. For this reason, a literary analysis is in
present tense.

I recommend the site Open Source
Shakespeare, which includes Shakespeare’s complete works and a search tool so that you
may find all of Katherina’s lines or references to her.