​ How Men Control Love

How Men Control Love

A comparison of “Taming of the Shrew” and “50 First Dates”


Taming of the Shrew is a play about two sisters and their road to marriage.  Katherine (the shrew) marries a man named Petruchio who tries to “tame” her and her awful attitude.  “50 First Dates” is about a man named Henry Roth who meets a girl named Lucy,  He thinks he’s finally found the perfect girl.  The only problem is she has short term memory loss and once she goes to sleep she forgets what happened the day prior.  Henry tries to get her to fall in love with him a different way, everyday.  These movies are very different but both depict a man who thinks he can control their respected women’s feelings.


Petruchio and Henry are both trying to get a girl to fall in love with them just in two very different ways.  Henry is doing it the sweeter way though nothing like his situation has ever happened in reality.  It is touching to see he cares enough about a girl to think of new ways to get her to fall in love with him every single day.  Petruchio on the other hand is very cruel to his wife Katherine.  He wants her to stop being so mean.  The decision he makes is very dehumanizing to Katherine.  He decides to stop letting her eat and sleep as a hunter would do to a Falcon in order to tame it.  No matter which way anyone looks at it, they’d prefer to be with Henry.  Petruchio didn’t even really love Katherine.  He just married her so her younger sister Bianca could get married.  Today it is widely believed by many people that you are supposed to marry someone that you absolutely adore and they are supposed to absolutely adore you back, as well.

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In this scene Henry(on the ground) has his friend act like he’s beating him up so Lucy (far left) comes and saves him.  For a comedic aspect Lucy pulls out a baseball bat and starts to beat the friend with it until he runs off.  Henry does things like this for many days until he gets caught by Lucy’s father who forbids him to speak to her.  Henry is under the impression that if he does this Lucy will start to remember him and ultimately fall in love with him.  At this point in the movie it is too early to tell if it works out for him but as it goes one we see how his plans pan out.


“And if she chance to nod, I’ll rail and brawl, and with the clamor keep her still awake.  This is a way to kill a wife with kindness…  He that knows better how to tame a shrew, Now let him speak; ‘tis charity to shrew”

Act 4 scene 1 line 206

This quote is from the point in the play when Petruchio has a plan to “tame” Katherine.  Like the scene from the movie, this scene is too early to tell whether or not the plan will work but you can see the difference between Petruchio and Henry’s approaches to getting their girls to fall in love.  Most in not all people would most likely want Henry to be their significant other.  This is evident towards the end of both the Play and the Movie.



“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee… Too little payment for such debt.”

Act 5 scene 2 lines 162-170

This is the last line from “Taming of the Shrew” and Katherine is the one saying it.  It’s a very lengthy last line but basically Katherine tells the other wives to obey their husbands.  This could be either taken one of two ways.  The first way is that she believes every word she says and Petruchio has totally changed her.  The other way is that she is being sarcastic, she is only saying and doing what her husband wants to hear and see for her own good.  So she can eat and sleep.  Katherine was very stubborn but no one is mean their entire lives and when she’s going to live with someone for the rest of her life she might as well be nice to him because he is her provider and at this point in her life without him she is on her own.  


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This scene from “50 First Dates” shows Henry and Lucy hanging out with Lucy’s friends for the first time since she lost her memory.  She calls Henry her boyfriend and her friends ask Henry how he does it every day and one of them asks her husband “Why can’t you do that for me?”  Henry has gotten Lucy to fall in love with him everyday even though she doesn’t remember him once she goes to sleep.  Henry was able to change Lucy’s feelings towards him but not with force like Petruchio.  He was a gentleman to Lucy everyday and came up with a plan to remind her who he is and what’s going on at the current time.


These stories are both forms of entertainment so they are definitely far from the truth.  “Taming of the Shrew” is also very old so it is outdated as well.  These stories both depict a man getting a woman he has interest in.  Henry does it the nice way and in the end it works out for him.  Petruchio does it the harsh way and based on what Katherine said she most likely is in it for her own good.  


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