Ten Things I Hate About You Literary Elements

Teen comedy

English

The film is set at a high school in the West Coast of the United States.

There is no singular narrator for the film, but it most closely follows the thoughts and experiences of its female protagonist, Kat.

The tone of the film is ironic and manipulative. The mood of the film is uplifting and light-hearted.

There are many protagonists in the film, including Kat, Bianca, Patrick, and Cameron. The central antagonist of the film is Joey.

The major conflict in the film is that Bianca and Kat's father will not allow Bianca to date until Kat does, thereby catalyzing Cameron and Michael's plan to bribe Patrick to take out Kat.

The climax of the film occurs when Kat overhears Joey accusing Patrick of not holding up his side of their bargain. This moment introduces the falling action of the film, when Kat leaves the prom and must reckon with her continued affection for Patrick despite having been hurt by him.

When Patrick watches Kat play the guitar in the music shop, it foreshadows the end of the film when he purchases the guitar with the money he made from Joey.

When Kat tells Mandella that they are "making a statement" by not going to prom, Mandella replies, "Oh goodie. Something new and different for us." This is an example of ironic understatement, as Mandella is actually implying that their entire high school experience has been dictated by Kat's desire to rebel against the status quo.

Because of the film's source material, there are numerous allusions to William Shakespeare throughout the movie. The most obvious allusion comes through Mandella's character, who is a Shakespeare aficionado and even attends prom dressed in early modern English garb with Michael dressed as the Bard.

The important imagery in the film usually revolves around emphasizing the difference between Kat and everyone else around her – she drives an old, beat-up car, she is constantly reading, and her room is full of dark colors and band posters while her sister's room is pink and feminine.

The central paradox of the film is that Patrick initially dates Kat only to make money but eventually falls in love with her. Kat experiences a similar paradox at the end of the film when she purports to hate Patrick but is really reckoning with the fact that he broke her heart.

When Bianca punches Joey at the end of the film, she parallels Kat's character at the beginning of the film. Similarly, Kat's newfound vulnerability and interest in romance at the end of the film parallel's Bianca's character in the beginning.

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The film makes use of contemporary and older music in order to emphasize its characters' personalities. Kat's more contentious moments are backgrounded by punk or rock music, while the rest of the school listens to contemporary pop. When the camera shows Kat and Bianca's house for the first time, the exterior shot is paired with an idyllic and soft pop song, only to be interrupted by harsh punk music when it pans inside to show Kat reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar on the sofa.