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The Taming Of The Shrew And 10 Things I Hate About You Directed By Gil Junger

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How has the process of detecting intertextual relationships between texts also enriched your understanding of a significant cultural issue or idea?

“ The explicit and implicit subjects of this play - arranged marriages, the authority of fathers and husbands, the obedience expected from daughters and wives, the economic helplessness of most women - were issues and experiences that touched the lives of everyone in Shakespeare’s audience.” – Dorothea Kehler

Detecting intertextual relationships between The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare and 10 Things I Hate About You directed by Gil Junger has enriched my understanding of feminism in the American society. The Taming of The Shrew, written in 1593, challenges cultural expectations of women’s rights at that time. 10 Things I Hate About You however, was produced to fit the context of 1990’s America. A period when a great deal of anxiety was focused on adolescent girls, following publication of reports which found that the education of adolescent girls was marginalized.

In the 16th century, it may have been a historical fact that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, thus the socially accepted system of patriarchy. The Taming of The Shrew promotes typical 16th century attitudes towards matrimony and relations between fathers and daughters. Baptista, Katherine’s father, treats marriage as a transaction, where his daughters are the commodities to be exchanged.
“Faith gentlemen, now I play a merchant’s part and venture

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