It's well known that marriage was very different back in Elizabethan times. From dowries to arranged marriages it's very different from today. In Elizabethan times marriage was almost always about money. Money was important in marriage back then because jobs for women were limited, so for financial stability women had to get married to a stable man. Therefore, arranged marriages and dowries were set up to make women more desirable. A good example of this is shown in William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." When the "shrew", Katherine, can't find a suitor, Petruchio shows up and makes a deal with her father to marry her. Though this seems very strange to us this was quite normal for people back in Shakespeare's time because women were treated as a piece of a man's property. People have argued for centuries whether or not the two's marriage is one of love or convenience. Obviously, it's a marriage of convenience. In the play it shows that Petruchio feels he owns Katherine, and Katherine doesn't want to marry Petruchio in the first place.
Petruchio feels he owns Katherine like a piece of property which, back in Elizabethan times was normal. "And thus I have politely begun my reign" (Act 4, scene 1, line 188) said Petruchio during a monologue explaining his plan to tame Katherine after they marry. The word reign explains how he feels like a king over Katherine. When Petruchio comes to Baptista to tell him he wants to marry Katherine, Batista tells Petruchio that he must first win Katherine's love. Petruchio tells Batista ".if I get your daughter's love, what dowry shall I have."(Act 2, scene 1, line 129) . Petruchio only thinks about money before his marriage to Katherine. He asks no other questions about her, he just wants to know what kind of dowry he'll be getting if he does decide to marry her. By this point he already knows that he will probably lie about whether or not Katherine loves him because if there's enough money involved then he doesn't care either way.
