They Go to Bed with Gilda; They Wake Up with the Shrew: A comparison of Notting Hill and The Taming of the Shrew

Summaries: In the play, Petruchio hears that the merchant Baptista has a daughter, strong-willed Katherina “Kate”. He wants to become Katherina suitor. Baptista is enthusiastic about Petruchio’s suit because the shrew Katherina is a burden to him. Petruchio will not be put off as he woos Kate and he sets up the wedding day. After the wedding, Kate is starved and forced into a sleepless life by Petruchio. He does this to teach her to obey him. On the journey back home she is subjected to a strange conversation as Petruchio tests Kate’s obedience. But the real test of her obedience is when Baptista holds a wedding feast for his daughters. Petruchio places a bet with the men on who has the most obedient wife. Kate is the only one who completes his task. Then he asks Kate to lecture the women on the duties of a wife. William Thacker is a London bookstore owner whose simple life is thrown into romantic turmoil when famous actress Anna Scott appears in his bookshop to look at travel books of turkey. A chance encounter over spilled orange juice leads to a kiss then into a full-blown affair. As the average man and world-famous movie star draw closer, they struggle to reconcile their radically different lifestyles for the love that they share.

In the "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare, the characters Petruchio and Katherine were a couple who faced lots of complications before they fell in love. In the movie "Notting Hill”, William and Anna were a couple who fell in love too, despite all of their complications, even though Anna was an actress and William was just a bookstore clerk. Anna sacrificed her paraded life to be with him. In both the play and the movie, there were two separate lives, but William and Anna were in love when they first meet. Compared to Petruchio and Katherine, who weren't in love when they met. Petruchio forced Katherine to get married. In the end, Katherine falls in love with Petruchio and made sacrifices, just as Anna did, but Petruchio’s disregard for her feelings meaning their love is not genuine. These texts reflect that if one person truly loves another person, then he or she will overcome challenges and make sacrifices to make the other happy.


Screenshot 2018-04-10 at 1.21.03 PM
Screenshot 2018-04-10 at 1.21.03 PM

In the movie “Notting Hill” audiences are introduced to two characters William Thacker and Anna Scott. The couple has it rocky start from the beginning. But one thing that brought the couple closer was their first date. Anna and William plans for their first date was sure to be romantic but seconds before the plan was cemented William remembers he had plans for his sister birthday. Anna asks her assistant to move around her actoral duty to be able to attend a dinner at the home of William’s best friend and ex-lover. Anna had to sacrifices the normal comfort and quantity of a date she is used to. Anna is used to dating big time film and television actors who take her on expensive dates around people who are also famous. She didn’t have to deal with people’s alarm in the past but because now she was dining with locals she must handle the extra attention they pay to her despite her discomfort. William is very comfortable at the party dealing with his best friends and the games that they play. If Anna wasn’t ready to sacrificed her normal comfortability in a date she would have never loved William for himself in all forms. She would have never have gotten to know “floppy” (High school nickname of William). She would have only ever know William.


“No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forced To give my hand, opposed against my heart”

(Act iii, Scene i, 8-9)

In this scene, Katherine says she doesn’t want to marry Petruchio. Since she is not in love with him. Petruchio has to force Katherine to love him, as well as marry him. Initially, Katharine is not content with the fact that she must marry. She had to be persuaded to marry a man she didn’t love, this shows societies view on male ideas on courtship and/or dating. At the beginning of the play, Katherine said it will be a shame for her to be with someone who she does not love but by the end of the play, she gives up on this concept. Initially Katherine believes that her hand in marriage should only belong to someone to whom she can also give her heart. Katherine struggles to get over the fact that she is not truly in love with Petruchio, while Petruchio is ready to marry Katherine knowing he wasn’t in love with her. He is ready to marry her for the challenges that it will bring forth. Her idea of courtship is that it should be mutual consent. However, by the end of the play, she accepts that in her situation, Petruchio’s desire to be with her gives her no opinion in the matter. His idea of courtship is that it should on the men desire for a women.Since Katherine’s ideas on courtship and marriage have not been satisfied, she and Petruchio cannot be in love.


​Questioner: "Anna how long to you intending to stay here in Britain?
Anna: "Indefinety."
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One of Anna biggest sacificies is looked at as staying in London. She had decided to take a year long hiatus from acting due to her heart being broken by William. He hurt her in ways no one else had before. Not even the boyfriend who used to beat her. But soon he realizes his mistakes, and he races across London to Anna’s press conference where she speaking on the rest of her career. When Will arrives, Anna's publicist is telling the crowd that Anna will be taking time off from making films and leaving the UK that night. Will, pretending to be a reporter, admits he made the wrong decision and begs Anna to reconsider. After admitting she would, Anna announces that she will be staying in Britain "indefinitely." Anna career was in America and not in the UK. She had many more opportunities to keep growing as well as keep traveling. To continue to making herself a name. She spent so much of her life getting to where she was and was willing to sacrifice it all for a man she was in love with genuinely.

“And threw the sops all in the sexton’s face, Having no other reason

But that his beard grew thin and hungerly, and seemed to ask him sops as he was drinking. This done, he took the bride about the neck, and kissed her lips such a clamorous smack, that at the parting all the church did echo”.

(Act iii, Sc ii, 175-81)

In this quote, the wedding for Katherine and Petruchio is shown. When first marrying Petruchio, Katherine was not in love with Petruchio but he pushed Katherine to marry him. The fact that Petruchio thinks it is acceptable to push someone into marriage demonstrates male ideas in courtship/dating. The reason that this shows that this is this male idea in courtship/dating is that he is getting a dowry through the marriage of Katherine and himself. His expectations were for Katherine to marry him for his need for economic benefits and for her to continue being loyal to him even though he is not treating her with kindness and love like she so desperately wants. His idea was that it is fair to marry a girl even if she is not pleased with the relationship. Katherine sacrifices her independence as well as her happiness by marrying Petruchio even though she does not love or care for him. In the end of the play, Katherine becomes a submissive wife because of Petruchio’s push into marriage and her new lifestyle. If Petruchio’s truly loved Katherine, he wouldn’t have forced her into the marriage and abused her in the multitude of ways that he had done (refusing to feed her, and forcing her to stay up for days at a time). When one is truly in love with another, one will do whatever it takes to make the other happy, even if one will not be happy with the outcome. Since Petruchio did not take Katherine’s happiness into consideration, his “love” for her is not genuine.

“They go to bed with Gilda but they wake up with me… ”

Neither one of these couples were straight across. Often they both crossed over.. This line was intended for audiences to see this. This line was used in “Notting Hill”.


In the movie “Notting Hill”,  this line is spoken by Anna right after the first time her and William had intercourse.  She intends the line to mean that men go to bed with a dream and wake up to the reality of who she really is. As they lay in the bed, William tells her that she must always be a dream because who she is, is perfect. Not many days later she heads back to her hotel to a surprise her long-time boyfriend from America comes to surprise her. William comes to her hotel room hours later to find him there with her. He made the sacrifice of his pride pretending to be a member of the hotel as room service. William is hurt by what he see in the hotel. He decide this isn’t the sacrifice he want to make to make her happy.


In the end of the play “The Taming of the Shrew”, we see a scene where Petruchio and Katherine seem to be in love. It’s is the final scene from the book. It shows Katherine coming to her husband, in a time where no other wife came down. She had finally sacrificed herself to him. And she did this for both of their happiness. She was no longer upset at their marriage nor a shrew. She was the wife that he wanted, and the only husband she could seem to know. This sacrifice seemed okay with her in this moment. They both seem joyful when they shared the kiss that ended the book.

In the play “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare and in the movie “Notting Hill”, each of the characters make critical sacrifices and take on challenges in the name of true love. However, whether or not the love is authentic depends on the character’s actions and intentions. William and Anna are genuine with each other and sacrifice for each other.  In their relationship all they want is to make each other happy. Petruchio does not sacrifice for Katherine, only Katherine does giving up her independence. Her intention is to make him happy by being loyal to him, Petruchio’s intentions are not to take care of Katherine and her happiness, but to tame her. Petruchio marries Katherine despite her protest to gain her dowry. Therefore, only couples who truly love each other seek to make the other happy without self-interest.


Work cited

Shakespeare, William, and D. J. Donovan. The Taming of the Shrew: Shakespeare. W. B. Clive, University Tutorial Press, 1929.


Michell, Roger, director. Notting HillNotting Hill, 1999.

Comments (4)

Weston Matthews (Student 2019)
Weston Matthews

It's interesting to me that you seek to disprove love in the play using a premise formulated from watching the movie. Intriguing. While I don't agree with every point, I will say that this had some agreeable things to say on how to know if love is genuine or not. Oftentimes, people feel forced even today to get married (maybe from subtle societal pressure). I think sacrifices are always a key aspect of any type of loving relationship, romantic or not

Lauren Nicolella (Student 2019)
Lauren Nicolella

I think this was a different approach to Shrew, of how there are challenges lovers overcome to make someone else happy because I feel there isn't a lot of that in the play but you somehow were able to make a good amount of connections.

Afi Koffi (Student 2019)
Afi Koffi

This visual essay did not change my understanding of love. It argues that the media convinces people that love and relationships are about sacrifices. I agree with this claim because it is very rare that I see a relationship in the media that featured a solid relationship where someone didn't change in some way or the other.

Nzinga Suluki-Bey (Student 2019)
Nzinga Suluki-Bey

I want to watch this movie. I've seen most romantic comedies and now this one has thrown me through a loop. Love is supposed to be genuine and cray, but this movie is more sacrifice. Clearly, if you can't let go of something then you can't be in love or be able to love.