She's the Man, O I mean, Twelfth Night

My initial excitement at the fact that “She’s the Man” is a modern based version of “Twelfth Night” was pretty obvious. Because of this, this play was especially interesting to me and it explained a lot of things for me. My critical and thorough knowledge of the movie “She’s the Man” allowed me to keep the characters straight and also helped me to understand the character relationships and plots. Twelfth night is also one of my favorite plays we have read this semester because it is comical, ironic, and about love. The gender roles and relationships in the play were the main comical element to me. It almost seemed like a description of high school drama in a way that: Olivia likes Viola who is pretending to be a boy, Orsino likes Olivia but feels complication towards Viola, and so on with the other characters including Malvolio and Sebastian. Because of the complication and irony, this story line was able to be adapted into a high school setting of the comedy “She’s the Man.”

Twelfth night also shows how a sad situation can turn positive. Because Viola and Sebastian were in a horrible storm at sea and thought each other had drowned, they went their separate ways thinking the other was gone. However, this sad situation ended up becoming positive, because they both ended up finding the spouse of their dreams. Sebastian ending up with Olivia, and Viola ending up with Orsino not only shows irony because they liked differently people and all have different connections to each other. Even through all the drama and confusion, these couples, whom the readers grow to love, all end up happy with the person they love.

Twelfth Night also displays common Shakespearean elements. Some of these include: gender roles and confusion, forbidden love, secrets, and change of love or feelings for someone. Twelfth Night displays all of these elements in a comical and inter-connected way very well. I really enjoyed this play and it is perhaps, dare I say, my favorite Shakespeare I have read this year. It is the epitome of how Shakespeare himself “achieved greatness!” (356)