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Thread: Comparison Taming of the Shrew and movie 10 things I hate about you

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    Post Comparison Taming of the Shrew and movie 10 things I hate about you

    I have to compare the play "Taming of the Shrew " and the movie 10 things I hate about you, but I don't have a clue what to write about.

    I do know that I want to write about the difference/comparison of the characters and storyline. But I need one more topic.

    I need inspiration for the comparison of the storyline. What is the same and what is different ??

    I also need to use quite a lot of quotes from the original play. And again I don't have a clue what to write about :$

    I really really really really really hope that someone can help me !!!!!

    thnx
    xxx
    Kelly

    (p.s: the essay has to be 1000 words, so I have to use full explanations)

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    I have heard this comparison many times, and, because I had such a wonderful English teacher in high school, years ago, after reading Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew, we watched 10 Things I Hate About You (1999).
    Firstly, the character lists deserve mention: in Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew, "the shrew" refers to Katherine, and, in the film, "the shrew" corresponds to Katarina (or 'Kat'); in the play, the "tamer of the shrew" refers to Petruccio, while the "tamer" in the film corresponds to Patrick (or 'Pat'). Obviously, this seems no coincidence - from their names to their nicknames rhyming. Katherine's and Katarina's sister in both the play and film have the same name, Bianca.
    In terms of the plot of Taming Of The Shrew, Baptista (the very wealthy father of Katherine and Bianca) desires to find husbands for both his daughters, offering a fine dowry; Bianca, the younger and fairer, gets more offers for marriage, but Baptista, for some reason, desires his eldest, Katherine, the "shrew," to marry first, restricting Bianca. From there, the character who desires Bianca, Lucentio, finds Petruccio, who only wants to marry, to "tame" Katherine, so Lucentio accordingly can marry Bianca.
    10 Things I Hate About You works in an entirely modernized similar plot; Walter (the father of Kat and Bianca), of course, desires the best for his daugters, as fathers ought. To Bianca's demise, their father restricts her dating without Kat dating as well; Bianca, the more popular, extraverted, and absent-minded of the two, for her reasons, gets frustrated at her sister, Kat, who seems incapable of any positive human interaction. For an upcoming dance, Bianca has a choice between two dates, Joey and Cameron, but her two rivalling dates find Pat, a rebellious teenager who plays the "shrew," and, who they think, may attract Kat, since, of course, Bianca cannot date without Kat. Through Pat's often ridiculous and hilarious attempts, he wins Kat's heart, "taming" her anti-social ways.
    Hopefully this has helped, anyway, and I wish you luck. For references, which you may find helpful, I referred all of this material from these two websites: SparkNote's commentary on Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare and IMDB's information and reviews on 10 Things I Hate About You.
    Good luck!
    Last edited by mono; 09-22-2005 at 02:02 PM.

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    Thnx It really helps me!!!!

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    Hello,
    Someone please help me out here. This is urgent. My professor is very anal about what we write in our papers. I am taking a Shakespeare on Film class and she want me to write a paper on why the director specifically chose Shakespeare to write about his Ten Things I Hate About You and not any other teen genre chick-flick romance. I know what I want to write. Basically I want to emphasize on the gender inequality that underlies the difference between this era to that of Shakespeare's and also about father-daughter relationships. However, I cannot get a strong argument for this. I have looked at so many sources but they don't help out at all. Please help me out asap if anyone knows. This is urgent.

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    Pièce de Résistance Scheherazade's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zainz
    My professor is very anal about what we write in our papers.
    On behalf of all 'anal' professors:



    Good luck with the assignment!
    Last edited by Scheherazade; 01-20-2006 at 02:59 PM.
    ~
    "It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
    ~


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    Post An Essay...

    This is an essay I wrote for English:

    To make a modern version of a 16th century play, one would have to have a perfect mix of similarities and differences between the two, incorporating elements of both worlds. The creators of 10 Things I Hate About You did a very good job at this, using many of the characters and much of the plot from Taming of the Shrew as well as aspects of teen society that so many people can relate to in today’s world. Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You are very similar in many ways, but they have some minor differences.
    Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You have many of the same characters. The main characters have similar or the same names, such as Katherine, Bianca, Cameron who is Cambio/Lucentio, and Petruccio who is Patrick. These characters not only have similar names, but they also behave similarly. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Cameron pretends to know French to be near Bianca. In Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio disguises himself as Cambio and does the same thing.
    Another similarity is that Petruccio is paid to marry Katherine, where in the modern version, Patrick is also paid to go out with Katherine. In the end, Patrick and Petruccio have “tamed” Katherine because she is now willing to be with a man. It can be concluded that most of the characters in the 10 Things I Hate About You were based on characters from Taming of the Shrew.
    The plots of Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You are very similar as well. The basic plots of Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You both involve multiple men wanting to be with a nice, beautiful girl named Bianca, but Bianca has a mean, older sister named Katherine that no one wants to be with. In both of the stories, the father of these two girls demands that Bianca not get involved with anyone until Katherine has. The men pay one of their peers to act as if he is interested in Katherine so that they can have a chance with Bianca. In the end, Katherine ends up willingly being with the man that has been paid off, and thus “tamed”. There are minor differences between the plots, but the main ideas remain the same. Because the plots are very similar, the themes are similar as well. One similar theme in both of the plays is disguise. Although Taming of the Shrew uses this theme more, there are disguises in 10 Things I Hate About You, such as when Cameron says that he is a French tutor, or when Patrick acts as though he really likes Katherine. Both the plots and the themes are similar in the two stories.
    Although they seem totally alike, Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You have subtle differences. For example, no one in 10 Things I Hate About You gets married. Instead, they end up dating, because they would be too young to get married in today’s society. Another difference is that Petruccio and Patrick “tame” Katherine in different ways.
    Petruccio is mean and disrespectful toward her. He starves her, he deprives her of sleep, and he scolds her for everything she says. Patrick on the other hand falls in love with her and persistently tries to be nice to her. Both methods worked, but Petruccio’s method would have been unacceptable in today’s society. There were not any major differences between the two stories, but there were some necessary differences to be made to fit the time period.
    Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You had many similarities, but it also had many differences. The differences that were made were definitely necessary to fit today’s society, but they didn’t change the plot dramatically. The modern adaption of Taming of the Shrew was changed enough to keep many of the main themes, characters, and the main plot, but different enough to fit modern society.

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    Fantasy/Fiction maniac Monamy's Avatar
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    Question Talk about 'insane'

    Mr.big, you clearly not in this kind of thing, so why bother posting?
    Honestly, a 'very unhelpful, please skip' post that I never thought CAN exist just appeared. I think I'm going to be sick soon.
    When life gets hard... Laugh!

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    Well I just finished writing a speech for it, so here it is!
    It's not very goood :P


    Taming of the Shrew vs 10 Things I hate about You.

    Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, the composer explores the idea of a woman being the property of her husband, and having to do everything that he bids her to do. Katerina has to learn to be of suitable manner toward a man, before her sister Bianca can marry. Bianca wishes to marry one of her suitors, though she cannot, as, by tradition, the older sister must marry first.

    In Ten Things I Hate About You, the composer illustrates a similar point, the idea of a girl needing proper behaviour.
    Techniques in TOTS are used, such as the language, that was once seen as the modern day language, Shakespearean terms, as now referred to today.

    There are many similarities and differences in characters of both texts, for example, Katherine and Kat, the two main subjects of the texts, both come from families with a decent amount of wealth, as seen from the housing in both aspects, as in the play, she lives in a roman villa of sorts, and in the movie “ten things”, they live in a “quiet”, large neighbourhood.
    It is clear that in both texts, the father favours the younger daughter (Bianca) over the elder (Katherine/Kat) with good reason, as seen in the movie, and the play, he ignores the elder, whilst tending and caring for the younger.

    Both Characters in each text are seen to be unfavouring of the current company, in Kat’s case, it is the people at her school, whereas in Katherine’s case, it is the men that her father sees as suitable for her to marry.

    The differences in caricatures, being that of Kat and Katherine, is that Kat’s story is set in modern times, and she is a teenager in high school, whereas Katherine is a young woman of great wealth, and seen as powerful, for her household.

    The responses of both girls to the other main (Pertuccio/Patrick) differ, as Taming of the Shrew takes on a more dramatic feel, where Katherine starves herself after discovering that she was married for a bet, and Kat writes a poem, describing the things that she hates about Patrick, but also the things she loves.

    The final scenes, in both texts, end in obedience and or love. Kat finally discovers that Patrick really does love her, and Katherine becomes and obedient wife.

    In certain aspects of both texts, we see many differences, as well as many similarities, in the themes of such plays, and movies in this context, we see the theme of a male dominated society, disobedient wives and women, and the taming of a wild beast, or a shrew.

    We see in “ten things” that kat is seen as a “heinous *****” as quoted by the school counsellor. She often acts out toward her classmates, and teacher, and has achieved a reputation for her acts, her attitude.

    The Katherine we see in Taming of the Shrew is violent, and often resorts to screaming and yelling as an attempt to make herself seem more powerful. Her response is often to lash out at others at will, and this shows us the responses that people are likely to have, and the effect on Katherine and kat that it has had.

    The scene in Taming of the Shrew, in which Petruccio is referring to Katherine as “Beautiful Kate” and some such, and she denies this, is linked to the scene in “Ten Things” where Kat is on the sports field, and Patrick is trying to ask her out, after being paid to do so, through the themes that have been used.

    Patrick, trying to gain Kat’s attendance to the prom, tells her (By accident is not known) that she needs therapy, because she believes that he needs a motive to be in her presence. He acts cold and unyielding as he would rather not tell her that he has been paid to take her out. This shows us the effect of his words toward her, as she walks off, frustrated.

    In the end of Taming of the shrew, Petruccio proves to the other gentlemen, in the scene where he is sitting (or standing, depending of the version) with them, and calls Katherine forth, and the other wives are also called, yet only Katherine appears, as an obedient wife. This scene contrasts to ten things I hate about you, at the end when Patrick is at Kat’s car, when she discovers the guitar, and he kisses her, trying to make up for what he has done.

    In conclusion, The two texts contrast to eachother greatly, with similarities and differences, but only enough to be related to eachother. The characters, as mainly referred to in this speech, have the most similarities and differences, though relate to eachother better than most adaptations would.

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