Short Paper #2: Dramatis Personae

Words are grown so false I am loath to prove reason with them (Fool, Act 3.1)

INTRO: For your second short paper, I want you to perform the role as a resident scholar, or dramaturg, for an upcoming ECU production of Twelfth Night. In this case, imagine the actors are totally clueless about how to interpret some of their lines, so you are asked to work closely with one of the leads—your choice—to help him or her understand the character in question through a close reading of some important lines. The characters you should consider are Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio, Fool, Maria, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew. Imagine that the actor doesn’t really know who this character is or how the lines help “clothe” them in personality and ideas. As an English major, you have a unique insight into language that can help them ‘see’ the character through the labyrinth of Shakespeare’s speech.

PROMPT: So for this paper, write a “Welcome to the Character” letter to the actor helping him or her understand who this character is through their language. Choose 2-3 passages, either entire speeches or short exchanges, to examine and analyze for the actor. Help them understand (a) what a few actual lines mean through translation, and (b) why these lines are significant to the character and to the play at large. Assume they have read the play but have only a very vague understanding of it. So in your paper, help them understand the context of the scene and why the character says and does what he/she does in this moment. But focus mostly on the language rather than the plot: don’t tell us what happens blow by blow, but use the language to reveal who the character is based on what he/she says—and how he/she says it.

EXAMPLE: In Act 3, Scene 1, the Fool gives Viola a typically witty answer to her simple question, “Dost thou live by the tabor”?, meaning, “do you make a living as a musician?” Instead of simply saying” no,” he snaps back, “No, sir, I live by the church,” which is satirical, since it suggests that he gets his living from the church, though it could also mean I live near it. When Viola protests that this is a terrible imprecise way to speak, he responds, “To see this age! A sentence is but a chev’ril glove to a good wit. How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward” (91). Since a “chev’ril glove” is a glove which stretches to accommodate many hands, so, too, a sentence can accommodate many meanings, and it’s the Fool’s job to twist and turn a word into every possible use—all the better to frustrate and tease his audience. This is also Shakespeare’s way of commenting on his art, since he lives in “this age!” which allows him to display language in every possible light for a paying audience. Thus, the Fool is often Shakespeare’s mouthpiece, commenting on the act of writing a play and of writing itself.

REQUIREMENTS

• 2-3 pages, double spaced
• Close reading from at least 2 separate scenes, with quotes and discussion
• Addressed to one audience—the actor of the part—and not to the professor or the class
• Due Friday, October 27th by 5pm