Similarities Between Taming Of The Shrew And 10 Things I Hate About You

The movie 10 Things I Hate About You directed by Gil Junger brought the story of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare back to life. This story remains relevant today through the main character of Katherine or the “shrew” and how the change of her personality, the change of her and her suitors relationship, and the change of her character in the plot creates a new story of different romances and creates a new stance on gender roles and misogyny take place within love. The modernization of this play changed this dramatic comedy of a mean and controlled woman written in the 1500s to a very well-known 1990s romantic comedy with a lead feminist character.
The main character of a story can make or break keeping an audience’s attention.

In both pieces, she originally had pushed against having any suitors. In the play, Katherine was more bitter and needed to be very abusive to get her way around things, while in the movie she was more verbal and used her voice to stand up for herself. A quote from the play is when her sister Bianca and Katherine were fighting about a suitor of Bianca and Bianca says “is it for him you do envy me so? Nay, then, you jest, and now I well perceive. You have but jested with me all this while.I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.” and it follows with “Katherine strikes her” (Shakespeare Act 2 Line 21). Katherine had tied her up and hit her to get her point across. She wanted to belittle her sister and shame her for having so many suitors. Now, in the movie one of the arguments that the sister has over one of Bianca’s love interests ended in Bianca saying “You suck.” and Kat imitating her by repeating “You suck.” (Junger) This is a drastic change from Katherine hitting her to now just mocking her sister was a huge difference in personality and how she would interact with her sister and others. Additionally in the movie she would

There was a big difference in how women, especially Katherine, were portrayed and seen in both of the plots. This was also because the play was written and took place in the 1500’s where women were seen as property and the movie took place at a highschool in the 1990’s where women had a lot more rights than before. To start, in the play Petruchio treated her like property saying “to make her come and know her keeper’s call. That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites. That beat and beat and will not be obedient”(Shakespeare Act 4 Line 196) while in the movie she was able to do as she pleased. Additionally, her father treated her well as she was property in the play and wanted to give her away, while in the movie he protected her and was opposed to letting a man take his daughters away. It went from being a very sexist story to having a main feminist character who did not care about disobeying a man. The main plot of the play moved along as treating women as animals and that you had to tame them while the modern rendition changed that to allowing Kat to consent to who she is