The Intentions of the Shrew …

Tai-Monae Bailey

Air Stream

04/13/2018

Honesty and deception in relationships

Cruel Intentions- directed by Roger Kumble is a movie about romance, honesty, and deception at its finest. Briefly summarizing the movie, it's about two step-siblings who enjoy  plotting and scheming on other people's lives just for the fun of it. Sebastian and his step-sister Kathryn devise a plan to hurt Kansas city Resident Annette Hargrove whose morals differentiate from Sebastian and Kathryns. Annette wants to stay a virgin until marriage and Sebastian and Kathryn bet that he will or will not be able to break the morals of Annette slowly but surely to win the ultimate prize of having intercourse with his very own stepsister. Comparing Cruel Intentions to Taming of the Shrew which is about two siblings- Bianca and Katherina who both need to be married but Bianca feels the need to marry first. Throughout the book, Katherina is verbally abused but her two suitors but only solemnly loves her servant.  Both the play and movie, show that siblings negatively affect each others relationships & views on real love because they aren't able to experience it themselves, which is why they act out and perform ploys  & stratagems.

Act 2, Scene 1

Bianca ¨Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, to make  a bondmaid and a slave of me. That I disdain. But for these other goods-- Unbind my hands, I´ll pull them off myself. Yea, all my raiment to my petticoat, Or what you will command me will I do, So well I know my duty to my elders.¨

Katherine ¨Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell, Whom thou lov´st best. See thou dissemble not.¨

Bianca ¨ Believe me, sister, of all the men alive I never yet beheld that special face Which I could fancy more than any other. ¨

Katherine ¨ Minion, thou liest. Is ´t not Hortensio?¨

Bianca ¨If you affect him, sister, here I swear I'll plead for you myself, but you shall have him¨

Katherine ¨ O, then belike you fancy riches more. You will have Gremio to keep you fair.¨

Bianca ¨ Is it for him you do envy me so? Nay, than, you jest, and now I well perceive You have but jested with me all this while. I prithee,sister Kate, untie my hands¨

*Katherine strikers Bianca*

In this scene Katherine ties up Bianca. She threatens her, hits her and attempts to make her do things because she´s ultimately jealous of her. Kathrine is jealous because men don't find her appealing but are head over heels for Bianca who is ultimately happy with life and grateful with the people who are affectionate of her.  I can compare this to the scene in Cruel Intentions because Kathryn saw how happy Sebastian was and how unbothered he was with the fact that he had major feelings for Annette so she took it upon herself to do something that would ruin that out of jealousy. Readers can see that Katherine wants Bianca´s life from personality, suitors and her fathers love.

Monolonge-

Kathryn :  ¨Ronald ?¨

Ronald : ¨Whats up ? Is everything okay ?¨

Kathryn : ¨No its Sebastian, He's out of his mind.¨

Ronald : ¨What do you mean ?

Kathryn : ¨He hit me and then took off…  There's more, it involves Cecile¨

*Two Scenes, first two pictures is Kathryn & Ronald talking & second picture is Sebastian forcefully coming clean to Annette*

Monolonge-

Sebastian : ¨I have something to tell you¨

Annette :  ¨What is it ?¨

Sebastian : ¨This isnt working out for me anymore… It's me not you . Im completely fu*ked up.¨

Annette: ¨What are you saying ?¨

Sebastian :  ¨ I thought I was in love with you but it's just a lie.. I wanted it to work but I feel nothing¨

Annette: ¨ Why are you doing this ?¨

Sebastian : ¨ I just wanted to see what you were like in bed¨ -lies-

In this scene from Cruel Intentions, Kathryn came to a realization that Sebastian was falling in love with Annette and completely obliterating the bet they had in place. She called Ronald- another innocent person muddled into their bet, lying and making up stories about Sebastian and Ronald´s significant other, knowing how Ronald would react.Kathryn lives for ruining peoples lives and dallying with their happiness. So she made a few calls and sabotaged Sebastian´s relationship with Annette by making it known about their little speculation that was made in the beginning of the movie. I can compare this to the scene in Taming of the Shrew because both Katherine and Kathryn can´t stand to see each other siblings happy. They both have the same characteristics which include jealousy, supremacy and  insecurity. Viewers can see that Kathryn does not like the nonchalance attitude that Sebastian possessed,when she realizes that the bet is meaningless to him; she wants him to care and react and show interest in her since before Sebastian knew Annette genuinely he would devote his time and attention all to Kathryn. All that change when he fell for Annette slowly than all at once. Lastly When Kathrine ties up her sister and is pressuring her to give her all her suitors and do this and do that it also relates to Cruel Intentions because In that moment Sebastian had no other choice but to come clean about the bet and be honest about the relationship he has with his stepsister, which changed over time when he started caring for Annette. Both Kathryn and Katherine blackmail their siblings in different ways.

Act 5 : Scene 2

Kathryn : Fie, fie! Unknit that threat’ning unkind brow,

And dart not scornful glances from those eyes

To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.

It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,155

Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,

And in no sense is meet or amiable.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,

Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty,

And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty 160

Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,

Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee,

And for thy maintenance commits his body

To painful labor both by sea and land, 165

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,

Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,

And craves no other tribute at thy hands

But love, fair looks, and true obedience—

Too little payment for so great a debt. 170

Such duty as the subject owes the prince,

Even such a woman oweth to her husband;

And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,

And not obedient to his honest will,

What is she but a foul contending rebel 175

And graceless traitor to her loving lord?

I am ashamed that women are so simple

To offer war where they should kneel for peace,

Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway

When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.180

Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,

Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,

But that our soft conditions and our hearts

Should well agree with our external parts?

Come, come, you froward and unable worms!185

My mind hath been as 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 lances are but straws,

Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, 190

That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.

Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,

And place your hands below your husband’s foot;

In token of which duty, if he please,

My hand is ready, may it do him ease

In this scene from Taming of the Shrew, Katherine finally lets go of all her emotions and anger that she's been holding on to and just speaks what is truly on her mind. She stops fighting everyone else and basically tells them what they want to hear. Readers can see that  Katherine is actually very genuine and loving under that alleged crazy shell everyone sees and knows of. They can see that someone like the author labeled her as in the beginning is capable of love. And that she was jealous of her sister (Bianca) because she just wanted love and to feel and have the same experiences as she did. I can compare this scene to the scene in Cruel Intentions because at the end of the book and movie both Katherine and Kathryn finally let go and let things be. They accept their predicament and stop running from it.

No monolonge

In this scene, after Sebastian passes away he and all the other victims of Kathryns games help expose her true self by giving copies of Sebastian's journal to the entire school and faculty. Which include every interaction and conversation he had with every person he came in contact with. Kathryn is finally exposed but this scene isn't about just that but finally she reached her breaking point and her cry for help has been heard. Throughout the book Kathryn has been doing cocaine not because she wanted to but because she needed to she relied on it so she wouldn't feel how she really felt. Viewers can see that, Kathryn will finally become sober and face her real world problems instead of hiding behind chemical messenger dopamine. Lastly she will take the advice of her parents and finally let go of all that anger and just be her true self and accepting it. I can compare this scene to the Taming of the Shrew scene because Kathrine finally accepts herself and she lets every thought and feeling out, basically she's letting her faults just be and making them known, coming to reality with how she really feels.

In conclusion, the antagonist may have seem to win in both the novel and movie since Kathryn is finally free of Sebastian and able to help herself from her addiction and Katherine who finally knows what love is and will do anything to have it even if it means bettering herself and accepting herself and her faults. Nevertheless the protagonist in this story- Sebastian and Bianca both won in reality. Sebastian may have passed away but he still felt that intensifying love that he deeply desired and broke out of his phase of having intercourse with a manifold of women; he learned to not treat women as if they were a game. He could finally say that he was happy and for once didn't allow his step sister to control how he felt about a person. For Bianca she was finally free to live and love and be herself without having the anxiety and stress of her once jealous sister who now is happy and at ease with life and leaving her alone. To conclude, each character won, but also each character took a loss in order to gain their happiness, struggling with themselves mentally and taking it out on the people who care for them , when in reality it was just cruel intentions that turned out good.

WORK CITED

Cruel Intentions -  March 5, 1999,Roger Kumble.

Taming of the Shrew- March 8, 1967, William Shakespear.