Zachary+Walls

The Taming of the Publisher
In the Shrew Katherine is forced into a position where she must obey Petruchio simply because Petruchio can overpower her and because he's good with words to others around him, in the Proposal she is threatened into being submissive by her subordinate who won't go through with the wedding that will keep her with her job and in the country if she doesn't do what he says.

In taming of the Shrew Katherine expects to be in control of this lunatic who thinks he can force her hand in matrimony. While Petruchio expects her to readily submit and become his possession. In "The Proposal" Margaret is the head editor in a publishing firm. When her status is threatened by an immigration issue she quickly creates the lie that her and her assistant are engaged making it so she will not have to leave the country. She expects her assistant to readily go along with it and to have no strings attached. After a short while Andrew (The assistant) realizes the opportunity he has before him and begins making demands of his boss to have his continued participation in her charade. His boss grudgingly accepts and Andrew is in a seat of power over her position in this country.

The book and the movie have a lot of themes in common. In both the woman is being forced into an unfavorable position by the man they are marrying. But because the eras are different the reasons and tactics are different. Petruchio decides he want's her and so he reasons he will have her. He doesn't need much to gain the family's approval as they want to be rid of the shrewish daughter. And her approval doesn't really matter in this time as it is entirely up to the father wether the daughter shall wed and who they shall wed.

In the Proposal the main female role is being forced out of the country meaning she will lose her job and her entire life that she has built thus far. The only thing saving her from this fate is a disgruntled employee who she claimed she was engaged to. Now he has the power to decide her fate and he can call off the wedding at anytime if she does not go along with whatever he tells her to do. Be it forcing her to kneel and propose to him or a promotion from secretary to editor.

The book and the movie both show us that societies attitude towards courtship/dating is a power struggle that later on could develop into something more.

(Page 187 Act 4 Scene 5 lines 5-25) This (quotes above) is a demonstration of Kate after Petruchio's "Shrew course". Petruchio used the power he had over Kate to turn her submissive and docile. She is afraid of the consequences for disobeying him and she will agree with anything he says once she realizes the threats he can turn into reality.

(page 95 Act 2 Scene 1 lines 302- 315)

The quote (Above) is shown to demonstrate the extent of Kate's and Petruchio's powers at this time. Kate can protest Petruchio's words but he simply has to say she's lying for your benefit and everyone automatically ignores the protesting woman. In this scene Andrew was establishing his new rules by forcing Margaret to give him his promotion and making her propose to him officially on her knees which goes against many of her policies.

In this scene (featured below) Margaret is being forced to carry her own bags and luggage. This is significant because Margaret doesn't do mindless tasks such as this, she has had an assistant (Andrew) do everything from getting her coffee to carrying things for her. Andrew is making her (literally speaking) pull her own weight.