Lucentio is one of Bianca's suitors in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. A young man whose wealthy father has sent him to Padua for a university education, Lucentio is attended by two servants and has been granted enough money to rent luxurious living quarters. He is, however, susceptible to romantic impulses, and as soon as he sees Bianca, his studies are completely forgotten. He can concentrate on only one subject: how to marry the object of his passion.

Similarly to Tranio, Lucentio is a slightly two-dimensional stock character who is used as a contrast with Petruchio and to allow plot advancement. Despite his education, Lucentio is dependent on his servants; Tranio, who does all the intriguing for him, and Biondello who arranges the elopement but has some difficulty making Lucentio understand what he is doing. It is therefore easiest to see Lucentio as a typical romanticist, a university youth insulated from trouble by his rich, indulgent father and the quickness of his two servants. Shakespeare's motivation for introducing this naive character appears to be a method of allowing the servants to explain the complicated plot to the audience.

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