Chelsea+Ann+Smith

** //Expectations to the Breaking Point// **
The play //The Taming of the Shrew// compared to the movie //Couples Retreat.//

In the play //The Taming of the Shrew// the couple Katherine and Petruchio are in an arrange marriage. Petruchio becomes very controlling and tries to tell Katherine what she can and can not do, putting Katherine in hard and uncomfortable situations. In the movie //Couples Retreat// a group of friends all go on vacation together and things become hard for the couples with all the obstacles they face. The one couple Jason and Cynthia fight a lot. The husband Jason tells his wife Cynthia, what she needs to do and how to do it as if he was the boss of her. This begins to build tension. ** Romantic couples can't help but tell each other what to do which leads to conflict. **

**"Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me."**

(Act 2, Scene 1, line 209)

This quote was said by Petruchio during his first conversation with Katherine. Katherine is a very bitchy, bitter woman, miserable and catty women; and Petruchio is the man that is trying to wed her. He is very demanding and doesn't treat her the best for trying to impress her with hopes of trying to marry her. He is ordering her to come sit on his lap early on in the conversation when neither of them have gotten to know each other. He is very into the idea of him marring Katherine and is very eager to get things started and to get to know her, and is ready to jump into the relationship. She isn't as comfortable with him and the idea of marriage or sitting on him. He is very pushy and serious with this comment.

This compares to the movie //Couples Retreat// with the following sense with Jason, one of the husbands on the trip.



In the above sense for the movie Couples Retreat the husband Jason is yelling at his wife about how to paddle the boat correctly. Rain starts and gets really heavy and then their boat tips over and they fall out unexpectedly and became a little uneasy, but as soon as they get back in the boat Jason starts telling his wife Cynthia that the boat tipping was her fault and that she needs to do a better job of paddling and making sure its on the right side. He automatically assumes that it was only her fault and tells her what to do to improve making Cynthia angry.

**"Go, fool, and whom thou keep'st command."**

(Act 2, Scene 1, line 272)

This quote was said by Katherine to Petruchio. Katherine is tired of hearing this kind of rude and sexual comments from Petruchio, her soon to be husband. He is asking her to walk so he watch her and "check" her out. She doesn't like what he is trying to make her do and becomes very unhappy and tells him to leave or stop trying to tell her what to do. He is so much into her that he just wants a look and can't help it. This is not what Katherine wants or is she in the mood for this and they continue to bicker back and forth.

This compares to the movie //Couples Retreat// with the following scene with Cynthia, the wife of Jason.



In the above screen shot Cynthia the wife of Jason jumped out the the boat and began to swim to shore. They still had a good 20 minutes of paddling in the boat to go. At this time Jason was blaming her for the boat tipping over and told her she needs to row better and pay attention to what he is doing and go with him, even though she was in the front of the boat. She got fed up yelled that she was done and jumped out of the boat. He was trying to help her but did it in a very rude and criticizing matter that conflict started and had built up on conflict that was already there that had become done with the situation and she left. Cynthia was so tired of her husband and his orders that she took a very drastic action of jumping in the lake.

The play //Taming of the Shrew// and the movie //Couples Retreat// both show that there is a controlling aspect of relationships. That the men try to give orders to their wives as if they are just going to obey without any conflict. Women see this and challenge the men's thought process, which isn't what the men want. This is where the conflict comes in, the two parties don't agree on one way of treating each other. They both hold one another to certain way of acting that is expressed because of the love and amount of care they have. Jason wants Cynthia to paddle better and work harder, when Cynthia is already doing her best but he wants to push her. Cynthia can't do the push and fighting uprises. Petruchio is pushing her and telling her to do a wide variety of semi sexual stuff like to walk for him or to sit on him, making Katherine not happy and causing Katherine to push him away also leading to conflict.