Essay - Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew' and 'Ten Things I Hate...

Shakespeare

Taming of the Shrew" and "Ten Things I Hate about You"

Although they are both comedies revolving around the same basic plot of a shrewish elder daughter wooed on a bet by a m*****ey or st*****tus hungry stranger from parts afar, Shakespeare's "Taming ***** ***** Shrew" ***** "Ten ***** I Hate about You" differ fundamentally in the level of imp*****tance they accord to sincerity in woo*****g and romance. Although it adopts a brittle, harsh, ***** satirical tone at times, "Ten Things I ***** about You" ultimately validates conventional assumptions about teenage romance, the wisdom of adults, and solid social values that keep teens in ********** place in a fundamentally adult world. Shakespeare is more ironic, crueler, more violent, and complex ***** h***** rendering of the battle of ***** sexes. He begins his tale with a frame where little seems at stake, but unlike the film, the play ends in a marriage ***** much ***** is at stake than the coming to terms ***** love, romance, and personal development in adolescent.

***** *****itial irony present in Shakespeare can be seen through ***** use of the fram*****g device scorned by "Ten ***** I Hate about You." ***** the playgoer Chr**********pher Sly of "The ***** of the Shrew" does not reappear at the end of the comedy, the fact th***** the viewer is always watching a pl*****y of a play makes it clear to the audience that the occasional Punch-and-Judy show type violence is, 'in quotes' or ironic, ra*****r than a simple validation of violence against women. "Am ***** a lord? And have I such a lady? Or do I dream? or have I dream'd till now?" asks Sly, emphasizing the dreamed nature of "The Taming ***** the *****." (1.2) Up to ***** *****, the ***** has a f*****ntastical qual*****y, rather than a play of real-life m*****ality and consequence, until Katherine's final monologue.

***** contrast, "Ten Things I Hate ***** You" employs no such a framing device. It begins with a sense of reality and seriousness, such as the greater weight given to Kat Stratford's femin*****t defiance, in contr*****t to *****her*****e's shrewish *****ngue and comic beating up of her sister and music teacher. Thus in "The ***** of the Shrew," the ***** is begins ***** a sense ***** watching a performance of a performance, a performance of stereo*****d relations between the battling genders, while the ***** comedy at least attempts something 'real,' with feminist resonance.

***** greater humanity and relative wisdom of the father figure in "***** Th*****gs I Hate about You" also reflects ***** simply the teen comedy's attempt not to demonize adults, as is often the accusation in such **********, but also a reflection of the desire ***** convey a greater ***** upon most of ***** authority figures *****volved, as opposed to Katherine's father in Shakespeare, Baptista, who is foolish, sputtering, and ineffectual in his *****s to exercise authority over his *****s. In contr*****t, as Walter Stratford says, " I'm down, I've got the 411, and you are not go*****g