Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Wild Women!


While diving into Taming of the Shrew this week, I have been thinking a little bit about the idea of a man having to "tame" his wife or potential wife. Of course, for Petruchio, this was initially due do his desire for wealth, but he eventually became attracted to Kate for her colorful personality. Why is this?

And why am I so attracted to the same thing in my fiancee? That's something I might want to think about.

Anyway, the same transformation occurs with John Wayne and his fiery shrew of a woman in "McClintock," so here is a clip from the classic western film loosely based upon Shakespeare's original Taming. If you don't have six minutes to sit and watch, skip forward to the final minute to see the muddy showdown:


It's a real compliment to Shakespeare to say that, centuries later, his ideas would be revisited in a country western film with a man like John Wayne.