Ashley+Etheredge

=  The Suitors Handbook = //Male Courtship in the play Taming of the Shrew and the movie Made of Honor // In the movie "Made of Honor" with Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan made in 2008, and is set in New York City (present day). Tom (Patrick) and Hannah ( Michelle) are best friends, Tom realizes that he loves Hannah after she is already engaged similar to the 1997 film My Best Friends Wedding. The main character Tom decides to court Hannah while doing the duties of a made of honor.

 The movie "Made of Honor" and the play "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare are similar in that a man Petruchio, is trying to court Katherine into marrying him instead of another suitor. In Taming of the Shrew, there was a lot of male courtship and talk of dowry's which are the old version of a prenuptial agreement. As well as talking between male characters about how to court a wealthy women into marriage. However in the movie "Made of Honor" the male main character struggles with love and he courts an engaged women the female main character. He is sneaky and tries to change her mind on marrying him instead of the man he's engaged to up until her wedding day in Scotland. The man in "Made Of Honor" who is also a suitor is the shrew who doesn't believe in lovey-dovey things and was quite cold until he changes into a suitor lusting after a tame women. In the "Taming of the Shrew" male courtship is blatantly used as a method to get women along with a generous dowry. Although time has passed and terms have changed the game like method of male courtship are still common in the 20th century.

= "Then tell me, if I get your daughter’s love, What dowry shall I have with her to wife?" =

 (Act 2, Scene 1, lines 112-115)

 After Petruchio has convinced Baptista (father of Katherine the shrew) that he is well suited for his daughter and will most definitely do the unthinkable; win Katherine's love. Petruchio beings to speak about the dowry and what he will get out of his hard work of taming the shrew after they are married.

 The woman in the car is the soon to be wife of Tom's (Petruchio) father. The woman and her lawyer are discussing the details of the prenuputial documents outside of the church she is about to be married in; they are discussing intimate details that Tom's father wants out of this marriage but the young women disagrees(There is a large age difference between Tom's father and this woman but his father is rich). The man is on the phone with the Tom's father's lawyer, the father is already in the church, This woman will be the sixth wife of Tom's fathe r.



In both the "Taming of the Shrew" and "Made of Honor" there is a lot of talk about what each person will receive by marrying there spouse. The dowry of the Elizabethan Era (1558-1603) is similar to the present day prenuptial agreement. In "Taming of the Shrew" Baptista the father of Katherine and Bianca discusses the details of the marriage from money to well being. The difference between the "Shrew" is that the women are not in the room whatsoever when the men were talking about the dowry. In this more modern representation the women is allowed to have a say in her prenuptial agreement rather than everything being handled by the men. Which is an example of how women have gotten more power over time, even if the women are doing it for the money or ulterior motives.

=//**" **//**Here's another rule, ** the 24 hour rule //**. **//**I can't call her for another 24 hours. Then I appear too desperate/ ** The Once a week rule is Monday through Friday **, That way you can have a date on Sunday without breaking the rule **//**" **//= (Chapter 3/29) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Over lunch at Tom and Hannah's favorite Asian restaurant Tom discusses the complex rules and guide lines of a suitor. These are rules that he's created to be the most successful at getting women. His male friends think that he's a champ, that his rules are great and smart for making rules so that he can sleep around with multiple women without having to actually choose one to be his girlfriend. Hannah on the other hand disagrees with this whole sleeping around business but does not confront Tom about it, because she is in love with him andt is still reluctant to telling him.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In this scene Tom is holding one of his fathers' inventions, the coffee cup sleave, that he got earlier that day. While he was at Starbucks a women named Gloria wrote him her number on his coffee coffee sleave. Tom is explaining to Hannah The 24 hour rule, after getting someones' number. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Methods of getting women have changed significantly over the years, women were not allowed to have a say and there were many more ways to trick people in the past since there was not nearly as many documents on identification in the Elizabethan era. In the present day both men and women have to be more careful about how they go about getting men/women. Men were possibly more direct about what they wanted out of a relationship in the past, but men still have plans to win women as though they were an award. The hardest part is seeing what kind of person the women/man is that is being suited. If they are like Katherine or Tom then they will be more of a struggle, but it makes the game more interesting.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In Taming of the Shrew Katherine is the woman that is not very emotional or "lovey-dovey", She would turn down every man that attempted to court her. Katherine wanted the power to choose, and got a reputation of being shrewish and stubborn. In this sense Tom is like Katherine, because he also does not want to be tied down, he likes to have the power to choose and is not "lovey-dovey". However Tom is also Petruchio in the sense that he later becomes a sneaky suitor once he figures out that he is in love with Hannah. The game begins when Hannah returns from Scott land engaged. Now he's using his knowledge about "getting women" to try and win Hannah back. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> The difference between the "Shrew" and Made of Honor is that Katherine is a man and Tom switches back and forth between Petruchio and Katherine,so he ends up taming himself.

= A woman owes her husband the same loyalty a subject owes his king. =

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> (Act 5, Scene 2, lines 164-165) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In "Taming of the Shrew" after the husbands have placed bets on their wives obedience, Katherine is the only wife who came to her husband when she was called. She then begings speaking at the fancy dinner celebration about her duties to her husband which she refers to as king, loyalty, love and obedience. Everyone is astonished at her words and obedience since she was a stubborn shrew before, these words of wisdom that she gives to the other wives is very surprising. By her doing this, she shows to everyone that she has indeed been tamed.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> In this picture Tom and Hannah are at the alter getting married in a very modern New York City wedding. After all of the hard work and suiting of Hannah, Tom eventually wins her over the very end of the movie. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">In "the Shrew" Katherine gets married to Petruchio who claims to be in love with her but has really married her for her money making him somewhat of a present day gold digger. Katherine does like marriage but she does find it important, in Made of Honor Tom luckily gets married to the girl he is in love with both in the book and the movie Katherine gets married but she does not become tame in the play from marriage. In the movie Tom has been tamed by marrying Hannah because he is no longer sleeping around he is now only with Hannah and staying loyal to her.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Overall in "Taming of the Shrew" and "Made of Honor" there are several overlaps that show how male courtship has and hasn't changed. They show how many people treat finding love as a game and choose to court women into their arms rather than simply tell the women how they feel, which takes less effort and is more honest. In the media it is proven that honesty is the key to a strong relationship, if it does not start on an honest note then drama and trickery are sure to come. Luckily for Tom although time has passed and terms have changed the game like method of male courtship are still common today, shown when he won Hannah at the alter of her wedding with another man. After he like many men before him, suited, planned behind the woman's back and finally spoke up at an awful time; he was still able to marry the women he loved which proves that courtship still wins.