Summary:
The film 10 Things I Hate About You, composed in 1999 by writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirstin Smith, is one such text that skillfully appropriated the eternal elements of The Taming of the Shrew, inevitably creating a masterpiece that is able to capture and entertain 21st Century audiences.
William Shakespeare, a literary genius, composed a famous piece of literature in the late 16th Century that has defied time and became a universal text, valued for more than four hundred years. This famous piece of literature is a play called The Taming of the Shrew . Owing to the plays universal themes and timeless elements, the text has been skillfully and cleverly appropriated to be valued in various periods of time. The film 10 Things I Hate About You, composed in 1999 by writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirstin Smith, is one such text that skillfully appropriated the eternal elements of The Taming of the Shrew, inevitably creating a masterpiece that is able to capture and entertain 21st Century audiences.
Although the directors of 10 Things have changed a significant amount of the Elizabethan play, the story is considerably the same and many parallels can be seen between the plots of the two texts. One example of this is when in The Shrew, Lucentio wishes to wed Bianca but cannot until her older sister Katherine is married. Knowing that Bianca cannot enter into relationships, he poses as a Tudor in order to become closer to Bianca. This is paralleled in 10 Things when Cameron acts as a French tutor to Bianca. While still posing as Bianca's tutor, Lucentio confers with a somewhat wild character, Petruchio. Like Patrick, he is an out-of-towner and little is known about him. Petrichio agrees to marry Katherine simply for the dowry that comes along with her, allowing Lucentio to pursue Bianca. This is mirrored in 10 Things when Pat agrees to date Kat for the money offered to him by Joey. It is thought that, besides the initial reasons for the couple's formation, both partners fell in love with each other. The plays predictable eventuality relies on the fact that by the end of the film, Katherine is 'tamed'. Although 10 Things displays initial adaptation and interpretation, the main idea of the play, Katherine's 'taming' does not come about in 10 Things. Rather she is not tamed, and she does not tame, instead she is liberated and learns how to love. The reason that Katherine is not 'tamed' leads into the context of both texts and the relationship formed between the texts and their culture.
The Shrew places emphasis on situation, rather than character and contains an improbable plot and a vast array of slapstick humor, as did most farcical comedies composed in the 20th Century. The play was, without doubt, composed to entertain the often tempestuous Elizabethan audience, just as its pursuer, 10 Things was composed with the intention of entertaining a modern day audience. One feature of the two texts cultures that changed over time was the patriarchal society of the Elizabethan Era. The 16th century was male dominated and society deemed women inferior to men. This attitude can be seen in the play with statements such as that of Petruchio,
'Women are made to bear, and so are you' - [2.1.203]
In the play, societies attitudes toward women were addressed through the satirical elements rooted in the play. Katherine's soliloquy [5.2.142-85] is evidence of this, and along with the relations between the sexes and the patriarchal notions of the play, helps to portray the values of Elizabethan society. Unlike 10 Things, post-marriage life is an issue addressed in the play that is evidently a popular topic for other literary works of the time. 10 Things tends to focus on the 20th Century American Culture and what is of value at that time. Featuring popular Hollywood stars such as Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, 10 Things reflects popular culture of the 20th Century. Materialistic things of value in American society such as cars, sex, money and education are all evident and portrayed in the movie. Modern American culture is associated with equality of the sexes; this leads us into the major themes of the texts.
A major theme in The Shrew that has been appropriated in 10 Things is marriage. In 10 Things the whole concept of marriage has been appropriated into the idea of 'dating' as the film focuses on a younger generation and it portrays the changing values over four centuries. The Shrew associates marriage to be an economic institution and places great emphasis on the economic aspects of marriage, specifically how an economic consideration determines who marries whom. Due to this, marriage becomes a transfer of money, as shown in Baptista's decision for Bianca's husband,
'I must confess your offer is best...
Now on the Sunday following shall Bianca
Be bride to you, if you make this assurance...' - [11.1.387-398]
A theme parallel in both texts is the theme of psychological disguises. The characters 'mask' their personalities in order to be perceived by the public as someone that their not. This is a prime example of the appropriation from The Shrew, where Katherine acts like a shrew in order to hide her unhappiness with her social role of a maiden-in-waiting and also to gain attention, to 10 Things, where Kat acts like a 'heinous bitch' to hide her need for attention and to feel loved. Statements from the The Shrew show that where Katherine is perceived to be acting maliciously, she is actually calling out for attention,
'A pretty pet! It is best put finger in the eye, an she knew why.' - [1.1.78-79]
The dominant theme in both texts is the universal theme that dictates most films, literature and music, the theme of love. Both texts show the tough journey to a happily-ever-after ending. Although in 10 Things the theme of love is obvious, it is quite hidden in The Shrew, but shown through such characters as Bianca and Lucentio, and eventually Kate and Petrichio. It is the universal themes in the Shakespearian play that allow the text to be appropriated and lay down the foundation for the text to be an 'immortal' piece of literature.
Both texts are valued for their ability to reflect and demonstrate society's values, morals and standards at the time they were composed. The values such as the equality of the sexes, and the unique connections between husband and wife have been appropriated into the values of the 20th Century in 10 Things. 10 Things shows how society has changed from a male dominant society to a society were women have gained equality. Both texts are valued for their comic relief and satirical side, which has been appropriated from slapstick humor in The Shrew, to comedy relevant to the 20th Century in 10 Things. The overriding reasons the texts are valued is for the entertainment they provide, especially 10 Things as the film is valued for its ability to take a text, four centuries older, and transform it into a form of entertainment that is able to be enjoyed and valued in the 20th Century. Both texts are valued by modern audiences as they entail important life lessons that any audience, whether during the renaissance or 20th Century, can learn from. These issues developed in The Shrew and carried through to 10 Things are still being discussed in all kinds of current events around the world: how one should act, what love is all about, what women's roles are and how women should act, to name a few.
One main feature of the texts that have been appropriated to suit a 20th Century audience is language. The comical, sophisticated and witty language displayed in The Shrew plays a major role in shaping the values of the Elizabethan era. Many thoughts, emotions, intentions and personalities are displayed through the Shakespearian language. The type of language used in different social classes varies, allowing distinction to be made between social structures and allowing the audience to gain an insight into the class hierarchy. 10 Things recognises that Shakespeare's language can be an initial obstacle to effective contemporary communication. In order to gain relevance in a 20th century audience, colloquialism and witty repartee was introduced. Comments such as the following made by Pat,
'Why is everyone so hot for this chick? Has she got beer flavored nipples"'
illustrates an appropriation for The Shrew as this language would generally not have been accepted in the 16th Century.
Another obvious appropriation from The Shrew to 10 Things is the change of textual medium. As plays were the main source of entertainment in the Elizabethan era, Taming of the Shrew was able to provide a wealth of entertainment through its textual medium. The change in medium to 10 Things is an example of change in the values of entertainment with the preferred medium of production in the 20th century being a movie theater or television instead of the Elizabethan theater.
If there is one area that differentiates between the two texts, it is the different ways the texts have been responded to. The Shrew was composed in a time when women's roles and place in society were different to what they are at present. So, while many label the play as 'sexist', it was composed in a time when it might have been considered very progressive. Many critics condemn the play for its blatant sexist attitude toward women, although closer examination is needed to reveal that it is not merely a story of how men should 'put women in their place', but, in fact a comedy about an assertive woman coping with how she is expected to act and obey the unwritten rules of the 16th Century Elizabethan society. One must also take into account the attitudes of 16th Century England and the fact that the play is a comedy and is not meant to be taken seriously. Although The Shrew is a controversial text and responded to in many ways, it has been, time after time, viewed as a work of a comic genius. In comparison to this, 10 Things gained controversial reviews such as.
'The tie in with Shakespeare is what drew my attention. No similar relation with the spate of new teen flicks' - [Mark O'Hara, 1999]
'What make this movie, though are these three things - the quality of the cast and performances, a necessarily intelligent script and some humor...' - [Jennifer Christman, 1999]
'Unfortunately, much of the potentially good material is paced like a bad sitcom. And never have I seen a movie so desperate for a laugh track...' - [James Berardinelli, 1999]
These honest reviews show that the film has been responded to on a variety of levels with many critics saying something along the lines of the movie being 'a disappointment to Shakespeare'. However, it is important to keep in mind that the film audience targeted is mainly teenagers rather than historians studying 16th Century Shakespearian plays. 10 Things did not achieve as many controversial sexist comments as The Shrew due to the film appropriating the patriarchal element to relate to a 20th Century audience. Stated by James Berardinelli, 1999,
'Sure, the film takes place in a town called Padua...The prom is and Elizabethan theme...The students get an English assignment to compose sonnets...The dialogue is sometimes clumsily peppered with Shakespearian quotes...and there's even a girl obsessed with Shakespeare...but it still cant help falling into typical teen film traps.'
The adaptation to Taming of the Shrew is valued and plausible but it's the cliché teen movie that is partly responsible for the film gaining a horrendous amount of agonising responses.
Besides all the appropriations through themes, textual medium, language and so forth, there are also obvious appropriations and subtle links to The Shrew in 10 Things. Such relations include: direct references to Shakespeare in the film including an English assignment to compose sonnets, an Elizabethan theme high school prom, the characters names being similar, if not the same as those in The Shrew (Katrina/Katherine, Bianca/Bianca), the film located at Padua High school - while the play was preformed at Padua, Italy, Patrick Verona - Verona being the birth place of Shakespeare and many more. Direct quotes are also used to emphasise relationships between both texts. These include,
[Lucentio]- 'I pine, I burn, I perish, Tranio'
[Cameron]- 'I pine, I burn, I perish'
[Katherine]- 'You don't have to be who they want you to be, you only have to seem what they want you to be'
[Katrina]- 'You don't have to be what they want you to be'
Through investigating different techniques, links and intertextuality in areas such as plot similarities, themes, language, textual medium and the like., it is apparent the reasoning being appropriating the film 10 Things I Hate About You, from the earlier prose fiction The Taming of the Shrew. The texts were appropriated to allow the precede text, in this case 10 Things to be able to adapt and be relevant to a 20th Century audience in which the text was composed. Through direct adaptations and hidden appropriations the composer of 10 Things I Hate About You has managed to create a controversial, love-it-or-hate-it film that has successfully appropriated a four century old classic text composed by a 'literary genius' into a modern day romantic comedy.
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