Kai+Farrell

toc = = = The Magical Shrew = Comparing //The Prestige// to //The Taming of the Shrew//

Introduction:
In Shakespeare's //The Taming of the Shrew,// there are two sisters. One is perfect who everybody loves, and the other is awful. There are also very many men who want to marry the perfect sister, Bianca. However, Bianca cannot marry unless her older sister, Katherine, does. Their father highers somebody to turn Katherine into a much nicer person and to marry her so Bianca can also marry. In the 2006 movie, //The Prestige,// there are two rival magician characters (Robert Angier and Alfred Borden) who both live in order to be better than the other. Angier is better respected than Borden, but Borden always finds ways to harm Angier. Angier highers someone to keep Borden under control. The woman who Angier highers, Olivia, tells Borden that she is working for him and pretends to be his assistant. She also pretends to fall in love with Borden in order for him to gain her trust. This is a lot like Petruchio pretending to be in love with Katherine at first in order to try to woo her into trusting him.

The Taming of the Shrew:
Enter **KATHERINE** and **BIANCA**, her hands bound (Act II, Scene I, Page 73, Lines 1-21)
 * BIANCA**: Good sister, wrong me not nor wrong yourself, to make a bondmaid and a slave of me.That I disdain. But for these other goods—unbind my hands, I’ll pull them off myself, yea, all my raiment to my petticoat, or what you will command me will I do, so well I know my duty to my elders.
 * KATHERINE:** Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell whom thou lovest best. See thou dissemble not.
 * BIANCA**: Believe me, sister, of all the men alive I never yet beheld that special face which I could fancy more than any other.
 * KATHERINE:** Minion, thou liest. Is ’t not Hortensio?
 * BIANCA**: If you affect him, sister, here I swear I’ll plead for you myself, but you shall have him.
 * KATHERINE:** Oh, then be like you fancy riches more.You will have Gremio to keep you fair.
 * BIANCA**: Is it for him you do envy me so? Nay, then you jest, and now I well perceive You have but jested with me all this while.I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands.
 * KATHERINE** strikes her

In this early scene of //The Taming of the Shrew//, Katherine has Bianca's hands tied and she is dragging her across the floor. This scene is meant to show the audience what the two sister characters are like and how they are with each other. We are seeing the shrew that Katherine is to her sister and why other people view her to be that way. If this was the only piece of the play that one read, he/she would have the same views towards the sisters that the other characters in the play do.

The Prestige:
In this scene of //The Prestiege// Borden is trying to hurt Angier by sabotaging one of his shows. He wants to make people not look up to Angier as much and bring him down to his own level. In order to do this, he talks to one of his assistants and convinces the assistant that he does not have to take orders from Angier. The assistant takes Borden's advice and ruins the show. However, people later find out that Borden had tipped the assistant off.

The Taming of the Shrew:
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites that bate and beat and will not be obedient. She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat. Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not. As with the meat, some undeservèd fault I’ll find about the making of the bed, and here I’ll fling the pillow, there the bolster, this way the coverlet, another way the sheets. Ay, and amid this hurly I intend that all is done in reverend care of her. And, in conclusion, she shall watch all night, and if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl, and with the clamor keep her still awake.This is a way to kill a wife with kindness, and thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor. He that knows better how to tame a shrew, now let him speak; ’tis charity to show. (Act IV, Scene I, Page 151, Lines 188-203)
 * PETRUCHIO**

In the above quote, Petruchio is explaining his plan to the audience about how he will "tame the shrew." This means turning Katherine into a nice and pleasant person like her sister Bianca. He says that his plan in order to accomplish this task is to act like a shrew to her. Give her a taste of her own medicine.

The Prestige:
In this scene of //The Prestige,// Olivia and Angier are discussing their plan to keep Borden under control. Olivia comes up with the idea that she will tell Borden that she will be his assistant. While she becomes his assistant, she steals some of his secrets to share with Angier and tampers with his devices. Olivia does many of the same kinds of things to Borden that Borden had done to Angier, just more discreetly. She also makes Borden fall in love with her so that he can feel like he can trust her.

Conclusion:
In the end of both the movie and the play, the shrew characters end up as the favorable people. In //The Taming of the Shrew// Katherine turns out to be more loyal to her husband than Bianca is. Katherine then gives a big speech about how women should behave towards their husbands and why it is important. Everybody listening to her is impressed with Katherine and surprised at the fact that she had become far less shrewish than Bianca. At the end of //The Prestige// Borden gets everything that he had desired and Angier ends up dead. Borden gets Olivia to actually work for him as opposed to pretend to work for him. Angier was so caught up in trying to get rid of Borden that he ended up destroying himself in the process. Because these events happen, we can conclude that the morals of these stories are that when one person might seem to appear perfect, they can become afraid of not appearing to be that way so that they try to make another person appear to be much worse in comparison. This method will always end up stinging them in the end.