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“Taming of the shrew” was play were almost all of the relationships involved lying. In the movie “LOL” a lot of the relationships were also started or ended because of lying.  However, although in “LOL” a lot of lies flew through the air like in the book, relationships became stronger through trust, not with lies. Compared to Taming of the shrew, were lying didn’t affect the characters relationships, LOL reflects that today trust is a key thing in relationships.

In the beginning scene of the movie, Lola finds out that her current boyfriend, Chase, has lied to her and cheated.


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Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 7.21.08 AM

The lack of trust between the two broke them apart, instead or keeping them together. Since Lola knew that Chase could no longer be trusted, and the trust between them was totally gone, so she knew she had nothing to work with in her relationship. However, in Taming of the shrew, lies actually helped Lucentio gain a relationship with Bianca:


Act 1 sc 1 pg 43: “Tell me thine first...you will be schoolmaster”


Lucentio lied about who he really was, being able to get closer to Bianca. When he told her the truth, she was not concerned about the fact he lied to her father, friends, everyone- including herself. She was more impressed by the scheme. Compared to LOL, lack of trust and lies gained the characters a relationship, instead of losing them.


Lies weren’t just told to boyfriends or girlfriends either- the characters also lied to the parents in the play or movie a lot too-


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Screen Shot 2013-12-12 at 7.23.42 AM

Lola lied to her mother about different events in the movie, including the party she had, whether she had sex or not, and whether she was doing drugs. When her mother found out, the trust between them was gone and their relationship began to slowly die. In the scene were Lola’s mom found her diary, their relationship was forever scarred.


In contrast, in Taming of the shrew Lucentio lied to his father and Bianca’s father and their relationship was not affected at all.


Act 5 Scene 1 : “Here’s Lucentio, right son to the right Vincentio,

That have by marriage made thy daughter mine

While counterfeit supposes bleared thine eyne.”


Lucentio was supposed to be in school at the time, and instead lied to his father and Bianca’s. However, by the end of the book when Lucentio revealed himself, Baptista or his father were not mad or angry. His father instead seemed happy to see him, regardless of that fact that he disobeyed him, lied to everyone in town about who he was, and just made his father look crazy in public. This shows the deep contrast between that time and today- during shakespeare's time trust was hard to loose,  but today trust is easily lost and hard to get back.


Lucentio, and other characters, seemed to get off easy in the play when they lied. However, lying it is different today. Lola had a hard time during the whole movie because it was hard to tell who she could trust. Many of her boyfriends seemed to be cheating on her, and the lack of trust she had with the different characters just destroyed some of her relationships. However, she gained friends when she learned to trust them- even her rival, who finally spoke the truth at the end of the movie. This reinforces the belief that an audience wants to see the trusty friend to win in the end, and the unfaithful, lying rival to lose and be taught a lesson.


Source: 
LOL. Dir. Lisa Azuelos. Perf. Miley Cyrus and Douglas Booth. Megashare. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2013.
Shakespeare, William, and Thomas Goddard Bergin. The Taming of the Shrew;. New Haven: Yale UP, 1954. Print.

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