MovieChat Forums > 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Discussion > less obvious shakespeare references?

less obvious shakespeare references?


i noticed a whole host of shakespearean references in this film, some of which I thought were quite well hidden. Not sure if anyone has made a list like this yet, but I'm interested in ones I may be missing:

obvious:
name of high school (Padua, location of Taming of the Shrew); names of sisters; last name of sisters (Shakespeare's birthplace); overall plot; multiple direct quotes from sonnets, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, etc; Patrick Verona last name; absent mother

less obvious:
fascination with maidenhood / virginity of female characters; small characters who make frequent, overtly sexual puns (the principal); the girl who says she is secretly in a relationship with Shakespeare (perhaps a reference to the unnamed "fair youth" for whom sonnets were written)

obscure:
scene performed almost entirely in french (Henry V); the idea of "stopping the mouth" of an opinionated girl with a kiss as a type of deus ex machina (Much Ado); songs whose lyrics discuss the themes of the plot ("Cruel to be Kind" song at the prom.. perhaps a reference to apropos songs in Tempest, Much Ado, As You Like It, etc)

there are probably a few that I noticed that I'm forgetting to write here. But curious if anyone else noticed any references. Particularly I'm interested in the obscure ones, which made me smile... :)

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Yea the film was actually based on 'The Taming Of The Shrew'

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Seems the writer went overboard with the tie ins.

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[deleted]

are you kidding? If you didn't know all that stuff about the Shakespeare canon, you wouldn't even notice it was there. And if you did know it, you'd find the references to be rich and rewarding. What's the drawback here?

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