Chi ha paura di Kate? Il rovesciamento delle emozioni ne La bisbetica domata

This article aims at analysing how fear is represented in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Although a first interpretation of the play hints at the fact that fear should be found mainly in Kate, many critics have claimed that this emotion is embodied by other characters as well, especially by Petruchio, who mirrors male anxiety and violent behaviour during the Renaissance. Petruchio’s violence hints at a third reading, which suggests that both Kate and he may be ‘subjects’ and ‘objects’ of fear as they both cause it and feel it as ‘refractions of reality’ and onstage as characters.