A feast is held to celebrate three marriages: Kate and Petruchio, Bianca and Lucentio, and the widow and Hortensio. After some witty banter, the men start arguing about which of them has the more obedient wife. Petruchio proposes a bet: the man whose wife comes when she’s called will win the bet. Lucentio and Hortensio are eager to take the bet, thinking Petruchio will lose for sure. But when Lucentio and Hortensio each send for their wives in turn, their summons are ignored. Then, when Petruchio sends Grumio to fetch Kate, she promptly returns to find out what her husband wants from her—to everyone’s surprise.

Then Petruchio tells Kate to go get Bianca and the widow. Bianca and the widow can’t believe that Kate is doing whatever her husband tells her to. Petruchio tells Kate to teach these women a lesson, and she launches into her long and now famous speech about the duties a wife owes her husband. When she ends by offering her hand for Petruchio to step on if it would “do him ease,” Lucentio admits that Petruchio has won the bet. Petruchio asks for a kiss from Kate, and then announces that the two of them are headed to bed—leaving the other characters, and the audience, wondering what just happened.