The time-defying play is entitled ‘’The Taming Of The Shrew’’. Owing to the play’s time-enduring themes, it has repeatedly been adapted as to be valued in various periods of time. One such adaptation is the movie ‘’10 Things I Hate About You’’, written in 1999 by Karen McCullah and Kristin Smith. Both the play and the movie draw upon the everlasting theme of the battle of the sexes. Consequently, a comparison between the two versions of this theme will be further pursued. In contrasting the original text and the modern appropriation, it can be observed that each text reflects the time in which it was composed.
Plays, the most popular form of entertainment during the late XVI ? ?/ early XVII ? ? century, respond to the Elizabethan audience’s needs to be entertained. Although the exact dating of Shakespeare’s ‘’The Taming Of The Shrew’’ is difficult and uncertain, the play was published in 1594 under the title ’’ A Pleasant Conceited History, called The Taming of a Shrew’’. Being written at a time when women were deemed by society as inferior to men, various implications of the patriarchal society of the XVI ?? century are reflected to a large extent in the text. Even from the Induction, the framing device used by Shakespeare as to provide a setting for the play proper, we are offered a brief sketch of the ideal behaviour befitting a wife in the XVI ? ? century. The Lord’s instructions to his page, Bartholomew, for the moment when the latter is to pose as Sly’s loving wife give an insight of the position of women in the XVI ? ? century: ‘’With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy.
The Essay on 17th Centre Theater Plays Time People
The 17 th Century gave life to an array of cultural and educational advances. This was known as the renaissance. Renaissance, a word meaning rebirth of knowledge and culture, is the ideal word to explain the occurrences of the time period of 1400-1700. In this range of time, subjects such as science, math, and literature made an amazing and strong comeback. These topics became immensely important ...
And say ‘What is’t your honour will command? ’’[Induction I.112-113] In that time’s male-dominated society, the established doctrine was that ‘’woman is by nature and by divine ordinance inferior to man. ’’ The entire development of the play portrays how the hierarchical system of the age naturally places women/ wives in total submission to men/ husbands in accordance with the patriarchal concepts that governed the Elizabethan society. Opening itself to a world of interpretations, the Shakespearean text was cleverly set in American ‘’teendom’’, a high school of Padua, Seattle.
The movie seems to be the pursuer of the play; however, ‘’10 Things I Hate About You’’ tries to respond to the needs of a modern day audience. Even though the story- line of the movie is quite similar to the plot of the play and many parallels can be drawn between the play and the screenplay, the movie tends to emphasize what is of value for the XX ? ? century American culture: education, cars, money and sex. One main feature of the Shakespearean text to have been adapted as to reach the targeted modern audience is language.
Shakespearean English, which is witty and full of puns, has a defining role in displaying intentions, emotions and thoughts. Being much more poetic and refined than modern English, it is also more expressive and allows the audience a quick insight into the social structures of the age. The Shakespearean text abounds in metaphors, similes and sexual innuendoes. The most common comparisons are those relating Katherina to different animals/insects such as ‘’wild cat, hen, wasp, hawk’’. The most frequent appellatives associated with Katherina are’’ Kate the curst, devilish fiend, shrew, wild beast’’.
These have been made relevant for the prevailing American culture by replacing the difficult and sophisticated Shakespearean language with a highly colloquial and rough-edged language. Comments such as the one made by Patrick in concern to Bianca-‘’ Why is everyone so hot for this chick? Has she got beer- flavoured nipples? ’’- provide an example of such appropriation. However, beside the comic effect that these catchy phrases have, the movie also displays a much more striking liberty of labeling women.
The Essay on Comparing Frankenstein With A Modern Horror Movie
Comparing Frankenstein with a modern horror movie Being initially developed as a ghost-story, Mary Shelleys Frankenstein included numerous issues varying from authors interpretations of the scientific and social theories to the description of general culture of the time. The story of Frankenstein was told by means of letters, and in the form of three narratives one inside the other, which attached ...
For instance, the modern translation of ‘’shrew’’ would be the insulting ‘’heinous b****h’’ used by Kat’s peers to describe her. Beside this insulting description, Joey Donner calling her a ‘’pussy cat’’ has an obvious sexually, demeaning connotation. The parent-child relation in the play has also been adapted to suit a modern audience, by accommodating the patriarchal society of the XVI ? ? century to a modern society with relatively egalitarian perspectives. The figure of the father in both the play and the movie has a crucial part in defining the role of the women in the XVI ?
