10 Things I Hate About You And Taming Of The Shrew

Literary appropriation allows new generations to connect to a great extent to relevant ideas through the reimagination and reframing of historical texts. Originally published in 1594 William Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew conveys the social hierarchy in Elizabethan society and the effect that it had reinforcing and emphasising the low status that women had in the social hierarchy, expressed in the characterisation of Katherine and Petruchio. Gil Junger’s 1999 film, 10 Things I Hate About You, challenges these ideas of the ideal woman in the Elizabethan era, and appropriates it to be more relatable to the new generations. Junger further reframes Shakespeare’s ideas through the idea of social hierarchy, where he uses the social cliques

The two texts nevertheless exemplify the human proclivity that is to impose a society.

Firstly, Shakespeare’s intention of the play was to make a mockery of the social hierarchy that excessively perpetuates gender stereotypes to control and segregate society. “My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty” from ‘The taming of the shrew(1594)’.This is a metaphorical quote as it symbolises that Kate is now tamed as if she were a pet; it conveys that she was once a free falcon soaring far beyond her acquiescence given by society and therefore was shot down to a level that men permitted.“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper” This repetition exposed that as a woman in thet Elizabethan era must conform to her gender’s expectations, obliging to anything that men do, as she as a woman does not have the right to be in charge of herself and must need a man to guide her as a woman couldn’t do it

In Taming of the shrew set in Elizabethan times the social hierarchy is expressed through the use of servants as they symbolise how wealth was a factor in one’s place in the social hierarchy. Servants were at the bottom of this social hierarchy therefore they were allowed to be brutally tormented by anyone in a higher class regardless of their gender. ”Go,get thee gone, thou false deluding slave,” and the stage directions, “beats him'' demonstrate Kate’s dominance over the servants as she yells at the servants using derogatory language and stage directions to reinforce her status over the servant because even though she is a woman, she is a wealthy woman. Being a wealthy woman gives her superiority over a poor man as the social hierarchy was established through wealth before gender in the Elizabethan era. “Cool by association” from 10 things I hate about you(1999) Micheal states this line to reinforce