Novel/Movie Comparison- Taming of the Shrew
The movie 10 Things I Hate about You can be considered a modern day version
of the Shakespearean play The Taming of the Shrew. Not only can parallels be drawn
between the plots of both works, but there are also similarities between character names
and settings. Both the movie and the play incorporate a convoluted plot that includes lies
and subterfuge in order for someone to ‘get the girl.’
The two sisters in The Taming of the Shrew are named Katherina and Bianca,
while the two sisters in the movie are named Kat and Bianca. The last name of the two
sisters is Stratford, which is a reference to Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon.
In the play, Kate’s suitor is Petruchio, and he comes from Verona. Petruchio’s parallel in
the movie is Patrick Verona. As far as the setting goes, the movie takes place at Padua
High School, and Shakespeare’s play takes place in the city of Padua. The characters of
the play, Tranio, Lucentio, and Hortensio, have parallels in the characters of Michael,
Cameron, and Joey in the movie, respectively.
The plots of both works mirror each other as various characters are infatuated
with Bianca. In the play, Lucentio wants to marry Bianca but cannot until Kate is
married. He thus disguises himself as a Latin tutor in order to court her. In the movie,
Cameron becomes Bianca’s French tutor to get closer to her. Both in the movie and in
the play, Kat is rude, stormy, and takes pleasure in upsetting her sister. Baptista, or
Stratford in the movie, is protective of Bianca and in a sense favors her due to her sweet
and innocent character traits. The network of courting/dating is similar in both works,
except for the fact that Patrick does not want to date Kat at all, but Cameron and Michael
convince Joey to pay Patrick to date her. This is similar to Shakespeare’s play because
Petruchio agrees to marry Kate because of the large dowry involved. Just as Petruchio
does, Patrick has sarcastic comments to throw right back into Kat’s face when she is rude
to him. In both the play and the movie, Kat is tamed, and both partners genuinely fall in
love.
The characters in 10 Things I Hate about You often quote directly from
Shakespeare’s play or refer to his writing style in their own dialogue. When Cameron
sees Bianca for the first time, he proclaims, “I burn, I pine, I perish!” The movie is not
only a representation of the specific play The Taming of the Shrew, but it also alludes to
Shakespeare in general. Mandella has an obsession with all things Shakespearean, and
this is what brings her close to Michael (he starts quoting Macbeth). Michael even comes
to the prom as Mandella’s date, dressed as Shakespeare. The movie thus has a largely
Shakespearean foundation through its plot line despite differences due to diverse eras of
time.