This play takes place in the English countryside and in and around Padua, Italy (_Shmoop_). The play opens with an Induction as the reader meets Christopher Sly as he is being thrown out of a tavern. Christopher Sly stumbles upon a group of actors who present a play to him; this play Sly watches has an eerily similar plotline to the main story of The Taming of the Shrew. The major conflict of the story revolves around a character named Petruchio attempting to tame Katherine though everyone warns him against such an idea. The Taming of the Shrew is told in a light and comic tone but oftentimes leads to a more serious and urgent tone; a play within a play. According to Goodreads, this play is “renowned as Shakespeare’s most boisterous comedy”
