Petruccio Greed

The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, illustrates an interesting marriage situation involving two sisters and their many suitors. Although Shakespeare considered the play a comedy because the main character does not die, it maintains a negative tone throughout the play. None of the characters in the play display virtuous characteristics, but Petruccio stands out as the least saintly person in the play because of his greed and domineering nature.
Petruccio first exemplifies his evil personality when he first arrives in Padua and he visits Hortensio to discuss his troubles and future plans. In the first glimpse of Petruccio, he yells at his servant Grumio to the point where Grumio yells out for help because he knows bad things happen
when his master gets mad. After Hortensio arrives, Petruccio tells him how he wants to find someone to marry, but he does not care who he marries as long as they can provide him with extreme wealth. He explains this by saying, “Affection’s edge in me, were she as rough/ As are the swelling Adriatic seas./ I come to wive wealthily in Padua;/ If wealthily, then happily.” (The Taming of the Shrew 1.2.72). After he says this Hortensio informs him about Katherine, a rich man’s daughter who no one wants to marry and then Petruccio decides Katherine will become his wife so he can tame her and have her money.
The rest of Petruccio’s evil becomes exposed in Act 4, Scene 1, when Kate, Grumio, and Petruccio all head back to Petruccio’s country house.
Grumio arrives first explaining to the other servants that Petruccio sent him ahead to organize all the servants to prepare them for the arrival of his new wife. Upon his arrival, Petruccio becomes furious because his wife fell in the mud and both of their horses ran away. He unveils his anger to Kate when he brutally scolds all of his servants for failing to attend to him properly. By saying, “You peasant swain, you wholesome, malthouse drudge,/ Did I not bid thee meeting me in the park/ And bring these rascal knaves with thee?” (The Taming of the Shrew 4.1.115). This extremely vulgar use of words represents the true evil within
Petruccio.
The third demonstration of Petruccio's immoral nature reveals itself when he explains his ultimate plan to fully tame Kate, his wife who everyone calls a shrew.
His plan first takes form when they receive dinner and Petruccio claims the dish tastes burned and then proceeds to knock the whole dinner off the table in a fit of frustration. He does all of this as a plan to starve Kate without actually telling her he will not let her eat. He plans to do the same thing with her sleep and he explains the whole plan when he says, “She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat/ She slept not, nor tonight she shall not/… That is all done in reverent care of her/ And in conclusion she shall watch all night,/ And if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl/ And with the clamour keep her still awake./ This is a way to kill her with kindness,/ and thus curd her mad and headstrong humor.” (The Taming of the Shrew
4.1.183)
William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew displays a pair of sisters and the trouble their suitors go through to wed them. The general tone of the play seems negative because all of the characters in the play have serious flaws exposed during the play. Petruccio demonstrates evil behavior and attitude more than anyone else because of his selfish and controlling personality.