In Shakespeare, Bianca puts on a perfect performance of gentility and submissiveness -- the perfect daughter, until she is married. The audience sees her abused by her sister; in a way Petruccio will later abuse Katherine. "Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, / to make a bondmaid and a slave of me;/That I disdain: but for these other gawds, / Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself, / Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat;/or what you will command me will I do, / So well I know my duty to my elders." (2.3) it is difficult to imagine Bianca Stratford being so submissive to Kat at anytime -- only after marriage, does Shakespeare's Bianca's true "headstrong" spirit emerge. "The more fool you, for laying on my duty," she says to her new husband, now she has snared him. (5.2) Thus, in the film, Bianca Stratford is manipulative from the beginning, arranging for the wooing of Kat by another, so Bianca may date. Bianca begs her sister to engage in "teenage normalcy," and is rude to her sister, such as when she says, "Has the fact that you're completely psycho managed to escape your attention?" rather than witty or flirtatious.
Ten Things I Hate about You," ends with Kat's heart melting and her acceptance of teen normalcy and dating, as she admits that she hates the fact that she doesn't hate her suitor. This final admission indicates that Kat Stratford no longer estranges herself from her social world. But Shakespeare's final act creates a complete reversal in tone. The characters, in contrast to the beginning, are no longer performing. They have not 'learned a lesson' like the characters of the film, but have become more honest. Bianca, now secure in marriage, no longer need be subject to her father's or sister's domination...
Katherine can be more open about her needs for love, and accept the social yoke of Petruccio, now that she knows it is safe to be open about her need for love. This is why the play, perhaps, does not finally return to Christopher Sly -- because the characters are no longer playing. The tossed hat does not provoke a fight in Act 5, because such physical battles no longer matter in the context of formal marriage. True, Katherine offers to put her hand beneath her master's foot, but as one critic observed, it is difficult to avoid an ironic reading of this moment, and perhaps shows even more shrewd husband management than Bianca. (Heaney, 1998)
This is how the relations between the sexes should be governed, suggests Shakespeare, how the 'real' showmanship should take place, unlike "Ten Things I Hate about You," which attempts to say more through its greater use of realism, but ultimately says less, with is more sparse use of irony, more static minor characters, wiser adults, and the work's lesser comprehension of how the genders perform and manipulate their roles on stage and in life. In the film, the teens mean what they say when they speak of hate and love, in Shakespeare, one can never be certain if there is irony, performance, or truth.
Works Cited
Heaney, Patrick. "Pertruccio's Horse." Early Modern Literary Studies. Number 4. Issue 1.Volume 2, pp.1-12. May 1998. http://www.shu.ac.uk/emls/04-1/heanshak.html[4Mar 2005]
Shakespeare, William. "The Taming of the Shrew." MIT Online Shakespeare Homepage. Entire play database. http://www.tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/taming_shrew/full.html[4 Mar 2005]
Ten Things I Hate about You." 1999.
