ABSTRACT
Despite their dubious beginnings, Katherine and Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1594) create a compatible marriage for themselves that contains what I describe as a gaming element because the characters learn to privilege the private sphere, and in so doing, share an exclusive “in-joke” with one another. This essay analyzes the deliberate separation of space and the various personae that must be fashioned during the process for the marriage to survive and benefit its members, and employs Jürgen Habermas’s theory of spherical construction in conjunction with Philippe Ariès’s work on the emergence of a private life in England to do so. 1 Further, I will argue that Petruchio’s tactics of positive reinforcement in his unconventional wooing of Katherine allow her in turn to create a private space for herself within her marriage, as she eventually deems the public sphere to be immaterial or inessential, literally without essence; such a revelation provides her the means whereby she can escape both her damaged public reputation, as well as her self-serving, adversarial father Baptista. This leads me to read her problematized final speech as not to be taken literally nor dismissed as merely ironic, but instead to be viewed as an inessential public speech act, which reveals how Katherine privileges a marital interiority.
