Lola+Akinsola

=__//** Road to the Altar **//__=

"The Taming of the Shrew" and "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay"

In "The Taming of The Shrew," Petruchio's mission was to win Katherine's heart and marry her for a lot of money. To do this, he had to think up a plot that would win her. Similar to "Shrew," in "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," Kumar discovers his ex-girlfriend who he is still in love with is getting married to a man he never got along with and secretly plans to stop the wedding and win his ex-girlfriend back. Both men needed a plot that would win a woman they were interested in for a specific reason. **Men often turn to emotion and seductiveness when it comes to winning a woman's heart as emotion and seductiveness is almost irresistible to women though they may be irresistible for different reasons.**


 * Taming of the Shrew:** Character Petruchio is promised to be awarded a huge amount of money to marry a very mean woman so that her kind sister can get married as well. They all plan out how they will do it as Katherine has very thick skin and is hard to persuade.


 * Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay:** Harold and Kumar set out on their way to Amsterdam when they run into Kumar's ex-girlfriend, Vanessa, and her fiance, Colton, who Kumar hates. They get on the plane and are mistaken as terrorists because of a misunderstanding of a machine Kumar had created and brought on the plane to smoke weed with. They were thrown in jail in Guantanamo Bay and escaped back tot he US. They then set out on a trip to Colton and Vanessa's house to seek help and Colton tricks them into believing he was going to help them and get put on a plane headed back to Guantamo Bay. They jump out of the plane with a parachute and land in President Bush's house where they asked his permission to bring his security guards with them to the wedding to get Vanessa back and they succeed.

**She sings as sweetly as a nightingale..."**
(Act II, Scene I, line numbers 175-179) In this quote, Petruchio laid out his entire plan on how he was going to lure Katherine, how he was going to say so many nice things to her because people say the total opposite. This would confuse her and make her feel inferior because he spoke as if she was a totally different case than every other woman. His seductiveness and emotion would be new to her and she should not know how to handle it. He talked about what he would do if she rejected him. He would only push harder until she finally gave in. He would refuse to quit. He laid his plan out as if he knew his plan was going to work for sure. He was on this mission for a long time and had many obstacle courses to get through to finally reach that altar and have her as his wife.

Kumar also has a plan to win a woman, but delivers it differently.

Kumar accidentally gave away his plan to Harold to go to Texas to stop Vanessa's wedding as Harold complained about not being at her fiance's house already. Harold was going to his house for help, while Kumar was secretly planning on going to his house to win Vanessa back. "Chill we still have two days to f*ck up the wedding." He then gave his reason for it as Harold angrily mocked him. "I just hate that f*ckin' asshole okay?" The difference between Kumar and Petruchio's plans and delivery of the plans is that Petruchio stated that exactly what he was going to do to while Kumar only stated what he was doing and why he was going it. Also, Kumar's plan was to stop a wedding while Petruchio's plan was to be in a wedding. Although they have opposite plans, they have the same goal, which is to win a woman. They also don't show any doubt that their plans will work, which shows that they know emotion involved in their plans will be irresistible to the women.

="Thy husband is they lord, thy life, the keeper,= =Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee= =And for thy maintenance commits his body= =To painful labor both by sea and land..."=

(Act V, Scene II, line numbers 162-165) In this quote, Katherine talks about how a woman should be grateful for having a husband who cares for them as much as he does. Before this speech, Katherine was mean and resistant towards Petruchio. As he carried out his plan, he became irresistible to Katherine. Every time they would disagree, he would win the argument. He controlled everything. She couldn't resist giving because they were married for life.

Harold and Kumar crash Vanessa's wedding to stop her from marrying Colton, the man Kumar hates.

In this scene, Harold and Kumar stop the wedding and Kumar recites a poem written years ago when he first met Vanessa. In front of hundreds of guests, he recited a poem he told her he would never share with anyone. He showed genuine emotion as he walked closer towards her. Vanessa had two choices, make the situation more awkward and walk out on him, or make that moment a romantic one and take him back. She found it irresistible because he showed genuine emotion and recited a poem he told her he would never share with anyone, not even her. He then shared it with her and hundreds of other people. One would find this irresistible because it takes a whole lot of gut to crash a wedding with the President's security and recite a poem just like that.

As previously stated, Kumar and Petruchio had different tactics but had the same goal. This goal was to win a woman. Of course, these different tactics had different reactions, but in the end they had similar results. What these portrayals show about society's attitudes towards courtship/dating is that one must do the unthinkable to assure their victory in winning the heart of someone.