Why does Kate deliver her final speech?

• A. She is forced by Petruchio.
• B. She is earnest and the speech is ironic given her early character.
• C. She did not mean any of it.
• D. She wants to end the play on a joke.

Answer: (B)

The main idea being tested is how Kate’s final speech functions as a nuanced moment that combines appearance with a deeper critique of gender roles. The best answer sees Kate’s closing words as seemingly earnest in voice, presenting a straightforward ideal of wives' obedience, while the irony lies in who she has been earlier in the play and how she has achieved her position. Kate’s prior wit, resistance, and spirited independence set up a tension: if she truly believes in the traditional submission she now articulates, it would be surprising; more compelling is that she uses the rhetoric of obedience to expose, question, or complicate those norms. In other words, the speech can read as a genuine stance, but its irony comes from the audience recognizing that Kate has already manipulated social expectations and that her final cordially submissive posture may be a deliberate performance, one that critiques the idea of obedience as a simple, universal virtue. The other options don’t fit as well because they either reduce her to a mere puppet of Petruchio, suggest she means nothing, or imply the scene’s aim is a joke, which misses the layered purpose of the moment.