The Taming of the Shrew is the only play by Shakespeare that features a framing story. In my paper I will explore why the story of Christopher Sly opens the play and how it contributes to the understanding of the main plot.

Primary Texts

The Induction of The Taming of the Shrew will be the primary source of discussion since it features the vast majority of the Christopher Sly framing story, though this scene does interject once more in Act I. The main story of Petruchio’s taming of Katherine will provide the most of the reasoning for the framing story’s existence while the subplot of Bianca and he suiters will offer a smaller amount of comparison. I will also include material from The Taming of A Shrew as it contains many more interruptions from the framing story.

Working Thesis

The framing story of The Taming of the Shrew gives audiences a jumpstart of the themes of nature vs nurture and disguise in the main plot.

Major Sections.

Nature vs Nurture: The framing story presents the question of whether someone acts the way they do because of their personality or environment. The Lord successfully tests this theory on Christopher Sly, which relates to Petruchio testing of the same theory on Katherine successfully. 

Disguise: The framing story is most similar to the main plot between Petruchio and Bianca, though the theme of disguise in shared between the framing story and the pursuit of Bianca by her suitors.