The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare most controversial plays, but in many ways, the values represented in the text are still prevalent today. In several different aspects, 10 Things I Hate About You has appropriated Taming of the Shrew. But as it is a modern day transposition or contemporisation, we can see that some cultural values of our times have changed or evolved, which are reflected in the concerns of the characters and the cinematic techniques of the director.
It is difficult to appreciate a real context of Shakespearean work, without judging it by our values and biases, however, we can form an understanding from historical evidence of the range of values reflected from other works of the time. The play Taming of the Shrew, is set in a fictional society of Padua, Italy which can represent the Elizabethan society in which Shakespeare lived. We perceive the Elizabethan society to be a patriarchal, hierarchal society with very set and structured ways. However, it is debatable whether Shakespeare disapproved and therefore challenged his society’s values or if he was just reflecting them in a somewhat satirical way.
10 Things I Hate About You is based in the American city of Seattle, in (imaginary) Padua High School. The society created in this high school, mimics and exaggerates aspects of a main stream, late 20th century, American high school. When examining 10 Things I Hate About You we must consider the fact that it is a romantic comedy, marketed at teenagers (especially girls) so is therefore unlikely to create a ‘truthful’ or realistic depiction of the values of the modern day.Conformity is an issue that is more prevalent in 10 Things I Hate About You than in Taming of the Shrew. Michael use the terms basic beautiful people, coffee kids, white Rastas, cowboys, future MBA’s, yuppie breed to class the various students at Padua. The prominence of conformity in this text maybe due to the fact that it is based in a high school but the...