Sunday, November 23, 2008
Christopher Sly
Shakespeare uses the character of Christopher Sly to play with class definitions and open the play up with a funny trick in order to establish the fact that the play will be a comedy. Sly begins the play in a bar with a drinking tab that he cannot pay. After he passes out a group of lords come into the bar and decide to play a trick on him. He wakes up in a beautiful room believing he is a member of the nobility, and at once the lords entertain him with a play, which is the main action of Taming of the Shrew. Christopher Sly is a flat character, and he appears to only desire money and sex, which is an ironic similarity to some of the men in the movie, mainly Petruchio and Hortensio. Sly fails to act as a foil for any character, but he does perform the opposite switch that Lucentio goes through. Sly becomes nobility, while Lucentio goes from nobility to a teacher.
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2 comments:
The outer frame of the story involving Christopher Sly being tricked does not add anything to the plot of the inner frame of the story. It only prepares the audience/reader for the much more important inner frame. Like you said, it tells the audience/reader that the play will be a comedy, and it actually foreshadows the important theme of switching of social class that is present throughout the play.
I really like how you used Sly as a comparison to Petruchio. The way they only seem to care about money and getting ahead really shows the comedy in the play.
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