In more recent decades, the novel has been strongly criticized for its central plot element: the idea that rape leads to love[3][6] i.e. forced seduction. Other criticisms have been directed at ideas closely related to the central rape plot: that for women, sexual submission is a necessary and natural condition; and that rape is excused by marriage. There has been much criticism of various Orientalist and colonialist elements, such as the fact that interracial love between an Englishwoman and a "native" is avoided and the rape ultimately justified by having the rapist turn out to be European rather than Arab.[6] With its plot centered on the subjugation of a willful woman, The Sheik has been compared to The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.