Shakespeare has set up two distinctly volatile personalities in Petruchio and Katherine. Although what we know of Kate so far comes largely through what other's say of her, we know her well enough to know that if their accounts are even partially correct, the action will explode when she meets Petruchio.
Just as the theme of marriage, its purposes and forms, expands in this scene, so too does the number of disguises. Hortensio, rejected as a suitor to Bianca, is determined to work his way into Baptista Minola's house. In disguising himself as a music tutor, he believes, as does Lucentio, that he can get the upper hand on the competition for Bianca's love. What he doesn't realize, of course, is that Lucentio has the same plan. (In reality, Hortensio doesn't even know Lucentio is his competition. Hortensio believes Gremio is his only rival.) Shakespeare makes sure to let the audience in on the joke, allowing us to wait for comic moment when the two tutors are welcomed into Baptista's house.
In Act I, Scene 2, we again meet Gremio, accompanied this time by Lucentio. At his second appearance in so many scenes, spectators again see Gremio's comic flatness. His lack of depth serves two distinct purposes. First it makes it impossible to identify with him and, in turn, makes Lucentio's plan to best him quite comic. Rather than doing Gremio's bidding as he is supposed to do when, disguised as a tutor, he enters the Minola household, we know Lucentio will be advancing his own case as Bianca's suitor. We have little sympathy for Gremio. Instead, we smile to see such a ridiculous old man exercising such poor judgment in his quest for a beautiful young girl. The comic flatness of Gremio also keeps spectators firmly aware that what is unfolding on the stage is, in fact, a comedy, not a slice of life (information that will need to be remembered in Act V).
