Strings Attached

“The Taming of the Shrew” “No Strings Attached”

In the play “The Taming of the Shrew” Petruchio, one of the main characters, is trying to win over Katherine, a stubborn, misunderstood woman who has no intentions on marrying him, yet he continues to try to pursue her and control her through “love” and “kindness”. This is similar to the modern day movie called “No Strings Attached”. This movie shows a sort of switched analogy with instead of the girl wanting to settle down and commit, the guy wants to, such as in “The Taming of the Shrew”.  Through both the “Taming of the Shrew” and “No Strings Attached”, love can be based off of perspective and not necessarily the sex stereotype of a woman always wanting a man.

In the movie, “No Strings Attached”, Emma and Adam are lifelong friends who never really managed to keep in touch with each other, only speaking to each other when they run into one another occasionally during their adulthood. Until one day Adam finds out that his girlfriend has left him for his dad. Out of deviation, Adam goes to a bar, gets drunk and begins to text all the girls in his phone. The next morning he finds himself at Emma’s house with no clothes on. Assuming that he had sex, Emma explains that he came to her house, undressed himself and then went to sleep. As Emma escorts him to the next room to get his clothes, they end up having sex. When they have sex again, they make an agreement to keep their relationship “causal”. Adam obviously thinks that Emma will fall in love first, assuming that she can’t just have sex without gaining any feelings since women are more likely to gain feelings faster through things like this. She commits to the decision that she won’t and so they agree that they will keep this up with no strings attached.

“Women are made to bare children and so are you.” - Petruchio Act 2, Sc.1,

In the following quote, Petruchio is trying to win over Kate. In doing so, he says the following pick up line to show his attraction for Kate. He wants to get Kate amused by telling her all the opportunities she can have with him including the sexually opportunities. He thinks that if he tries to “woo” her with sexually lines, that she will see him as sweet and take the bait, since she is a woman and women tend to get softened up much quicker than guys do when put in the same predicament. Though Kate fails to fall for it and commits to not wanting a man and feels as though he’s just another guy that wants a woman to slave by him. Just as Emma, in No Strings Attached, relationships tend her make her uncomfortable and she feels as though she doesn’t need a man to make her happy or to fulfill her life. She’s content with the way her life is and finds Adam to be just another distraction in her life that she has to commit to.

In the picture, Emma explains to Adam that she’s not really into relationships and that she would rather continue having sex instead of trying to pursue to the next level. Making commitments and having relationships tend to ruin things and don’t always go the way they’re planned. During and after the conversation, Adam still believes that it’s impossible to keep up with this “causal” relationship, though he tells her that he will back off with trying to date her, yet at the same time, he continues to try to win her over as a boyfriend, subconsciously and when asked about if he’s trying to date her, he continues to deny it. Petruchio and Adam both want to have a woman by their side, yet they don’t understand why it’s taking so long and why it’s so hard to win both women over. They both had the mindset that sweetness and the thought of having a man by the women’s side would surely have the women in their arms by now, but they learn that it’s much harder than they thought but don’t show a drop of sweat.

“‘Moved’, in good time! Let him that moved you hither remove you hence. I knew you at the first you were a moveable.” - Katherine pg. 89 Act 2 Sc. 1

Kate fails to be impressed with the way the Petruchio tries to compliment her and win her over. She feels that she’s only wanted by him because everyone wants her sister. She sees him as every other guy that just uses her to get to her sister. Kate remains to be content with being without a man and refuses to be anyone’s wife. She just doesn’t see Petruchio as any different from every other guy that wants her to quickly marry, to get her out of the way, so that they can get to Bianca instead. Unlike Petruchio, Adam sees Emma for who she is and wants to be with her for who she is.

In this picture, Emma realizes that she actually does have really strong feelings for Adam. She finds that when she’s with him, she’s happier and a better person. She says that all this time she has been denying the way she feels because she was afraid to feel the way she felt, which was love. Emma finally understands that love isn’t meant to be easy and she doesn’t mind trying the new relationship Adam. Just as Emma, Kate found herself falling for Petruchio a little too. With the little things he did, she found them to be how she always wanted to be treated. Everyone saw her as mean and cruel and just misunderstood but Petruchio saw the beauty in her, even if it wasn’t real, the little things made her day and broke her out of her shell more and more.

In conclusion, both Emma and Kate decide to step out of their comfort zone and try something they never thought they would try, being in a relationship. At first they saw relationships as trouble and not worth the time, but once they began to understand Adam and Petruchio, they realized that these two men may be for real. Along with the women having their realization, they men had theirs too. That getting the girl isn’t always easy like they planned. They both just wanted the women just because but as time went on, they found themselves falling for them just as hard. In the end, The Taming of the Shrew and No Strings Attached display how love can play a role in a part that most of us never imagined.

"Taming of the Shrew" By William Shakespeare

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"Matt." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411238/synopsis>.