Why Do the Induction Scenes Make an Effective Opening To the Play?

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TAMING OF THE SHREW

WHY DO THE INDUCTION SCENES MAKE AN EFFECTIVE OPENING TO THE PLAY? HOW DOES SHAKESPEARE HOLD THE AUDIENCES ATTENTION?

The play has an unusual opening because it has two induction scenes; one set outside an alehouse and the other in the lord's castle, both of which don't have much in common with the main part of the play, although, there are several themes, which run throughout the play such as trickery, love and disguise. This play, The Taming Of The Shrew, is principally a play within a play, this can be described as a concentric box; where and audience are watching actors, which are also an audience of an internal play. The audience are watching the play as a whole, the lord is watching Sly, Sly is watching the play performed by the travelling actors and in that play Tranio and Lucentio watch the Minola family. Shakespeare chose this method of play writing to encourage intrigue towards understanding the characters. In Induction One, Sly is causing a disturbance outside of an alehouse, after refusing to pay for the damage he has caused; there is a vocal dispute and before it is resolved Sly falls asleep on the floor. It is at this point that the Lord, back from a hunt, arrives and discovers him. He and his serving men take him back to the castle and devise a plan to deceive Sly into thinking he's someone he's not. In Induction Two, Sly awakens to discover that he is surrounded by serving men. He protests that he is anyone else but Christopher Sly and calls for an explanation to why they call him lord and honour. This request is met by the justification from all that surround him that he is a great lord that has awoken from a long illness, which has kept him from his duties for the last fifteen years. This trick continues on, eventually with Bartholomew, the pageboy, pretending to be Sly's wife. To keep this game of deceit going, the real lord invites travelling actors to put on a show for Sly. This play was called The Taming Of the Shrew. Shakespeare holds his audiences attention in these induction scenes by making them lively and including themes, which are also used, later in the main play. He introduces characters, such as Sly when he is drunk, who can be associated with the unruly Katherina, who is disrespectful of her family and suitors.
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Shakespeare uses a dramatic, immediate opening, where Sly and the hostess are in the middle of an escalating argument; this can also be described as a comical opening as Sly is being pretentious and makes claims that he is of a higher calibre that what he really than what he really is. He uses misquotations, saying that he and his ancestors came in with Richard the conqueror, uses Latin to make himself seem more educated, threatens court action if the hostess involves the police, this makes him seem though he has a lot money to waste on petty ...

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