Taming Of The Shrew And 10 Things I Hate About You Essay

The Evolution of Culture Through Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You
“How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways.” And count the ways she did. This altered quote from the famous sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning was used as a tagline for the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play Taming of the Shrew. Both productions thrilled audiences with their witty comedy and romantic themes, but told in exceedingly different time periods. Both stories follow the sharp-tongued Katherine and her alluring younger sister in a story of manipulation, courtship, and abiding to societal expectations. Though both these stories follow all three of these themes, they differ immensely

This role change is an example of how women's rights and roles in society have changed from the times that these pieces were written. Of course, Shakespeare’s sixteenth century play and a teen comedy are going to have some blatant differences such as writing style, fashion choices and setting, the changes made to the main couple are perhaps the most interesting. In Shakespeare's play Taming of the Shrew, the theme of love, marriage, and women’s expectational roles recur often throughout the piece. Shakespeare wrote this play in the 1590’s as one of his early comedies. Around this time, marriage was usually treated as nothing more than a contract; an exchange of cash, goods and persons through written consent. Furthermore, these contracts favored men far above their partners. Women were treated as property; a slave to her husband in a sense, and women who acted otherwise were labeled as “undesirable” or “shrewish”. The way that the relationship between Katherine and Petruchio is handled shows this social construct often throughout the