Kiss Me Kate Character Analysis

My mother always tells me, “thoughts become things.” I’m not sure if she tells me this as a parent, or as an AP Psychology teacher, but those words rang true in relation to the performance of Kiss Me Kate. To me, this saying illustrates how one thing can manifest or hold true in another way. In other words, how what someone thinks or believes in their mind, becomes clear on the outside or even in reality. For example, if you were to flood your mind with negative thoughts about what you couldn’t do, you wouldn’t accomplish very much; only a positive mindset will help someone achieve his or her goal.
In the case of Kiss Me Kate, the actors playing main roles, had two characters to play: his or her character in Kiss Me Kate played a character in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Due to the “play inside of a play” structure, we saw how both characters, each actor is responsible for playing, morphed into each other as the play progressed. Comparing those two characters to thoughts and things, this second level showed how each respective character was influenced by his or her secondary role and vice versa. …show more content…
When a character had something on their mind, like the anger over wrongly delivered the flowers, their secondary role in Taming of the Shrew, was influenced by their thoughts. Lilli broke character, as she deviated from the script and acted in a role that seemed to despise Petruchio (played by Fred) even more, as she let her anger and towards her ex husband into her performance on stage. Fred who wants nothing more than his production to succeed for the money parallels Petruchio’s utmost desire to marry Katharine for the money. Fred’s frustration with his ex wife’s difficult behavior causes him also to break from his character as he spanks her on stage. When Lilli leaves, Fred’s suppressed feelings of love for her come out, just as the show cannot go on without Katharine, Fred cannot live without