Which two characters are central to the major wager?

• A. Kate and Bianca
• B. Petruchio and Lucentio
• C. Katherine and Petruchio
• D. Hortensio and Grumio

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is a bet that drives the entire relationship between the two main players. Petruchio wagers that he can marry Katharine and, through a carefully managed performance of marriage, bend her will to his own. Their dynamic—his tactics, her resistance, and the tests they set each other—is what the wager is about, and it propels the plot forward from courtship to the final display of obedience. Because the wager centers on whether Katharine will conform to Petruchio’s idea of a compliant wife, these two characters are the focus of the major conflict. Other couples and subplots exist, but they don’t carry the central wager in the same way.