Shakespeare introduces the play using a frame story, establishing the theme of disguise and performance. Rather than asking the audience to suspend their disbelief and accept the story as truth, Shakespeare draws the audience’s attention to the fictional nature of the play: the story itself is a play for fictional characters. Within the play, this theme continues: most characters assume the role of someone else. Lucentio and Hortensio disguise themselves as teachers and attempt to woo Bianca, Tranio disguises himself as Lucentio, and the merchant disguises himself as Vincentio. Even Petruchio and Katherine can be seen as playing roles. After their wedding, Petruchio must play the role of a madman to wear down Katherine’s spirit. At the end, she adopts the role of a subservient wife.

All of these disguises and performances highlight the performative nature of Shakespeare’s society. Everyone must perform their class and gender role in order to be accepted. However, by placing low characters in the roles of high-born characters, the play also points out the fluid nature of these roles: if anyone can believably play a rich man, then there is nothing inherent that distinguishes the rich from the poor. Instead, class is merely a socially-reinforced belief. The transition of Katherine from “shrew” to wife—combined with the fact that her character, in Shakespeare’s time, would have been played by a male actor—arguably frames gender as a similar social performance, albeit one with stricter rules and penalties for failure.