Henry+Yam

The Woman makes the Man, from Marriage to a Mere Rumor
Comparing "Taming of the Shrew" to "Easy A"

//Relationships play a big role in "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare. The play is centered around two men who are after two women for marriage. One of these men, Petruchio, seeks after Katherine for her status of wealth. // In the 2010 movie "Easy A," the main character, Olive, is asked to lie about having sex with a bunch of guys because they (the guys) all want to have the status of having had sex with a girl. //It seems that over history that it's the women who define the men be it an important marriage or a rumor of supposed sex. //


 * "One rich enough to be Pertruchio's wife (As wealth is burden of my wooing dance) Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd As Socrates' Xanthippe, or a worse..." **

(Act I, Scene II)

In this quote, Petruchio was warned that the woman he wants to marry, Katherine, has a bad temperament. However, Petruchio is confident that as long as she has a high wealth status, that outweighs everything bad about her. Normally, men try to avoid women with such qualities as ugly, old, and bad-tempered, however Petruchio doesn't even care. He even goes on to say "I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; If wealthily, then happily in Padua." He believes that since he's marrying into a wealthy family of noteworthy status, their status will transfer over via the marriage, allowing him to live happily.

This is found similarly in the 2010 movie "Easy A," however this time, it's a person who's been picked on for his sexuality and seeks a person to just say they had sex together.

In "Easy A," Brandon, a known homosexual in East Ojai High School, seeks Olive Penderghast, the protagonist of the movie, to change his social status from "homosexual whom people should all pick on", to "dude who just had sex with Olive Penderghast." Brandon seeks after Olive because he knows that she already had a reputation of her sleeping with a college student that started from a rumor. He thinks that if he and Olive fakes having sex that it will raise his social status and he would be stopped being bullied. //(Brandon asking Olive to say they "had sex" together.)//


 * "Nay, I will win my wager better yet, **
 * And show more sign of her obedience **
 * Her new-built virtue and obedience." **

(Act V, Scene II)

Prior to this quote, Petruchio, Lucentio, and Hortensio were making a wager betting on which one of their wives would be the first to listen and come to them. Petruchio, although is betting money during this wager, stakes his pride and his social face on this wager that Katherine comes first. When Katherine comes bringing in a kicking and screaming Bianca and the re-married widow, Petruchio is relieved to see that he and his relationship with Katherine isn't a joke. If Katherine did otherwise, Petruchio would have certainly been made a fool.

Olive Penderghast is fully aware of this effect that her social status will rub onto Todd, the person she likes if they got involved.

//(Todd asking if Olive needs help)//

Olive eventually builds up a bad reputation of being a promiscuous girl in her high school from the rumor that started. Gradually, she realizes that allowing that rumor to spread was a bad mistake. She's now stuck in a rut and Todd offers to help her out. Olive, although wants Todd's assistance more than anything, knows that she can't involve Todd because if she did, she would give him a bad image. She then declines his offer for fear of giving him the identity of "the guy who's in a relationship with a slut."

There's a saying from Mark Twain that says that it's the clothes that make the man. However as proven by The Taming of the Shrew and the 2010 movie, //Easy A//, it's also the women who define the men as well. In the Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio is able to build up his social image by marrying a rich lady. However, he's also tasked with the challenge of taming her. Eventually, Katherine receives a change of heart and decides to show her obedience and as a result boosted her husband's social image. In a more modern image, Olive, from //Easy A,// knows the effect that this new social status that she built has on the people around her. She knows because Brandon is gay, saying that they slept together will certainly disprove any assumptions that Brandon was gay. However, she knew that Todd was an honest, upstanding guy and did not want her newfound social status to affect him in a bad way. Unlike Katherine, who used this effect as if it was a tower for Petruchio, Olive knew that this effect was a double-edged sword and could potentially hurt the people she knew. In the end, the readers and audiences of both play and movie walk away with a better understanding of the weight that a woman has on a man's social status.