I found it interesting that Professor Kitch raised a question about the relation between Shakespeare’s sonnets and Twelfth Night. While reading, Viola says to Olivia, “Lady, you are the cruell’st she alive if you lead these graces to the grave and leave the world no copy” (1058). The theme of sonnets 1-10 are prominent in this conversation. Viola tries to convince Olivia to marry Orsino and have a child to reproduce her beauty. Olivia does not understand Viola and replies, “I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried…” In this scene, Olivia is the young man from sonnets 1-10, while Viola is used as a mouthpiece to reinforce Shakespeare’s beliefs.

Hi Jae Yeon!

I was also interesting in the excessive amounts of theatricality–especially after seeing the Globe’s production last night. In particular, I was interested in the role that music plays in Twelfth Night. To me, the amount of singing also indicates another performative aspect of the play as music is another form of representation or expressive mode. Why does music open the show? What do the musical interludes accomplish? Why is the fool or clown the one playing music?

(N.B. TL;DR at bottom). Watching The Globe’s 2012 production of Twelfth Night had me thinking not only of all-male dramatic productions theoretically, but also experientially. From the ages of 9-16, I was enrolled in a very traditional boys school in South London, founded by no other than Edward Alleyne in 1619. Of course, taking part in dramatic productions was required, and of course, there were (apart from mothers in the audience) no women as far as the eye could see. I made particularly notable appearances as a woman in both Sweeney Todd and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. At the time – particularly having come directly from a Quaker school in Brooklyn – the idea of men portraying women in a play was baffling more than anything else. My parents had explained to me how deeply rooted the practice was in British dramatic productions, but nonetheless, it made categorically no sense to me that women were (for whatever reason) seen as not up to the role. However, these questions now take on a new level of nuance for me. Tonight’s performance from The Globe, in addition to Britomart’s crossdressing in The Faerie Queene, has me now thinking more generally about the concept of gender fluidity in 16th and 17th century England. I know relatively little about the attitudes toward such things at the time, but I am curious to learn more, and to hopefully draw on my own experiences in a manner with slightly more substance than this post. TL;DR: I have been in all-male dramatic productions before.

I did not know that this quote about greatness was written by Shakespeare: “Some are born great, others achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” There are many famous Shakespeare quotes that are still used today, but we are generally aware that these quotes were written by Shakespeare when we use them. Why is this one not so widely known to be written by him? One possible reason for this is that this quote sounds like it comes from more modern language.  Of course, I could just be behind on this. Is it widely known to be a Shakespeare quote?

I found it interesting that Twelfth Night seems to have an extensive amount of theatricality to it that purposefully breaks the feeling of “reality” and the fourth wall. Besides the multiple gender layering that happens with male boy actor/ Viola/Cesario, I’m noticing a self-awareness in the text that continually points out its artifice as theatre. For example, in Act I, Scene 5 with Viola and Olivia’s first meeting, Viola/Cesario continually addresses the art of acting one’s “part” or role. All of the characters seem to be literally performing roles at one point or another — Viola must act to persuade Olivia, Olivia throws a veil over her face to perform her grieving, and so on.