Illusion vs. Reality Generally, people have the tendency to judge individuals by their appearance, exactly the way they judge a book by it’s cover. However, appearance doesn’t always help reveal a person’s true colors. In the play, The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare portrays this perception of illusions vs. reality through three major plots, which are the Induction with Christopher Sly, the Petruchio/Katharina debacle, as well the Katharina/…showed first 75 words of 1498 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1498 total…accomplish something, which in this case was to tame Katharina. In addition, it is apparent to the reader that Bianca has been the shrew throughout the play when the men create a wager to see who’s wife would obey them. Katharina is the only true, obedient wife at the end of the play. Therefore, one can tell that Shakespeare uses these illusions to show how the actors conned people into getting what they wanted.