Day 4 (6th June): Taming of the Shrew, St John's College, Fitzwilliam Museum

We had watched a movie last night in Chesterton towers. It was called “10 Things I Hate About You” by Gil Junger. It is a modern adaptation of the play written by William Shakespeare “Taming of the Shrew”. As mentioned, it is a modern adaptation of the play, hence not every element of the play was transferred over to the movie. 

Today’s morning session was a open discussion of elements that are brought over into the film and those that are not brought over. The premises for such actions were also discussed. I feel that this is a very good activity as this lesson not only applied to adaptations of plays but also movies adapted or based off books. Movies are largely only two hours long, hence much content from books must be cut out in order fufil the length requirement. Hence, directors need to know what is to be cutout and what is to be kept in order to make sure they produce a good film. What was discussed in the lesson were not only elements that were brought over and the premises for them, but also references put into the play and the themes being discussed in the play and movie. What was interesting and somewhat amusing were some of the references to Shakespeare about the movie; such as the naming of the father’s name to be Mr Stratford, and Stratford-upon-Avon college being the college that William Shakespeare had attended. Also, the classes that were featured in the movie were English Literature classes specifically studying William Shakespeare, the original play was set in Padua, Italy and the movie being set in Padua High School, in USA. The most thought-provoking session of the lesson was where we talked about the themes being discussed in both the play and the movie. 

Despite the play being written in 1623, themes such as women rights, power relation and control
were being discussed at that time. These themes were also brought over in the movie which was produced in 1999. These themes, in my opinion, were brought over as they are still largely relevant in modern day society. The themes such as domestic violence and torture from the play were not brought over into the movie as it would make the movie irrelevant to be watched in the current society and it would make the movie a unpopular one. The theme that struck me the most was control. In the play, Katharine was a uncontrollable, vulgar and blunt woman. Yet, when she marries Petruchio, she is obedient to his words and loyal to him. Hence, the title of the play being the “Taming of the Shrew”. While in the movie, the control being discussed is the control that Mr Stratford has over his daughters. Mr Stratford had strict rules such as  “ No dating until you graduate “ which shows the Mr Stratford wants to have control on almost everything, even their relationships and personal life. There have also been conflicts about Kat’s education choices and Mr Stratford’s education choices. I feel that despite the movie being only a modern adaptation of the play, there are many events in the movie that can be interpretted as metaphors. One I spotted was that Petruchio was in search of wealth, so he married Katharine. While, in the movie, Patrick had first tried courting Kat because of the monetary incentive he received. 

After the intensive session of discussion, we had a task of converting a scene in the play to a movie production of our own, with details such as camera movement and sounds.  Its was a very meaningful experience as we realised how challenging it was to translate Old English to modern English. Soon, we had lunch at Cambridge City Centre and I found an artisan candy shop, Hardy’s, where I found a really interesting Spicy Chocolate branded by Tabasco. 

We carried onto the Fitzwilliam Museum where we were specifically told not to touch anything, letting us realise the significance and age of the pieces in the museum. There was a diverse variety of art in the museum, such as modernist pieces, 18^th century pieces and even Chinese artifacts. One that particularly caught my eye was the drawing called “The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse” which I found in the section of 18^th century art. We had the task of writing an imagist poem after finding artpiece in the museum that we really enjoyed. At the end of the day, we had a hearty and rather spicy meal at the Thai restaurant, Sala Thong Thai. Putting a great finish to a great day.

- Keith Lau (VS)

Reflection on Fitzwilliam Museum 

The visit to Fitzwilliam Museum was what I felt was the highlight of the day. There was a massive art gallery plus some aincient Greek and Egyptian artifacts and a touring exhibition of Han-era Chinese artifacts. The Chinese gallery had some very interesting artifacts, inccluding bronze weapons and ware. However what I felt was the most interesting was the jade artifacts, including a giant life-size jade burial suit and a jade tomb. These were pretty shocking as it showed the level of intricacy and skill in craft already achievable thousands of years ago. In the jade suit, each jade plate was connected together by a gold pin, and they were all put together in astonishing accuracy and symmetry. 

After that, we went to the main art gallery. In the first room, there were printed works, done by a technique known as printmaking. In printmaking, the artist basically cuts from a material then colours it then ‘prints’ it on paper. It amazes me that artists are able to achieve such a level of artistic detail on this medium. After that, we saw artwork from different periods, from the 16th century to the 20th century. There were huge collections of Rennaisance and post-Rennaisance work of varying subject matter, from still-life paintings of fruit to huge panoramic landscape paintings. There were also impressionist paintings from the late 19th century and early 20th century. I was pleasantly surprised that there were works by famous paintings like Claude Monet on display. 

- Ang Zhen Yi (VS)

St John's College

Yesterday night, we watched the movie “10 Things I Hate About You”, which is a modern adaptation of the Shakespearean play “The Taming of the Shrew”. One main thing I felt about the movie is that it seemed more like a teenage love flick than an adaptation of a Shakespearean play. The actual play focused on the torture inflicted on Kat by Patruchio, while the movie focused on how Patrick made Kat fall in love with him with less brutal means. Shakespearean plays all tend to have a very dark atmosphere to them, involving grosteque themes and events such as war, poisoning, assassination, death duels and torture. 

Jerry, Keith and Zhen Yi

Such themes probably would not receive much welcome from a modern audience, especially due to the rise of feminist ideas. This is especially true in the case of “The Taming of the Shrew” as it involves the torture of a woman, breaking her will and changing her mindset. The entire play shows how a woman is changed by her interactions with a guy and the methods employed by the man are far from acceptable to the majority of the modern audience. The idea of “10 Things I Hate About You” having a modern school setting appeals to the younger generation as they too are going through this school life and may find that they can relate to the characters and circumstances in the movie. Despite the large change from ancient Shakespearean times to modern school days, the film retains many aspects and makes many references to Shakespeare and the original play throughout the entire movie. Some parts are good for creating a humorous effect, such as one of the characters being named William S, after Shakespeare himself. There are also times when other characters show relations to the Shakespearean time period, and they all combine together to bring about a slightly comedic effect to the movie. 

Elizabeth and Jerry

This morning, we had a session on adaptation “From Print to Screen”. During this session, we discussed the differences and similarities between the original play and the modern adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew”. This short activity allowed us to gain greater insight to the way adaptation works and how directors try to retain the main idea of the whole show while changing it to make it enjoyable for a modern audience. We also discussed the themes present in the movie and found that there were many underlying themes which were not very easily detected as they became slightly more abstract thanks to the adaptation. One of the themes which struck me greatly was power relations. This is a theme which is also present in the book that I am studying for my literature class in school, The Crucible. In the book, there is a shift in power relations from the adults having more power, to the adolescent girls wielding majority of the power. In the case of ’10 things I hate about you”, there is a shift in power from Mr. Stratford to his daughters. All his life, Mr, Stratford has been trying to put himself in control of his daughters’ lives. As his daughters eventually grow up, they both realise that what their father wants, they do not want. One wants to experience love while the other wants to be a unique individual. With their actions, they eventually wield more power and control over their lives than their father as they get rebellious and make their own decisions on their own. In the end, their father realises that his daughters have grown up and that he should no longer attempt to restrict their lives. 

After the intense yet enlightening discussion, we had an activity where we had to change the script of “The taming of the shrew” to a modern adaptation in a creative yet effective way. This taught us a lot, especially because it helped us realise how difficult it was to change something from Old English to Modern English. 

"Cold death sneaks up on
The frailty of human life
Attempting to steal"

- Jerry Lim

Following the session in the morning, we went down to the Cambridge City Centre for lunch as well as a visit to the Fitzwillem Museum which housed many impressive artworks. While the majority of the exhibits were artworks, there was also a small section showing ancient Chinese artifacts. We were also instructed to craft a short poem or haiku about any exhibit in the museum. I went around the museum with Elizabeth, and with her help, was able to create a decent haiku. Once we were done with our trip to the museum, we proceeded to have dinner at the Sala Thong Thai Restaurant. It wasn’t particularly enjoyable for me as I could not take spicy food, so together with Ue Tsz, had to order something completely different from what our friends were eating. At first we thought that we would be going hungry as we might not get to change our meal choices, but Dan reassured us that he would let us get something we could eat. So quickly, yet another lovely day of this trip has passed by.

- Jerry Lim (VS)