THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

The Taming of the Shrew



The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is the only play by Shakespeare which has an “induction” or anterior section that introduces the main action. In the induction, which is set in Shakespeare's native Warwickshire, an unconscious drunken tinker is taken to the house of a lord, dressed in fine clothes, and made to think he is a lord who has been comatose for fifteen years. Convinced he is indeed a lord, Sly begins to speak in blank verse and agrees to watch a play performed by traveling players, namely The Taming of the Shrew. At the end of the first scene, Sly is already bored with the play and exclaims “Would 'twere done!” He is never heard from again (Shakespeare, 1971).

This induction, which at first sight appears irrelevant, dramatizes a recurring theme in all of Shakespeare's comedies and the central theme of this play, namely the deceptiveness of appearances. Sly mistakes the opulence of his surroundings for his true reality and thinks he is a lord rather than a poor tinker of Burton-heath. In the play proper, many of the characters pose as people other than themselves and are responded to in guises not of their true nature. In the subplot, Lucentio, in order to woo Bianca, trades places with his servant Tranio and further takes on the role of Cambio, a schoolmaster hired by Gremio, to woo Bianca for himself. Hortensio, another suitor to Bianca, assumes the role of Litio, a music teacher, to gain access to her. Late in the action, a pedant is coerced to play the role of Vincentio, the father of Lucentio. When the true Vincentio appears on the scene, the disguises of the subplot are finally revealed (Shakespeare, 1971).

In the major plot, ...