The Taming of the Shrew is an article, designed to be comedy, written by William Shakespeare in five-acts (Bevington). It’s framed as a play within a play where a joker is used to tell the tale. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the closest definition of how this comedy uses “induction” is “[t]hat which introduces or leads on or in to something; an introduction. Now rare.” Shakespeare has used this tactic in other works too like A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wikipedia contributors). Since this element is rare to implement, it’s easier for readers to see knowing this why it would be abnormal for Christopher Sly to waltz into a bar telling the tale he only knew how to do. In this world, every reference mentioned collides to bring a new “normal,” but from the beginning, there’s an absurdity to how the world’s rules work. While on this journey to discover truth and find answers, many literary references were made, for example, but not limited to Wordsworth, Mr. Rochester, and Dracula. Including when Christopher Sly walks into a bar one day. The characters are divulging and processing the abnormalities happening in their world. An example, the conversation about The Taming of the Shrew says, “Six years ago an uneducated drunk who spoke only Elizabethan English was found wandering in a confused state just outside Warwick. He said that his name was Christopher Sly, demanded a drink and was very keen to see how the play turned out. I managed to question him for half an hour, and in that time, he convinced me that he was the genuine article – yet he never came to the realization that that he was no longer in his own play” (206). Thursday Next extracts from the witness that it was unusual, but that the SpecOps took him only to never be seen again. The importance of this scene and placement of Shakespearean article in The Eyre Affair are because of the context clues and mysterious undertone. If the audience didn’t get this example as to how something is going wrong in this world, it wouldn’t have as big of an impact later with the additions of Jane Eyre and characters presented. Shakespeare’s article is important because it plays a role in moving Thursday Next through the plot to her next clue and keeping the pace steady. Thursday Next is on a mission to unmask a criminal while also facing Hades – the uncertainty if he’s alive, personal history, and crimes committed by him. Moments like this seem to motivate her to keep digging until she finds the answer she is searching for.  

Works Cited 

Bevington, David. "The Taming of the Shrew". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Mar. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Taming-of-the-Shrew. Accessed 17 April 2022. 

Dockar-Drysdale, Jonathan. Katherina torments Bianca in the 2003 production of The Taming of The Shrew. 2003. Royal Shakespeare Company, Arts Council England, 2003, www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/the-taming-of-the-shrew/story/t.... Accessed 17 Apr. 2022. 

"induction, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/94779. Accessed 17 April 2022. 

Wikipedia contributors. "The Taming of the Shrew." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Apr. 2022. Web. 17 Apr. 2022.