William+Marsh

=﻿ ﻿The Date Doctor of Padua = Comparing "Taming of the Shrew" to "Hitch"

As "Taming of the Shrew" shows, honesty and deception both have their places in relationships. In "Shrew" the protagonist Lucentio disguises himself as a school master in order to gain an opportunity to spend time, and hopefully woo his dream girl, Bianca. In the movie "Hitch", Alex Hitchens, the 'date doctor' helps men get the women of their dreams by coaching them on how to help woman see past their nervous exterior. Seeing as he doesn't want the entire city knowing his line of work, he has hidden his identity making the date doctor almost untraceable. Alex Hitchens falls in love with a journalist for a major news paper, Sara Melas. Unbeknownst to him, Sara is trying to write an article about the date doctor, Alex Hitchens and ruin him.

**"Lucentio: //Hic ibat,// as i told you before, //Simois//, I am Lucentio, //his est,// son unto Vincentio of Pisa, [Sigeia] //tellus//, digusied thus to get your love"**

(Act 3, Scene 1, lines 32-35) In the play "Taming of the Shrew", Lucentio has fallen in love with a beautiful young woman, Bianca, and as an opportunity to spend time with her he has disguised himself as a schoolmaster, and is 'tutoring her in Latin'. In order to get what he really wants, he has to keep his identity hidden; much like the protagonist of the move Hitch, Alex Hitchens.

In the Movie Hitch, Alex Hitchens is on a date with Sara Melas who has brought him to a pseudo 'sting operation' with her boss. Alex Hitchens recently helped an office worker pursue his dream of dating a celebrity. This has been a bit of a scandal in the movie and clues gathered by Sara Melas and company would indicate that Alex Hitchens helped to orchestrate it. When asked about it Hitch deflects questions and lies to keep his identity as the date doctor hidden, as well as not hurt Sara's perception of himself. If he were to divulge himself as the date doctor his chances with Sara would be ruined as she sees the date doctor as some sort of lying, deceiving person who's only goal is to help men take advantage of women.

="Vincentio: Lucentio? O, he hath murdered his master! Lay hold on him, I charge you in the Duke's name. O, my son, my son! Tell me, thou villain, where is my son Lucentio?"= (Act 5, scene 1, lines 89-92) In the play "Taming of the Shrew", Lucentio and Tranio have traded places and names for the sake of Lucentio's courting of Bianca. In order to convince the father of Bianca to allow her to marry, Tranio has told him of all the wealth that his (Lucentio's) father, Vincentio will give to him upon death. But of course, this was all done without Vincentio knowing. So when Vincentio arrives to find that his son's servant has taken his sons identity and clothes, he jumps to the conclusion that Tranio has killed Lucentio.

In the movie Hitch, Sara Melas has learned part of the story, but not the entirety of Alex Hitchens professional life. She publishes a news publication insinuating, if not flat out declaring that Alex Hitchens or 'The Date Doctor' makes his living by helping men manipulate women into sleeping with them. Alex Hitchens finds Sara at a speed dating center with a friend of hers; one who was manipulated into sleeping a man who Alex Hitchens had refused to help because his intentions were purely sexual. At the building he tries to explain himself and get to the bottom of why Sara wrote such a nasty article about him. As the argument increases in intensity he learns that Sara thinks he helped the man who manipulated her friend. Because there wasn't clear communication of actions and/or motives, there were severe consequences. Just as in Taming of the Shrew, a lack of communication lead people to assumptions with no ground other than suspicion.

Honesty and deception play huge roles in relationships. With the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth one member may be put off by past actions, intentions or just secrets in general that perhaps they aren't (and maybe never will be) ready to hear. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, if neither person knows anything about the other, than at the end of the day they're effectively strangers. In the movie Hitch, Alex Hitchens keeps some very large secrets from Sara Melas who lets her job interfere with her personal life a bit to much. And in the play Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio also keeps some large secrets from his father, like say oh, that he's getting married and offered a huge dowry without his fathers consent. Predictably, both of these secrets end up causing trouble that could have been easily avoided. In short, a few simple words or lack thereof can forever alter the course of time for better or worse.