How Closely Does ’10 Things I Hate About You’ Follow Its Shakespearean Inspiration?

To anyone saying they don’t “get” Shakespeare, or that his work is boring, wake up! A number of your favorite films over the decades have been directly inspired by his works, including She’s The Man (Twelfth Night), Anyone But You (Much Ado About Nothing), The Lion King (Hamlet), and, of course, 10 Things I Hate About You.

10 Things I Hate About You, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this weekend, stars a young Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and is based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. In the bard’s play, a number of men wish to marry Bianca Minola, but cannot until her older sister Katharina (Kate) Minola is married first. Kate is well known for her assertive and willful nature, making it seem very unlikely that she will make a match anytime soon until one of Bianca’s suitors puts forward Petruchio to woo the shrew. Sound familiar?

Now, the 1999 film does not copy the play step by step—remember there are hundreds of years between them and society has changed after all, and thank god for that. The play’s depiction of women leaves something to be desired, so the film takes a much more modern approach to the ending. But how true did the film stay? Let’s take a look.

Two sisters, many suitors

Both the film and the play center on two sisters and their respective suitors with the film even keeping their names the same, Bianca and Katarina (in the play it’s Katharina, but eh, close enough). Katarina, who goes by Kat, not Kate, is extremely opinionated, assertive, intelligent, and willful which, for both the late 1500s and even to date (times haven’t changed that much) make her a difficult woman to court. Bianca, on the other hand, is pretty and sweet and feminine, all that a young woman should be in the eyes of those around her, and has a fair few men after her hand. But until Kate marries, younger sister Bianca is off limits.

This premise is the same in both 10 Things I Hate About You and The Taming of the Shrew, though with some updates to the former. In the play, there are three men after Bianca, Gremio, Lucentio, and Hortensio but in the film, there are only two, Cameron James and Joey Donner. Though all the suitors are after Bianca, in the play they are seeking her hand in marriage (again, it’s the 1500s) whereas in the film they are simply hoping for a chance to date her.

The solution

These suitors all know that to get their hands on Bianca they first have to deal with the older sister Kate/Kat. In Shakespeare’s work, it’s Hortensio’s friend Petruchio who serves as the solution, newly returned from Verona, Petruchio states how much he wishes to wed and simply enjoy life, and Hortensio uses this to guide him toward Kate whom he courts.

The film utilizes a similar plan, with a little more trickery involved. Cameron knows that Bianca cannot date till her older sister does, so sets out to find someone who will date Kat for cash. The only problem is that he doesn’t have enough money. He then tricks Joey into financially backing the plan, hoping to swoop in and steal Bianca in the end. Here, Petruchio comes in the form of bad boy Patrick Verona.

Location, location, location

Shakespeare, as with a handful of his plays, sets The Taming of the Shrew in Italy, in this case specifically in Padua and Verona. Given that the film is set in the U.S., they work around this by naming the high school all the characters attend Padua High School. This trick is also utilized in another Shakespearean-inspired teen rom-com, She’s The Man naming the boarding school Illyria Prep after the country of Illyria from the play Twelfth Night.

Though the film centers most of the action in the high school, they do manage to fit Petruchio’s home of Verona in there. Again, Ledger’s character is named Patrick Verona, a nice nod there. There’s another nice little nod to the bard himself, in that Kat and Bianca’s last names in the film are Stratford, and Shakespeare’s home was in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Times, they are a’changing

Though there are many similarities between 10 Things I Hate About You and The Taming of the Shrew there are many differences as well. The play sees Kate marry Petruchio, who then whisks her to his house against her will where he psychologically breaks her down to the point where she no longer has her own opinions or intellect, even to the point where she starts telling the other women in the play how to love and obey their husbands.

The play is considered by many to be one of Shakespeare’s most misogynistic—though, considering the powerful women he has in his other plays, some critics believe that Shakespeare was attempting to be critical of the prevalent gender roles in place and was hiding his criticism under many layers of subtext, highlighting not women’s role to conform and serve, but men’s toxic masculinity in destroying freethinking and intelligent women. Many modern mountings of the play have also found a way around the text, playing that ending monologue as sarcasm or irony, or in a way that indicates Kate does not mean or believe what she’s saying.

The film changes Kat’s fate. Sure, she softens a little, but she is hardly “tamed” nor is she psychologically broken down. (Though I think falling in love with someone is a form of psychological breakdown no matter how healthy the relationship… maybe that’s just me!) Luckily the film avoids many—but not allーof the misogynistic tropes coming at the story from a much more feminist angle.

(featured image: Touchstone Pictures)