The Taming of the Groundhog
A comparison between Groundhog Day and Taming of the Shrew The Taming of the Shrew has a bizarre title that sums up a large chunk of its plot. One of the main characters, Petruchio, ‘tames’ his wife Katherine through various tactics to be obedient and always agree to what he says. Two other characters, Lucentio and Bianca, had a very different relationship. Bianca was pursued by many suitors, but chose Lucentio because he was honest with her about who he was. Groundhog Day is about a man named Phil who is stuck in a time loop where he is doomed to repeat the same day, groundhog day specifically, over and over and over. He is a news anchor and has a co worker named Rita, who he likes and tries to get closer to throughout the movie. In Groundhog Day and The Taming of the Shrew, two specific tactics in relationships are used. Lucentio and Bianca’s relationship was built on honesty, while Petruchio and Katherine’s relationship was built on conflict prevention by one party, always Katherine, giving in to the other’s opinion. Lucentio and Bianca’s relationship was successful but was proved less so in the eyes of the book by the end. Both of these approaches were attempted by Phil, the protagonist in Groundhog Day so he could woo Rita, but unlike in the Shrew, the approach mirroring Petruchio and Katherine was inferior in the eyes of the movie. Essentially, in the time of the Shrew, consensus and agreement within a couple was valued over honesty and integrity, and in modern times, honesty and integrity is valued more. “PETRUCHIO: Nay, then you lie. It is the blesséd sun. KATHERINE: Then God be blest, it [is] the blesséd sun.” (Act 4, Scene 5, Lines 20-21) In this scene of The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio and Katherine had an argument. Petruchio declared that the sun was the moon, but Katherine disagreed because it was the sun. He kept pressing her until she agreed, and then flipped his stance the instant she did so. The argument continued on for a while, and Katherine still echoed Petruchio in every way during it. Even though she didn’t really agree with his outlandish observations, she went along with it anyway. In doing this, Katherine conceded to Petruchio’s ideal of a marriage- where a woman agreed with her husband without complaint. Later in the play, Petruchio places a bet with other newlyweds saying that his wife was the most obedient. He won, and their relationship was shown as the most successful in the eyes of the play. After the bet was won, Katherine was asked by Petruchio to lecture the other women about what it meant to be a wife, and said the following. “[When a woman is] not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel And graceless traitor to her loving lord?” (Act 5, Scene 2, Lines 174-176) According to Katherine, one who does not bend over backwards for her husband is a traitor to him and a ‘foul contending rebel’. She would rather agree with her husband who is blatantly wrong than to disagree and start an argument. In Groundhog Day, Phil and Rita go out on a date that emcompasses several loops. They have a conversation centered around Rita and her interests. One specific thing that was brought up in it was her choice to major in french literature, which he ended up saying was dumb and she got mad at him for it. He didn’t like that, so in the next loop he pretended like he thought it was a good idea. The conversation continued throughout the loops in that manner, she would say something he thought was dumb and he would say so and get rejected, and then would amend what he was saying to tailor to her interests. He was, in a way, seeking to tame himself to do what Petruchio made Katherine do, agree with his date in every way. This tactic didn’t work out as well as he hoped. "BIANCA: Now let me see if I can consider it. Hic ibat Simois, I know you not; hic est [Sigeia] tellus, I trust you not; Hic [steterat] Priami, take heed he hear us not; regia, presume not; celsa senis despair not." (Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 44-47) In The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio disguises himself as a tutor for Bianca in order to become closer to her and attempt to gain her affection. When he reveals his true identity, she responds with the above. In a nutshell, she doesn't know him so she can't trust him. This was the issue with Rita and Phil, too. After Phil attempted to woo her by mimicking her opinions, she said basically the same thing Bianca did when Lucentio introduced his real self. She says that she doesn't know him and proceeds to slap him, several times over the course of several loops. She doesn't value him mimicking her, she'd rather get to know him for who he really is. At the end of the movie, when he becomes a genuinely nice person, she ends up actually liking him. He was much better off becoming nice than echoing her and pretending to be nice. Groundhog Day pushes the thesis that in order to have a successful relationship, people must grow as people instead of avoiding doing that by just agreeing with everything someone said. In Groundhog Day, the protagonist was more successful when he was a genuinely good person rather than when he was pretending to be one. This shows that in a more modern viewpoint, honesty is valued over consensus in relationships, rather than in The Taming of the Shrew, where consensus was more valued. Works Cited Groundhog Day. Dir. Harold Ramis. Prod. Harold Ramis. By Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin. Perf. Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Andie MacDowell. Columbia Pictures, 1993. DVD. Shakespeare, William B. The Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York, NY: Washington Square, 1992. Print. |
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