Marquis+Simmons

Average //Wife// Expectancy
//The Taming of the Shrew and Valentine's Day//

In the play, "The Taming of the Shrew," Petruchio marries Katherine and eventually is able to get her believe that a wife should cater to her husband. In the movie "Valentine's Day", the main character, Reed, proposes to his girlfriend who breaks up with him. He expected her to marry him because they "loved" each other. In both situations there are expectations that had to be met for the couples to be happy, in one these expectations were met, while in the other they weren't. Along with this comes the dishonesty in relationships. In the movie, his girlfriend was dishonest by accept his proposal at first, because she was expected to, then declining it later on. It's a common misconception that after people think they are deeply in love that they should get married, when in reality they aren't on the same page.It isn't enough for a man to have money or win over a woman's father to be able to marry her, like it was then. Also, people in the play have a twisted opinion on what should be expected out of a wife.Today there has to be some type of attraction between both people.

="Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy 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,...= =And craves no other tribute at thy hands= =But love, fair looks and true obedience—= =Too little payment for so great a debt**."**=

(Act 5, Scene 2, 155-163)
In this part of the play, Petruchio's wife Katherine gives a speech to the other wives about why they should obey their husbands. Since the marriage was arranged by Petruchio and Katherine's father, without much consent from Katherine there are heavy amounts of hostility between the two throughout the first part of the play. So after the misunderstandings and quarrels between Petruchio and Katherine, to hear her say this in the play is a surprise, because her attitude throughout the play shows that she wouldn't feel this way. This shows that Petruchio was able to change her in the way that he wanted her to be, so that now she meets his expectations which is to be an obedient wife. The twisted opinion on how a wife should obey her husband is clearly portrayed here as Katherine contradicts all her previous statements with this long speech. This is similar to the movie Valentine's Day, because the main character, Reed, also had expectations of his girlfriend.



In this scene from Valentine's Day, Reed tries to put the wedding ring on his girlfriend's finger while she sleeps. After she awakes from him touching her, he talks about his father saying, "When you find a girl that's too good for you, marry her." Then he gives her the ring, which is seen in the picture. The background information that the movie gives shows that they are in love, which is why he feels like this is the time to take the next big step which is getting married, and this is expected by people when they are in a relationship for a long time. Much to his delight, his expectations were met when she happily accepted his proposal.

=Why, there’s a wench! Come on and kiss me, Kate.= This was said by Petruchio after Katherine's speech on wife obedience. After all that they had been through, he felt like he had trained her enough to have his same beliefs, which were said in her speech. Since he was so proud of her for meeting his expectations he told her to kiss him, this being their first legitimately intimate moment in the entire play, it means a lot that he would ask for a kiss here.

This still from Valentine's Day is of Reed and Julia. They end up together after Reed's girlfriend Morley declines his proposal after accepting it early in the movie. Julia falls for Reed after she finds out that she is being deceived by her boyfriend. Being close friends they expect for each other to be there for the other, and when each of them were having problems that's what they did. Since Reed's expectations were never met in Morley, after he thought they were, he takes it horribly when he comes home to Morley leaving with her packed bags. The thought that someone will marry a person because one person feels its right is a common misconception in relationships, since there is no previous talk about it. In the movie, since Reed never talks to Morley about marriage it catches her off gaurd, her first reaction is to accept and after much thought she declines. This shows another major difference between the play and the movie because unlike the play, he has to work to get to the point of proposing because there is no arranging marriages, his girlfriend has to also agree.

Based on The taming of the Shrew and Valentine's Day, someone could think that all wives are expected to obey their husbands and cater to them, or that as long as the time feels right people are expected to get married. All of these are misconceptions that are completely wrong. In The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio is able to control his wife, as she learns to take in his beliefs and apply them to herself, which turns out to be what Petruchio was aiming for and expecting throughout the play. In Valentine's Day, Reed thought that his girlfriend would marry him, because he thought the time was right. He expected her to accept his proposal and marry him, when it turns out that she expected more out of him. In both cases there are people taking big steps in their relationships, all of them including how expectations can be very misleading.