Viola as Cesario (Twelfth Night) vs. Viola as Sebastian (She’s the Man)

I rewatched She’s The Man recently (in my opinion—still p good, but doesn’t hold up THAT well?), and I noticed that when Viola cross-dresses, she takes up Sebastian’s name, as opposed to taking on the new name of Cesario. The plot of She’s The Man actually demands that she takes on Sebastian’s name (because she wants to take his place at boarding school so she can play men’s soccer), but it struck me as a difference that actually significantly changes how we think about Viola’s new identity when she presents as a man. In Twelfth Night, the change to Cesario is the invention of a completely new male identity. In She’s The Man, she’s not inventing a new male identity so much as performing the identity of her brother. In this way, She’s The Man seems to sort of sanitize or un-trouble the gender complications of  Twelfth Night (which makes sense because it’s mainstream Hollywood). But I think this also speaks to the lack of resolution in the final act of Twelfth Night, because Olivia’s marriage to Sebastian does not actually resolve the fact that she has been in love with Cesario. Cesario and Sebastian are twins, but they are not perfect substitutions for one another. They have two different names, but still two different identities.

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