I didn't have guts to post it on the 12night Forum, so I make a page first.
"The Twelfth Night" was the first movie I remember (the Russian
production). I guess, it had a quite an impression on me, because my father in Moscow still have those albums, where I drew the whole things almost shot by shot. I must be five or so.
Well, there is something bothers me now, that many years later, something I need to solve for myself in order to have IT as a comedy. What is it? The cruelty and brutality of the Shakespeare's world (I suspect that is why it had an impression on Anatoly-child).
I do not mind it in tragedies, that is what they are for, not in history plays -- history is brutal, but in comedies?
I think I do not understand them, the primitives.
I have no problems, when a child think that Big Bird is real, but I do have problems understandting how heary Robin Williams dressed as a British middle age lady can be invisible as man.
Yes, we all are children, they are the primitives and brutes, but they are small and growing into humans... do they?
Let me play Leo Tolstoy, who thought that Shakespeare was the worse playwright ever lived. Why?
The old Russian man wrote an anti-Shakespeare book, because of the violations of the laws of human psychology (which can't be faked or invented) in the bard's plays. Tolstoy said -- I don't understand their feelings! Emotion must have some logic. Reading Shakespeare comedies I feel as if I watch Jerry's TV show with all those human monsters, who are nothing, but patalogical freaks, the abnormalities. This is old and new Greek comedy for you in one glass -- this is true human tragedy...
Maybe there are humans and not so humans?
Look at them! Maybe people are indeed more stupid than we can imagine? Stupid as stupid? Not danm bu danmer? Maybe Shakespeare is right and Tolstoy is wrong with his logic of feelings? They do not have HUMAN feelings!
Oh, there is Becket in Shakespare comedies than in Becket's!
Forget Malvolio, look at all those Freudian losers! No, comedy makes you lose any hope for humanty.
The answer is madness. (Their) Love is Madness. Only Madness can save Mad People in Love!
....
Study Questions for Twelfth Night:
Notice how Shakespeare uses different types of language -- prose, rhymed verse and blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter, "Marlowe's Mighty Line") -- to differentiate between characters (i.e. serious and comical; nobility and social climbers) or to create other effects (increased solemnity or silliness; poetic effects; song). Be sensitive to the way in which the type of language used adds to the meaning(s) Shakespeare is attempting to convey.
Twelfth Night moves from a potentially tragic situation (shipwreck and loss) into the joyous realm of romantic comedy (unions and reunions). The movement from conflict, sterility and death (two women who mourn supposedly dead brothers) to fertility, harmony and life (three couples happily celebrate marriages that may lead to future births) is typical of Shakespeare's comedies and romances (e.g. The Tempest). What makes the three final couples "well-matched"? How do they differ from the three potential couples that are not ultimately united in marriages? What do these pairings teach about what Shakespeare and his audience viewed as an "appropriate" match?
Twelfth Night dramatizes the seduction scenario we have noted as a common thread in much lyric poetry of the Renaissance and early 17th century. There are six distinct sets of potential or actual couples; three involve Olivia as the female object of desire; one has Olivia as the desiring female subject; one has Viola as the desiring female subject; and one links the comic characters Sir Toby Belch and Maria. Know the characters (by name!) in each of these potential or actual couples, and be aware of the ways in which the characters and their real or imagined/potential love stories intersect and interact. Which of the couples are parallel to each other? Which are contrasted? How much do the different lovers (and love relationships) have in common? (e.g. equality or social inequity of the potential partners; motivation for desired union--social climbing? "love at first sight"-style physical desire? true knowledge of another's qualities and character?). How does Shakespeare use these parallel relationships and characters to unify the play as a whole?
Consider the comical effect of the gender-bending caused by Viola's masquerade as a young man, "Cesario," who is later confused with her own (supposedly dead) twin brother, Sebastian. (Given that women's parts in Shakespeare's time were originally played by young boys, the gender-bending gets even more complex.) How does the gender-bending within the play add to our picture of what the Renaissance and early seventeenth century saw as "appropriate" behavior for women? (For a similar case of gender-bending, compare Rosalind in As You Like It.)
Notice the various uses of the theme of deception within the play (e.g. deceptive appearances, deceptive words/language, and the related theme of self-deception). Which characters are most clear-sighted about their own qualities and motives? Which are manipulating appearances in order to deceive others? What are their motivations for doing so?
Note the imagery of hellfire, demons and damnation (particularly prevalent in the second half of the play). Are these to be understood literally or figuratively? How is this imagery connected to the theme of deceptive appearances? Compare/contrast with similar references/themes in e.g. Dr. Faustus, the Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost.
Note the satire of Puritanism (personified by Malvolio). What is it about Malvolio that the other characters so dislike? Why does Olivia put up with him? Is his punishment by the trickery of the comical "low lifes" deserved? Why or why not? Is the Malvolio subplot there only for comic relief, or does it convey a more serious message? If so, what?
It is thought that Twelfth Night was first written for the "Carnival"-like festivities of the feast of the Epiphany (the "twelfth night" of Christmas, January 6); these raucous celebrations involved a temporary inversion of the established social order. This "world upside-down" theme is reflected not only in some of the mismatched (potential) couples in the play, but in the themes of folly, madness and foolishness. Which characters in the play behave most foolishly? What do you make of the official "Fool," Feste? (Note that a court jester such as Feste, Touchstone in As You Like It, or the Fool in King Lear had the license to speak freely things that no one else would dare say openly). Is "folly" or "foolishness" an unavoidable part of being in love? Why is Malvolio punished so cruelly? (Are his aspirations and behavior any more foolish than those of the other would-be lovers?)
Note the use of music and song in the play. How do the various songs punctuate or comment upon the action? Some of the songs may origianlly have been intended for Viola (who notes in 1.2.52-55 a talent for music that she had intended to use to get into the good graces of Duke Orsino). What is the effect of giving the songs to Feste rather than Viola (or any other of the lovers)? Do they suggest a special connection between Viola and Feste? In what ways are they alike? How do they differ?
[ Debora B. Schwartz, 1997-2002 ]
... Utopia - Illyria -- America ---
