Love, Lies, and Coincidentally, Italy

Love, Lies, and Coincidentally, Italy

The Taming of the Shrew and Roman Holiday


From Padua to Rome, love always lies. That much, William Shakespeare and Dalton Trumbo are certain to agree on. Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew” and Trumbo’s 1953 film, “Roman Holiday” are evidence enough of that. The Taming of the Shrew, a victorian drama following the strange romantic mishaps between a love-polygon of unknown sides and the unlikely marriage of an overly-confident, moderately misogynist man to the titled "Shrew" of a woman, lends us its message through a number of characters. The first are Bianca and her many suitors, although most importantly the rich Lucentio who disguises himself as a teacher to reach his object of affection. The others, of course, are the aforementioned unlikely couple, Petruchio and Katherine, the former of whom decides to pursue marriage with the ladder because he really just wants a wife with money.


Roman Holiday, on the other hand, follows a mid-twentieth century princess from an undisclosed country, Ann, as she flees her overwhelming responsibilities for a day to fraternize with an American journalist in Rome. She lies to him about who she is, which he already knows, and he lies about who he is. Outside of the coincidental fact that both tales take place in Italy, the two stories share a striking similarity when it comes to how honesty, and more importantly, deception, play into romantic relationships built to last. As long as in the end, according to these narratives, the two parties fall in love, then the end justifies the means. Although one takes place 400 years in the past, and the other in the nearly modern day, the two pieces make it evident that lying and deceiving can be an acceptable course of action in a romantic relationship.


“I am Lucentio- 'hic est' son unto Vincentio of Pisa- 'Sigeia tellus' disguised thus to get your love- 'Hic steterat' and that Lucentio that comes a-wooing- 'Priami' is my man Tranio- 'regia' bearing my port- 'celsa senis' that we might beguile the old pantaloon.”

(Act III, Scene I, 33-38)


Lucentio, in his bid for Bianca’s love, disguises himself as a philosophy teacher, and sneaks his way into her daily life. In the quote above, Lucentio explains this ploy to Bianca, and how Tranio was disguised as himself in order to deceive Gremio, one of her other suitors. Though he readily admits the truth to Bianca, he still initially lies to her, and, as shown in the quote, he wants no one else to find out. For this reason, he is pretending to construe a Latin phrase, so that no one may hear them.

The leads of Roman Holiday find themselves in a somewhat different type of situation, with a different kind of lying, yet one that is no less deceitful.

(Roman Holiday, 1:03:50)

Midway through the film, the two star roles run into each other in the city after having gone their separate ways. In their conversation, both Princess Ann and Joe Bradley lie to one another about their current lives. Princess Ann claims to have run away from school, rather than her royal duties, and Bradley claims to be in the selling game. Bradley, of course, knows she’s the princess, but Ann (or Anya, as she tells him to call her), does not. Not only that, but their “accidental” encounter wasn’t nearly as accidental as Ann believed, considering how the American Reporter had followed her in secret. This is the interaction that truly sets their relationship into motion, and it’s one that’s founded entirely on lies.


“For patience she will  prove a second Grissel, and Roman Lucrece for her chastity. And to conclude, we have ‘greed so well together that upon Sunday is the wedding day.”

(Act II, Scene I, Lines 312-315)


Upon his first meeting of the titled “Shrew” of the play, Katharine, Petruchio starts his plan to “tame” the woman into marriage, and into becoming what he believes to be a proper wife. After his first private conversation with her, in which he makes little headway towards his plan and invokes nothing more than hatred from the young woman, her father, Baptista, along with several other men, enter the room. Petruchio, in what is likely the most bold faced lie one could possibly make under the circumstances, tells them that Katharine has fallen for him madly, and the two are to be wed on Sunday. Baptista, trusting this strange man’s words above his own objecting daughter’s, agrees to let the marriage happen. In this scene, Petruchio makes it clear to the audience that he is willing to weave the most dauntlessly false tales to anyone in order to marry his beloved Kate. He may not have been lying to Katharine herself, but he was forging the entirety of their coming relationship on a foundation of lies, and because she ends up loving him in the finale, it passes without issue. Of course, because the ends justify the means.


On the other side of the same coin, the main pair of Roman Holiday find themselves not only forming their relationship upon a fountain of deceit, but also ending it bathing in that same fountain.


“I have to leave you now. I'm going to that corner there and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you.”

(Ann, 1:37:28)


(Roman Holiday, 1:37:28)

Before the very end of the film, the two lead characters find themselves at the end of their time together. Princess Ann must return to her royal duties, and so she asks Mr. Bradley to drive her and drop her off. Before their last loving embrace, in which they kiss for the very first time, she tells him the quote listed above. She knows that she has to leave, and yet she still can’t bring her to tell him the truth of the matter. They both know she’s lying, and yet still the two come together for a kiss and a show of love before their final goodbye. Even right until the very end, the lies still flow through the veins of their relationship. But still, they are in love. And if they are so in love, any lies they told to one another no longer matter. The deceit can be excused. While they may not have entered with the intentions of falling for one another, they found themselves tumbling regardless. Once again, the ends justify the means, and the intentions aren’t even needed.


If one thing can be learned from these two pieces, it’s that love and deceit are almost always intertwined. Italy may be a coincidence, but those two features most certainly aren’t. And, according to these creators, love makes the deceit worth it. It’s a common sentiment, in these days, that love wins above all. So why would simple lies be made the exception? Whether it be a princess and a reporter, or a brash man and a wealthy shrew, lies may come about, and as long as the love survives it, there is reason enough to ignore it. At the very least, William Shakespeare and Dalton Trumbo would say so.


Work Cited

  • Shakespeare, William. The Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. Washington, D.C.: Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d. Print.

  • Roman Holiday. By Dalton Trumbo. Dir. William Wyler. Prod. Paramount Pictures. Perf. Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck. N.p., n.d. Web.

Comments (1)

Christopher Irwin-Diehl (Student 2018)
Christopher Irwin-Diehl

Your analysis was pretty deep, just the way I like it. I think the parallels you draw between the two works of fiction are concrete enough for the underlying themes they display to be easily seen, both in the works you are comparing, as well as other instances of fictional romantic relationships. Disregarding a few grammatical errors, this essay is well put together, and provides an intriguing analysis of romance in both Shakespeare’s time and our own.