Expectations and Realizations

Comparing “Clueless” to the “Taming of the shrew”


Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew sets up conventions and expectations for how women are supposed to act in order to be deemed suitable. In Taming of the Shrew, Katherine's narcissism and argumentative approach makes her "unfit" for marriage because she subverts the traditions of women as "submissive." Similarly in "Clueless," Cher, while attempting to scheme and set up relationships among her friends and family, does not have time for her own love interests. While both women share similarities with regard to social status and their attitude towards men, Katherine's expectations are challenged when she is forced into a marriage whereas Cher's are challenged when she realizes a relationship she tried to force herself away from was actually what she should have pursued. ----  


“I’ll see thee hanged on Sunday First”

"Quote from Play"

(Act II, Scene I, 316)  Katherine


In this quote, Katherine is being forced into marriage by her father, and the madman that wanted to marry her named, Petruchio. Their first encounter was rough and violent with bad first impressions being left on both ends. Even so, when Petruchio went back to talk to her father he had given permission for her to marry him and their wedding would happen on that Sunday. Katherine says she would rather be hung than marrying petruchio, her reason being because of the expectations she has set for herself to not treat others nicely as they have not treated her nicely. It will not benefit her to marry this man based off her first encounter with him and from the expectations she has set. In the movie cher seems to have the same problem of having expectations and if a guy doesn’t live up to them then they aren’t worth her time.

Image result for clueless gifs eww get off me ugh as if

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In the early scenes of “Clueless” Cher is walking on the campus of school with her friend Dionne and Dionne gets dragged away by her boyfriend Murray allowing Cher to walk ahead alone. As she is walking a guy approaches her and she pushes him away saying “Eww, get off of me. Ugh! As If!” Cher wants to keep the highschool boys away from her because they don’t fit her expectation of what a guy should be, look, and act. As she continues to walk once pushing the guy off she says, “ I don’t know why Dionne is going out with a highschool boy. They’re like dogs. You have to clean them, and feed them, and they’re just like these nervous creatures that jump and slobber all over you.” When the boys don’t fit the expectation she has set, they aren’t good enough for her. This shows the expectations she has set for herself that she has grown accustomed to by her status and society. She expects all the boys she dates to be older than her, more mature, and is on her level.


“For me, I’ll not be gone till I please myself. ‘Tis like you’ll prove a jolly surly groom, That take it on you at the first so roundly.”

"Quote from Play"

(Act III, Scene II, 218:220) Katherine


In “The Taming of the Shrew,” Katherine is telling her newlywed husband Petruchio that she will not leave to go to his house directly after their wedding because it does not please her to do what someone else wants her to do. Katherine tells her husband that if he loves her then he will stay and do what she wants. She is selfish and neglects to act accordingly even after she is married to Petruchio when during this time period, women are supposed to be the opposite and obey their husbands. In the movie Clueless, Cher is the same way when it comes to be being selfish, except she uses her selfishness to help others when it benefits her.


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In this scene Cher is driving around with her ex stepbrother, Josh, and is talking about all the volunteering she does. The thing is that the volunteering she does to help others only benefits her like getting her two teachers together so they will soften and give and her and her peers less work and better grades. Josh is a very sarcastic character who knows how Cher is so he expects nothing less even though he knows she could be more. The selfishness of her ways get her what she wants because that’s what she expects from herself and those around her.  


“Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee” -- “My mind hath been big as one of yours, My heart as great, my reason haply more, To bandy word for word and frown for frown; But now I see our l see our lances are but straws”

"Quote from Play"

(Act V, Scene II, 162:163, 186:189) Katherine


In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherine has now come to a realization and saw expectations of how a woman should truly be and how they should act. She is talking to the other wives of the men about being obedient to their husband because they are their masters and their lives. She was in the` beginning a shrew person who took orders from no one and talked back to those around her. She met Petruchio and he helped her come to the realization that men do so much and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect. Petruchio used a method to get her to listen and believe what he says. Katherine gave in to the pressure and started to listen to what he says realizing that she shouldn’t have so many expectations for herself because it could be a lot worst and women that don’t listen and have many expectations get disappointed. In Clueless, Cher has to also have a realization to get out the habit of making expectations for herself that could disappoint her causing her to not realize what’s right in front of her.

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In this scene of the movie Cher is understanding that she love Josh, who has been there with her from the beginning. She realizes as she is describing him in the scene where she says, “ I mean he’s just like this slug who hangs around the house all the time. And he’s a hideous dancer.. Couldn’t take him anywhere. Why am I stressing? -- This is like, Josh. Then Suddenly.. Oh my god.. I love Josh!” In this statement she states all the things that are wrong with Josh, that would turn her off usually, but then she realizes none of that matters and her expectations for guys was just something that she let run her because of how she carried herself and saw the world. This can be seen in the The taming of the shrew when Katherine realized that women should obey their husbands and not be arrogant and complicated unlike her newfound self.

In conclusion, throughout The taming of the shrew and Clueless, both characters Katherine and Cher make these realizations at the end of the book and the movie. In The taming of the shrew Katherine was a woman who didn’t listen to anyone, had a bad temper, and had these expectations set for her because it was expected due to her status and attitude. Whereas, in Clueless was a girl who had status and made herself believe she was too good for others that weren’t what her expectations sought to be. In the end they both saw different things through their relationships that things aren’t always what they seem to be. In society we put expectations on what relationships should be or who we should be with depending on we stand on the social ladder and the higher up you are the more expectations one tends to have. Therefore, for both of these characters we see growth through their actions and in the end they realize it shouldn’t be that way.



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