"Who in the plays of Shakespeare binds a woman, strikes her and makes her cry? The chances are that you will get the answer, 'Petrucchio.' The correct answer is 'Katherina.' She does all this to Bianca in Act II, Scene i, lines 1-24... Petrucchio never strikes Katherina."
A.D. Nuttall, Shakespeare the Thinker, page 71.
However, Garber sustains that the true shrew in this play is Bianca: Her guile during the courtship, her unauthorized marriage, her refusal to comply with her husband's command.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, my sympathy with translators. particularly with the person who dealt with the term "shrew". Harpía would have been the automatic choice, but Kate is never nagging, so it just would not fit. I don`t particularly care for "fierecilla", but it does show a little more effort on the translator's part. What do you think?