Guess Shrew: Shamus Keough

Posted by Shamus Keough in English 3 · Pahomov · B Band on Sunday, April 15, 2018 at 10:52 am

Guess Shrew

Shamus Keough

The Taming of the Shrew is a romance story that is about two men trying to start relationships with two women who are partially being controlled by their father. Baptista, who is the father of the women (Katherine and Bianca) doesn’t want one of them to get married without the other one getting married. Because he doesn’t want this, he is not letting either of them get married unless the other one is setting up a marriage too. Both Petruchio and Lucentio wanted to marry Bianca but had to set up a plan where both of them would marry a daughter.

Guess who is a movie about a black girl named Theresa, who is in a relationship with a white man named Simon, and are planning to get engaged soon. Theresa and Simon are very happy together, the one problem is, Theresa’s family doesn’t know Simon is white. After Percy (Theresa’s father) meets Simon, he starts to criticize him a lot and tries to get his daughter to stop dating him. These two stories both are about a father trying to involve himself in the daughter’s relationship, mainly because he cares about his daughters and wants to make sure they are okay. The stories also differ, like in the way that Baptista wanted to make sure his daughters get married, and Percy is mostly against who his daughter is dating. In every romantic relationship, family should be involved to protect their child even if it can cause negativity.

"And for I know she taketh most delight in music, instruments, and poetry, schoolmasters will I keep within my house fit to instruct her youth."

(Act 1, Scene 1, 94-97)

This quote is from Baptista, trying to speak highly about his daughters and their intelligence. He is speaking about them highly so any men that meet them may hear about them and think they are great women that they would want to marry. He is showing that he cares a lot about his girls and their relationships, and doing it in a very nice way.

Baptista is showing his concern for his daughter’s relationships in a positive way, trying to get some men to be interested in dating his daughters. Percy on the other hand, cares about his daughter, and shows it in a slightly negative way.

Percy in this scene is about to sleep next to Simon, in an effort to try and scare him. He also does it to make sure Simon doesn’t wake up in the night, sneak in to Theresa’s room, and have sex with her. Percy is obviously showing that he cares about his daughter, but in a more negative way. His method of trying to scare Simon is negative, and he could have just tried to be polite and make sure Simon doesn’t do certain things.

“Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's part and venture madly on a desperate mart.”

(2, 1, 345-348)

In this quote, Baptista says a metaphor as if he was a businessman and it is his job to work out his daughter’s marriages. He is speaking about it because getting his daughters married is extremely important to him. This is a nice way to show that he cares about his daughter’s relationships. (It is also a little negative since he is caring about himself partly, but it’s still positive in a way.)

Again, Baptista is trying to help his daughter’s out with their relationships in a nice way, and not really being negative to anyone. In this scene from the movie on the other hand, Percy is caring about his daughter, but trying to make the things he has been doing to Simon seem okay.

In the current scene, Percy is talking to his daughter, and she just asked him about why he has been so mean to Simon. Percy says it is because he doesn’t trust him, and he doesn’t want his daughter starting a relationship with someone who might do something wrong to her. While it is nice that he is doing something to try and protect his daughter, Percy is still being rude and trying to scare away Simon. Simon is someone who genuinely cares about Theresa and loves her, and doesn’t deserve what Percy is doing to him.

"I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; if wealthily, then happily in Padua."

(1, 2, 76-77)

This quote is from Petruchio, and he is speaking about how he only really cares about the money he will get when he marries one of Baptista’s daughters. The important thing about this quote is that it shows why Baptista has been caring about his daughter’s marriages, because he wants them to both to get married and to get married to men that actually care about them.

Baptista, once again was trying to be nice, and protect his daughters from people like Petruchio because they could treat his daughter’s badly if all they care about is the money. Percy, in the movie scene, is once again showing why he was treating Simon bad, and why he will treat him okay now.

In this movie scene, Percy and Simon are home alone at the house, just after Percy’s wife, Marilyn, and Theresa just left them and are currently staying at Marilyn’s sister’s house. Percy at this time is starting to see that Simon isn’t a bad person, and is now treating him nicer. Now that Percy knows Simon is a good person who cares about his daughter, he isn’t feeling like he needs to try and scare him off, and can be nice to him.

Both of these stories deal a lot with the idea of parents trying to be apart of their children’s romantic relationship. They both have fathers that show that they care, but both show them in different ways. In Taming of the Shrew, Baptista shows that he cares about his daughter’s and their relationships in nice ways, like when he speaks nicely about them to make men want to be in a relationship with them. He talks about how he will set up many of the things in their relationships for them, and overall is showing he cares in many different nice ways. Percy on the other hand shows that he cares by trying to get his daughter to date someone else. Percy doesn't trust Simon with dating his daughter and tries to scare Simon off. Overall, showing that he cares in a negative way. Both fathers show they care about their daughters a lot and show that they do throughout both of the stories. The ways they care show that while some parents can show how much they care about their children’s relationships in a nice way, many can still show it in negative ways like scaring away a person they don't trust with their child. While it is shown that negativity can be caused, the stories still show that family should be involved in romantic relationships to protect their children.