Totally Tamed

Wow! It's been forever since I've posted! Well, I just wanted to pop in on you guys and let you know I'm still alive. And while I'm at it, I'd actually like to share with you a really neat topic I've been learning about in class.

In English, we're having sort of a Shakespeare film festival, in which we spent weeks watching movies such as Hamlet and Guildenstern and Rozencrantz Are Dead, which were incredible. But the most interesting of all, I'd have to say, was the movie "Taming of the Shrew". In this story, there are so many different subplots going on, but the main plot focuses on a man named Petruchio making an effort to make a woman, Katarina behave the way it is believed a proper woman should act. Petruchio manipulates her, pushes her buttons, and has a comeback for every witty remark she has. Feeling outmatched by Petruchio's unparalleled perseverance, she inevitably surrenders, and thus the shrew is tamed.

What made this story a little more interesting is that we later watched a movie called 10 Things I Hate About You, which is essentially the story of Taming the Shrew, having taken place in the '90s. This is a fantastic take on the story, although I'm not entirely sure it captures the exact message Shakespeare was trying to convey. In Taming the Shrew, it didn't seem like Katarina was all that happy about being mentally and emotionally destroyed by Petruchio. But in 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat (the Katarina character) and Patrick (the Petruchio character) genuinely fall in love with each other, and the fact that they've faced hardship has only made their relationship stronger. So I'd say that this interpretation is fantastic, entertaining, and truly captures the spirit of this comedy in a more modern way, but I'm not entirely convinced that the main point Shakespeare was trying to drive home was exhibited here. Shakespeare's message was archaic, and I think that the director did what he could with the movie without objectifying women like Shakespeare did. In short, Kat wasn't tamed, so to speak, but rather she found the one thing that was missing from her heart.

I think that in Taming of the Shrew, Katarina was just a straight-up man-hater. She'd behave unruly around men, tease them and laugh at their misfortune. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat sort of comes off as a strong feminist, because that was a popular opinion in that time period. Women had been oppressed up until that point truly, and women were starting to try and take control of their own lives. This was more of Kat's attitude. Unlike Katarina, Kat was strong and reasonably outspoken. She just portrayed that angst that teenage girls are so infamous for, becoming her own woman, and not putting up with anyone's BS.

Regardless of their differences, though, they were both fantastic stories. I actually really enjoyed the love tale Gil Junger was able to weave with this adaptation, and personally, I prefer it, simply because of that beautiful, emotional moment toward the end with Kat's poem, the moment that gives this movie so much more meaning. I'd definitely reccomend checking this movie out if you haven't already. It's worth a shot!

I'll post more soon, I promise! <3
Byee!