The movie “10 Things I Hate About You” and William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew” are considered to be that of a romantic comedy genre, dealing with relationships, and most importantly ,both conclude with a happy ending. Leaving both the audience and the characters feeling satisfied and cheerful. So how is this movie the same with the play and yet so different?
Social concerns undergo metamorphosis in their portrayal, according to the composers various contextual influences. ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ was a play written by Shakespeare in the Elizabethan era where men were considered to be superior to women. This patriarchal society heavily influenced Shakespeare’s play, as it reflected the traditional values of the Elizabethan era. In contrast, the 20th century had drastically changed, with the first and second waves of feminism, which helped to remove inequalities and gender expectations. However Junger, the director of ‘10 Thing I Hate About You’ has kept the basis of the film based on Shakespeare’s play.
Many actions and ideologies of the characters in The Taming of the Shrew create an overarching conflict between comedy and sexism for most readers. Specifically, the relationships between the men and women introduce controversial topics such as obedience and love which must be questioned thoroughly. The conditions of Petruchio and Katherine’s marriage was more “traditional” in the sense that it was primarily patriarchal, and that Kate was expected to be subservient and obedient. While this is sexist, on the surface, this was not the intended meaning behind the works. Rather, this was meant to convey how outlandish such common ideologies were in an increasingly sophisticated society. By using extreme examples
Unlike Kat’s decision to partake in a relationship with Patrick, a man she is truly in love with, Katherine is manipulated and controlled to marry Petruchio and stay by his side. Her willpower is eliminated and she has no choice but to stay with a man who she believes has her best interests in mind. Petruchio’s abuse in Taming of the Shrew is far more than just verbal. He wants to ensure that Katherine is his subordinate that he starves her and takes away things she wants. As he states in Act IV scene i, “She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat. / Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not / ...And, if she chance to nod, I’ll rail and brawl, / And with the clamor keep her still awake. / This is a way to kill a wife with kindness. / And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor.” He believes that in starving his wife and keeping her awake, she will do anything he wishes to acquire these basic human necessities. Shuqair states it perfectly, “In Act IV, Petruchio's power is further established through Katherine's loss of identity and her subjective vision of the world. Starving her into submission and denying her sleep, Petruchio effects complete mastery over her. All of this violence is done, as Petruchio himself says, ‘in reverend care of her’(IV.i.204), and, as Katherine recognizes, ‘under
Consequently, for the duration of the play The Taming of The Shrew Katherine’s behavior is attributing the struggles of being a victim of reoccurring problems due to manipulation from Petruchio, and Bianca. Furthermore, the characters Bianca and Petruchio are not only victims of their own problems, but also is Katherine who is facing problems as well and her approach to the manipulation is allowing herself to remain easily influenced by her father, plus manipulated by Petruchio and Bianca. Also the possibility of a mental illness hinders her towards being obedient when women shouldn’t be compliant to their husbands, and the struggle of a hindering bipolar disorder is limiting her state of mind.
William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” has had many art forms based off of it, for insistence “10 Things I hate about you”, directed by Gil Junger is one of them. While the plot, characters, and some themes are similar there are also many differences between the stories, allowing the audience to interpret the stories differently.
Love, power and money. All three of these are the most important themes throughout the two films Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You. Out of the two movies, I enjoyed 10 Things I Hate About You more than Taming of the Shrew. The 1999 movie relates closer to society now and I actually understood what they were talking about. After watching both movies and finding out that 10 Things I Hate about You was a take on a shakespearean play that was written in 1592, the similarities and difference between each movie started to show. In both movies the themes of power, love, misogyny and money were all portrayed in various ways.
Kat is a force to be reckon with when we first meet her, as she says what she thinks and doesn’t care what other people have to say. Kat is also very jealous of her younger sister Bianca, as Bianca gets all the men’s attention instead of her. Near the end Kat is listening to her husband and is not talking back anymore. Kat has been tamed by Petruchio and is now no longer a shrew. Kat was at first mean and ruthless and now she is clam and nice, which was a major change of her character from the beginning to the end of the story.
The story The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare is a tale of how a nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Christopher Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself. Christopher being of nobility watches a play about a marriage of Petruchio and a stubborn shrew Katherina (Kate). Throughout this play there are numerous examples of how Petruchio is abusive towards Kate as he attempts to tame her. Petruchio starves Kate along with being extremely careless when dealing with Kate’s feelings. He is very impolite, immature, and knows the best way to tame Kate.
Even the strongest and largest stones can be weathered away into just sediments given enough pressure and time. In The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare, the formidable and feared Katherine Minola meets her match in the vivacious and obstinate Petruchio. With wealth and fame in mind, Petruchio forces Katherine to marry him and attempts to conquer her throughout the story. Initially, Katherine maintains her stubborn behaviour and, at times, even resists Petruchio. However, as the story goes on, she gradually becomes more relenting to Petruchio’s demands. Though some attribute Katherine’s eventual obedience and amiability to her love for Petruchio, her newfound pleasantness is actually a result of his antics to guilt her and wear
Women do not exactly play a large role in any of William Shakespeare’s major works. Taking all factors into consideration, like time period and assumed gender roles, women did not play a significant role in society. During the sixteenth century, at which Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew was written, it was natural for women to be confined to a lifestyle that allowed no independence. Katherine Minola, one of the female protagonists of this play, initially is far from fitting this assumed gender role of her time.
The 1999 teen movie Ten Things I Hate About You is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. It appealed to teens but was still able to keep the key themes and values of Shakespeare’s work evident throughout the film. These themes included romance, the importance of social order, patriarchal values and transformation.
There’s been a lot of questions and discussions about if Shakespeare was being a little bit too cruel or bias in the way he represented women in the play, Taming of the Shrew. There’s a lot of different opinions and in my personal one I think he is non-misogynistic. It was a just a comedy not an insult to woman. People are just being too sensitive about it, and just looking more to it than there actually is. How can we compare or judge something that was written in before the 1600s.
I guess you can say that my story is resolved. In the end, I got married to the man I had previously hated. However, I wish I was independent. Yes I now obey him, but the shrew inside isn’t dead. He sparked interest in me because he wanted to “tame” a shrew and I will forever keep him interested. I still don’t like the idea of being married off, but I have learned to accept my future with him. Katherina they call me, I was an independent woman who addressed no one but herself. I realise looking back how naive I was when I thought that I could win a war against men in this patriarchal society.
Often in works of literature, a character deceives or tricks other people. In the play “Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare, Petruchio does just that, he tricks and deceives his wife Katherine. To deceive someone is to cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage. He deceives Katherine after they get married, he uses it as a part of his taming plan. Petruchio deceives Katherine by denying her food and sleep through intimidation and power control to tame her and give the play its title.