10 Things I Hate About You Is Actually A Re-Skinned Shakespeare Play

Shakespeare wrote several of what would today be called “romantic comedies.” According to Shakespeare Magazine, “10 Things I Hate About You” is an adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew.” The play’s basic premise is that Bianca cannot get married until her snarky, undesirable older sister Katherine does, so the characters begin “taming” her for marriage. 

In “10 Things I Hate About You,” the basic plot is the same, with Bianca Stratford (Larisa Oleynik) unable to date until Kat (Julia Stiles) does. Therefore, Cameron James (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who wants to date Bianca, convinces Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to ask out said sister. Through this process, despite the odds, Kat changes, and Patrick and Kat develop real feelings for each other. 

Although updated, “10 Things I Hate About You” features several Shakespearean allusions, including how Bianca and Kat share the last name Stratford, a reference to Shakespeare’s hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon. Or how Patrick’s last name, Verona, is the setting of “Romeo and Juliet.” Additionally, one character in the film, Mandella (Susan May Pratt), is obsessed with Shakespeare (via Insider). The fact that the film is brimming with Shakespearean Easter eggs is part of the untold truth of “10 Things I Hate About You.”