Comparison of Themes in Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You

We are discussing how modern texts like 10 things I hate about you has borrowed an older text like The Taming Of the Shrew by comparing and contrasting different elements of both stories. Characters are a significant part of both the taming of the shrew and 10 things I hate about you as they drive the story as a whole and the types of characters that are involved are important in a story as it creates different types of conflicts and tensions as well as resolutions. In this particular comparison Kat from 10 things and Katherine from the taming of the shrew are both cruel and are considered abusive as Kat is considered more verbally cruel to others to get her own way whilst Katherine is more physically cruel as she tends to punch people when she wants something. An example of Katherine being physically abusive is when Bianca and Katherine were arguing about how Katherine envies Bianca, so Katherine gets raged and “strikes her”. In 10 things there are a lot of scenes where Kat uses her voice to act shrewish, for example she would always have rude comments back to Joey when they sat next to each other in class. The difference shown between both characters is quite significant as it changes the roles and how Kat and Katherine are viewed and portrayed.

Although they are both viewed as shrews, Kat is more opinionated compared to Katherine and isn’t afraid to say what’s on her mind however Katherine is never taken seriously so she uses violence to be noticed. Another character that shows many similarities and differences between the taming of the shrew and 10 things is the character Horenstio and Joey. Joey in 10 things plays as a self-centred teenager who only tries to get Bianca for the challenge and doesn’t actually have any feelings for her however Horenstio in the taming of the shrew play a nice character who is honest and truly wants to get closer to Bianca because he actually likes her. An example of Horenstio’s personality is when he is speaking to Gremio about how much he wants Bianca’s love and is willing to rival with Gremio and others for Bianca’s love. An example of Joeys personality is how he would always talk about how good looking he was and essentially, he was self-obsessed. Joey has a very large ego and was not afraid to talk about himself to anyone and everyone which is quite opposite to Horenstio’s personality. The difference between both of these characters is significant as Joeys personality adds a modern factor to the movie. Horenstio is not a character that many people can relate to therefore the change in the character development into Joey makes him more of the ‘high school jerk’ which viewers can relate to and understand better than Horenstio’s personality.

A plot is a causal sequence of events that draws the reader into the character's lives and helps the reader understand the choices that the characters make. A plot's structure is the way in which the story elements are arranged. The plots in the 10 things and the taming of the shrew have different views on feminism and woman in general. In the Taming of the shrew, it is quite sexist as it looks down on women and gives the impression that they should obey men. However, in 10 things I hate about you women like Kat have power and are allowed to be opinionated and not look up to men. A quote from Petruchio states that he plans to tame Katherine and essentially treats her as if she is an animal that he needs to tame so he can have her under his control. Katherine was never actually treated this poorly from Petruchio however today it isn’t socially acceptable to treat women the way Petruchio treated Katherine in the play therefore in the modern movie we didn’t see Patrick act like this and was a lot nicer to Kat.

Another comparison in the plots is when at the end of the taming of the shrew and 10 things I hate about you Katherine and Kat both perform a speech directed to their men in front of large crowds. The significant difference between 10 things and the Taming of the Shrew is that Katherines speech is more about how she has been defeated and is now obedient and tamed whilst Kat’s speech is more of a poem and confesses her love for Patrick. As shown on the slide above there are major differences between the two speeches as Katherines indicates