William Shakespeare - play - ~1590 - p. 69    

The Taming of the Shrew follows the courtship of Katherina and Petruchio, the former a willful and independent woman who is reluctant to enter the relationship and the latter a scheming chauvinist who manipulates his bride into compliance through subtle psychological tricks. Debates over the play’s gender politics have been waged for years; some view it as irredeemably misogynist while others read it as a damning critique of marriage.

The play’s frame narrative involves a nobleman tricking a drunk laborer into believing that he has been out of his wits for years and is actually a nobleman with a “wife,” who is actually a servant in women’s clothes; the former has the play staged to distract the drunkard from his requests for his wife to be sent for.

Key elements: Europe, frame narrative, marriage