Lucentio: The Scholar Who Stopped Studying

Lucentio arrives in Padua in Act 1 Scene 1 to study philosophy. He sees Bianca and abandons the plan immediately. He persuades his servant Tranio to swap identities with him: Tranio will pretend to be Lucentio while Lucentio becomes a Latin tutor to get close to Bianca. It is the kind of decision a person makes when they have decided what they want and education is not it.

His wooing of Bianca through Latin lessons works because Bianca chooses it to work. She could expose him at any moment. She does not, because she prefers him to the other men competing for her attention. When they secretly marry in Act 3, they make the decision together.

He loses the wager in Act 5 because Bianca will not come when called. He is genuinely surprised. He spent the whole play pursuing a woman who seemed compliant, and she married him as an act of will. Now that she is married, the compliance was always conditional.