Joshua+Martin-Corrales

Taming of the Groundhog ** // ﻿ // **
//Taming of the Shrew and Groundhog Day//

"Taming of the Shrew" is a play by William Shakespeare about marriage and love. In the play, the main focus is the romance between Petruchio and Katherine. Petruchio tries to "tame" Katherine, or attempts to make her love him through trickery in order to make her a more obedient wife. In the 1993 movie "Groundhog Day" Phil Connors attempts to win a women's heart while he repeats the same day over and over, using some trickery on his part as well. In both the play and the movie, the main male characters have something in common, they believe that they can win a woman's heart through trickery. Petruchio thinks that if he "kills her with kindness" that he can win Katherine's heart, and make her love him and be obedient. Phil Connors, on the other hand, believes that by simply memorizing the things Rita is looking for in a man, and memorizing her favorite things, that he can win her heart as well.

**"There is a way to kill a wife with kindness"**

(Act 4, Scene 1, 208)

Petruchio says this when giving a soliloquies about his plan to "tame" Katherine, which includes starving her and depriving her of sleep by saying that whatever pillow she obtains or bed spread is too hard or rough, and that any food she gets is burned or under cooked. He thinks this trick will make her think he really cares about her to the point where she becomes his.

Meanwhile in Groundhog Day, Phil Connors' tricks are a bit different,

In this scene, Phil Connors is living this date over and over again, trying to provide the perfect answers and information in order to trick Rita into falling in love with him. In this shot, he is reliving the same snowball fight, though he is frustrated and bored by having done it multiple times, and rushes to get out the same things he said before in less time. Phil thinks that he can get Rita's love by saying the right thing and memorizing the perfect sequence, believing he can use this trick to woo any woman.

**"I am ashamed women are so simple"** (Act 5, Scene 2, 177)

Katherine says this as part of her final monologue at the end of the play where she tells two other women about how to treat their man, obeying his every order and listening to him. Katherine follows this speech by kissing Petruchio, a way of showing her affections. Katherine in this scene, shows that Petruchio has indeed won her heart, almost saying that it was too simple. In short Petruchio cheats and lies his way into her loving him.

However, Phil Connors does not experience the same luck with his tricks,

Phil repeats his date over and over again to no avail, all of them ending in the simple same result. Rita refuses to fall for his trickery regardless of how adept he becomes in it, memorizing more and more of the things she likes every time, to no avail. Unlike Petruchio, Phil fails to woo Rita with trickery, failing even with his ability to relive the day again and again to find how to make it perfect. This might be due to this movie being more recent, Rita doesn't fall for Phil's tricks because she is more independent to begin with, not controlled by her father's whims, and not forced to be with Phil regardless. Perhaps if the movie took place in the past, Phil would be able to woo her with these same tricks.

In "Taming of the Shrew" Petruchio manages to woo Katherine with trickery and lies. In "Groundhog Day" Phil Connors tries to use trickery to make Rita fall in love with him, but only gets the girl when he lives a day to its fullest. Both men walk into the situation of love thinking that they can use trickery in order to get love, but only Petruchio is successful. This is probably due to the time in which the movie was made, as opposed to the play which is from several hundred years ago, in this day and age, women falling in love by being tricked would be seen as sexist or wrong. However, the simple fact that both men attempt trickery is a sign on how men think about women, they believe that women will fall in love with them if they can trick them well enough, or lie properly. While one shows a rather different result from trickery, the fat that both of them men attempted it, says more than enough for how men think.