Old vs New - Taming of the Shrew - video Dailymotion

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A comparison of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew with 10 Things I Hate About You, and how their respective themes remain relevant today.

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00:00On the 31st of March, 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You was released in the theaters.

00:05The film was, like many at the time, a romantic comedy revolving around teenagers and their

00:09relationships, but what set this film apart was its more serious nature, touching on serious

00:14contemporary themes that many young people face. The film drew inspiration from several sources,

00:19most prominently William Shakespeare's 1591 play, Taming of the Truth. The film obviously

00:24referenced the play heavily and reused meaning into its main ideas, but is it a well-made

00:29contemporary version of the play, or has it changed the morals and values beyond recognition?

00:33We'll explore that in today's episode. In the play, true to the values of the time,

00:38many actions and decisions made by characters are dictated by the involved character's social status.

00:43For example, in the play, Baptista doesn't let Bianca marry Lucentio until Lucentio convinces him

00:48he is very rich. He views Bianca as a great prize rather than a person, and views her marriage to

00:54Lucentio as a strategic economic group. The only reason that Bianca ends up with Lucentio is because

01:00of the money he can offer. If another of Bianca's suitors, such as Hortensio, had offered more money,

01:05she would have ended up marrying him, regardless of whether she loved Lucentio. Now, in 10 things I

01:09hate about you, this is different. Rather than social status, it's more about how people are seen

01:14by others. For example, when Cameron first gestures towards Patrick, Michael warns Cameron.

01:19And what about him?

01:21Him? No, don't look at him.

01:23This immediately tells us that people prefer to avoid Patrick rather than give him a chance,

01:28the same way Bianca initially ignores Cameron because he isn't a rich, handsome model like Joey.

01:33The difference is that Bianca does end up choosing Cameron over Joey, and it isn't because of his

01:36social status. She just finds out that Joey's a terrible person, and she's better off with Cameron.

01:41In the play, despite the major role of feminism plays, it wasn't really something that many

01:46people at the time respected, as demonstrated in this clip.

01:51Senor Grumio, go to thy mistress, and say I command her to come to me.

01:58This line states the belief that women are not meant to think, just do what they're told.

02:02These ideas and beliefs are all reflected in Taming of the Shroom, with Kate's strong and

02:06independent character being ultimately stripped down to a simple woman of the time.

02:10But as the values of society changed over time, these ideas became less and less relevant,

02:15with people encouraging strong women. Like in the play, Catherine's introduction in the film

02:19also establishes her character very strongly, contrasting her dirty car and angry rough music

02:24with the more pleasant teenage girls' music and their convertible.

02:29I give it damn all my reputation.

02:32But the social change is also taken into account, where at the end of the film, Kate's strong

02:38feminist personality isn't broken down, it's encouraged by her father and the other people

02:43around her, who no longer see her as a heinous bitch and now focus on her true colors.

02:48She does change, but she doesn't change her morals and values, she just stops being so salty

02:53towards everybody all the time.

02:54As a modern adaptation of the play, many changes have been made, both subtle and significant,

03:01such as Joey, who is more or less Gremio's equivalent, but fundamentally different.

03:06In the play, Lucentio is considered superior to Gremio because he's younger and richer,

03:10giving him the advantage in courting Bianca.

03:11But in the film, Cameron seemingly has no advantage of him. Joey is richer, bigger, considered better-looking.

03:18And this is done to give the story more substance, to force Cameron to work harder to gain Bianca's

03:24love, which is more relatable for a modern audience, as opposed to 16th century courtship

03:29ritual.

03:30In order for certain aspects of it to work for a modern audience, they need to change.

03:35Take the humor, for instance.

03:36In this clip, right after Michael explains to Cameron why he got Joey involved, he proceeds

03:40to remark,

03:41Now, to us, that's funny, but to someone back in 1591, when Taming of the Shrew was

03:52in theatres, it would probably have been considered vulgar by the audience.

03:55At the same time, humor in the play would struggle to amuse a modern audience, such as in Act 3,

04:00Scene 2, when Beyond Dello describes Petruchio to Baptista.

04:03Petruchio is coming in a new hat, and an old jerkin.

04:10To an audience of 1591, the humor comes from the description of how ridiculous he would

04:15look.

04:16But modern audience won't even understand half the words in that court, let alone be amused

04:20by it.

04:21Shakespearean references are everywhere throughout 10 Things I Hate About You.

04:25Some are very obvious, such as when Cameron reacts to seeing Bianca for the first time

04:29by saying,

04:30That line and way of speaking is obviously not the way people today tend to talk.

04:38Some references are more subtle and harder to spot, such as the play within the play theme

04:42expressed through the fact that people pretend to be something they're not, such as Patrick

04:47acting cold hearted when he really does care about people.

04:50See, first of all, Joey is not half the man you are.

04:53Secondly, don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't deserve what you want.

04:58The names of both the school, Padua High, and Patrick Verona also serve as references

05:03to Shakespeare, Padua being the town in which Taming of the Shrew takes place, and Verona

05:08being the city that Patrick's counterpart Petruchio comes from.

05:11It's hard to say that these two works are exactly the same, but it's hard to say that

05:15they're fundamentally different to them.

05:17The stock characters and their counterparts are all present, but they've been updated to

05:20reflect a 1990s audience.

05:23Despite this, the impact the film has on its audience was still quite similar to the impact

05:27the play had on people in Shakespeare's times.

05:29It still upholds the same values, spreading the messages of feminism, being with someone

05:33for love.

05:34Granted, while the play relied on the error of people opposing these values, the film directly

05:38promotes them in the actions of the characters, but the message comes across the same way nevertheless.

05:43All the film really does is adapt it to the context of a more advanced starting point in

05:48terms of female quality.

05:49So yes, the characters are different, the language is different, even the plot is different, but

05:53the morals and values represented in Taming of the Shrew are just as, if not more prominent,

05:57in 10 Things I Hate About You.

Old vs New - Taming of the Shrew

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