NOTE: No class on
Monday, since I’ll be out of town getting a root canal(!). Also, if you don’t
have the Folger edition of Twelfth Night, I’ll leave a few copies of
Belsey’s essay in my door. Come get it on Monday if you need it.
Answer TWO of the
following:
Q1: Belsey reminds
us that Viola is named (as Viola) only once in the play, and then in Act 5. She
goes on to mention that she “has no fixed location in the play. Even when she
speaks “in her own person”—and it is not easy to be sure when that is—the play
does not always make clear where we are to “find” her identity “ (203). Why do
you think Shakespeare makes Viola so transparent in the play and so difficult
to pin down? How does that affect the idea of both Olivia and Orsino falling in
love with her?
Q2: How does
Malvolio change in Act Five? While he’s still very much the same character,
what about his language and his words undergoes an interesting transition? How
do we—and Olivia—read him differently in the final act? (or, how does
Shakespeare suggest we do?)
Q3: What do you
think Belsey means when she writes that “The spectators of Twelfth Night are
at one moment detached observers of love’s extravagance and its
self-indulgence, while at another they are invited to participate in its pains
and pleasures, sharing the point of view of the fictional lovers themselves”
(206)? Why does Shakespeare offer this double perspective for the audience, and
can you think of a moment where it shifts for you, as a reader?
Q4: Interestingly,
in a play about love, none of the men seem remotely in love with the women in
question: Sebastian has no reason to love Olivia (he doesn’t even know her!),
and Orsino never quite convinces us that he loves Olivia, either. The men are much
more convincing when espousing their love for other men: Orsino for Cesario,
and Antonio for Sebastian. Why do you think this is? Why can men speak of love
more convincingly among each other than to the opposite sex?
Answer to Q1) I think the reason why Viola doesn’t really have a fixed location is because the play wouldn’t work if she did. For Olivia to fall in love with Viola/Cesario, Viola has to be completely masked as a guy or otherwise the play would have many different character traits, one being Olivia is gay. I think Shakespeare may have wanted to run with the idea of a woman disguised as a man so bad that he may have forgotten at times she needs to go back into a woman. If this were a real-life scenario, Viola wouldn’t be a man at all times, just when she was around Orsino. There is still enough of Viola in the play where the audience remembers she is a girl, but it still may be confusing at times because of how “lost” Shakespeare gets in creating Cesario’s personality, but not so much Viola’s. If this were to be acted out, I think the actress portraying Viola could maybe give her more of a personality than just reading it as a script.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to Q4) As a girl, I definitely do not have inside information on how a guy thinks. In my opinion, I think guys are more vulnerable than they let on. When a guy confesses his love to a woman but is later rejected, a level of his pride has been wounded. A guy is more willing to let his friends know how he feels about them, because they’ve been friends for a long time. When a guy has to openly admit he’s in love with a girl, I think it takes some guts because they have to open themselves up to the possibility of rejection. From the play, I think there is more of a level of worship than really love. Orsino thinks he’s in love with Olivia, but we never really get that from his interaction with her; he has another “dude” try and put the moves on her for him. I think Orsino may have too much pride when it comes to Olivia and doesn’t want to be rejected, so he sends Cesario in his place instead. Maybe he thinks it’ll soften the blow if it comes from someone else and he doesn’t hear it directly.
Great responses...yes, I think his pride is hurt, which is why he persists in harrassing Olivia. He can't stand to "lose," and he thinks it's romantic to court a woman who is disinterested in him. It has a whiff of chivalric love about it--the unnattainable woman. But it's not real love, more an affectation of love. With Viola he can speak freely and drop the charade, and he falls in love with that closeness. Maybe Viola never really tries too hard, which is why he falls in love with a woman who is also a man, the "master mistress" he calls her later. He's never met a woman who can speak to him "man to man."
DeleteKelci Pollock
ReplyDelete1. I believe that Shakespeare wrote Viola as being transparent and hard to pin down because that is essentially how the character is seen by the other characters throughout the play. None of the other characters in the play actually know who she is and when she isn’t with them, they don’t know where to find her. It’s clear that she is written this way because that is how the character is to all the rest. This affects the idea that both Orsino and Olivia can fall in love with her because she is either being fake to one of them or both of them. Olivia and Orsino clearly have to very different ideas of love, so to be able to believe that Viola could honestly win them both other is a bit far-fetched.
2. X
3. I think Shakespeare offers this double perspective because he knows that he does not only have one type of audience member. Shakespeare knew that he had people from varying backgrounds watching this play. For instance, he switches between scenes regarding the characters involved in the love triangle to characters like Malvolio and Sir Belch. These characters are more of the potty humor characters and so lower-case people would have been able to find them amusing. The audience also gets to see Malvolio pining for his mistress, which is a completely different type of messed up situation than the idea of Olivia being in love with the cross-dressing Cesario. Shakespeare knew his audience well enough to be able to put humor and storyline in for all of them to appreciate.
Great responses...though I might argue that she isn't being fake to either one, but is acting the "same." That is, she uses her own, unguarded language to both Orsino and Olivia and they both fall in love with it, since it's what both want to hear. It speaks to each one's "proper false" and they ignore the rest. This, of course, does not bode well for Olivia as she marries Sebastian, unless he can alos speak the way she does (can we tell that from his short moments in the play?). I think Orsino and Olivia do have very different notions of love, and yet, they want to hear the same thing...which is why they both fall for Viola. She is like Sonnet 130, the love they never hear spoken and didn't realize could be spoken. It sounds so much better than the conventional love poetry both have to speak and endure .
DeleteQ1). I think that Shakespeare makes Viola so transparent so that she can survive in a world she doesn't know much about. I think that one of the reasons she dresses up as a man is for protection along with trickery. Men has a much lower chance of being raped or sexually assaulted. I think that women have to be somewhat transparent in general because they cannot come off too strong, too bold, too loud, or too lively. A lot of times, when a women does these things, she comes off as a "bitch". I think that Viola is transparent so that she isn't taken advantage of because of her wealth or of her gender. I think she is lost because she isn't sure what she should be doing in this situation. This affects how Orsino and Olivia fall in love with her because she can be whatever they want. she can be both of their proper falses.
ReplyDeleteQ4). I think that the men in this play can speak of their love more openly and genuinely for another man is because there is no guideline for it. It comes from the heart, not from the mind. With women, there are certain things that you say to her, even if you don't mean it. It's just the way of a proper gentleman. However, when you're telling your bro how much you love him, you're not worried about if you're doing it right.
Yes, great response...she adopts the disguise for her own safety, but she is too 'real' to act very well--and her language betrays her, anyway. So Orsino falls in love with a woman who can speak "like a man" (that is, with beautiful words and ideas), and Olivia falls in love with a man who can "speak like a woman" (speaking of love as she would be spoken to). That's the irony--she doesn't wear a disguise, and yet they both see what they want to. Kind of how the theater works too...a good actor can transcend any other limitations if he/she literally becomes the part through their mastery of language.
DeleteI COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE BLOG I AM SO SORRY I’M TRASH
ReplyDeleteQ1: Belsey reminds us that Viola is named (as Viola) only once in the play, and then in Act 5. She goes on to mention that she “has no fixed location in the play. Even when she speaks “in her own person”—and it is not easy to be sure when that is—the play does not always make clear where we are to “find” her identity “ (203). Why do you think Shakespeare makes Viola so transparent in the play and so difficult to pin down? How does that affect the idea of both Olivia and Orsino falling in love with her?
A: I feel Viola isn’t as important as Cesario. Yes I’m aware they are the same person, but Olivia loves Cesario. Viola has to wear his alter ego as Cesario because she is a he according to Olivia. This play turned into a mess let me just be honest. I think that Shakespeare honestly forgot that Viola is a woman, but just loved the character of Cesario so much, that he just ran with him. The audience knows that Viola is a female. They don’t forget, but it still gets confusing and messy at times because I feel Shakespeare muddied up the play by having the character all over the place. There is still enough of Viola in the play where the audience remembers she is a girl, but it still may be confusing at times because of how “lost” Shakespeare gets in creating Cesario’s personality, but not so much Viola’s.
Q3: What do you think Belsey means when she writes that “The spectators of Twelfth Night are at one moment detached observers of love’s extravagance and its self-indulgence, while at another they are invited to participate in its pains and pleasures, sharing the point of view of the fictional lovers themselves” (206)? Why does Shakespeare offer this double perspective for the audience, and can you think of a moment where it shifts for you, as a reader?
3. Shakespeare knows everyone is different. He knew all sorts of people would see this play. He switches from the massive love polygon to Malvolio and Belch for light humor for the play so not everything is so dark and serious. We also see Malvolio chasing his mistress which is different compared to the love polygon mentioned earlier. Shakespeare was hoping his audience would know him well enough for his humor and storyline and for them to appreciate his twisted fantasies.
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