Source: "The Morality of Farce: The Taming of the Shrew," in Essays in American and English Literature Presented to Bruce Robert McElderry, Jr., edited by Max F. Schulz with William D. Templeman and Charles R. Metzger, Ohio University Press, 1967, pp. 165-76.

[In The Taming of the Shrew, Ribner maintains, Shakespeare presents two views of marriage and ridicules both by placing them within the dramatic context of the Induction. The critic argues that the principal issue con fronting Sly is "the identity of women and the true na ture of the seemingly dutiful and loving wife. " This theme of deceptive identity recurs throughout the Bianca.Lucentio subplot, Ribner remarks, and is most fully developed in the central action, where the effect of Petruchio's "shrew taming" is to confuse Katherina about appearance and reality. The critic sees in the final scene of the play only an apparent return to...