Katelyn Barone
Dr. Ellis
EN 101. 16
November 20, 2013
Putting Disguises Aside
The
first two acts of Shakespeare’s Twelfth
Night or, What you Will and the lecture I attended by Doctor David Stovall
all address what it means to truly know yourself and accept who you are. In Twelfth Night or, What You Will we are
introduced to a host of melodramatic characters whom all are working to impress
one another but never truly take care of themselves and look into who they
are. They all believe the cause of their
problems is external, and occasionally it is. However, for the most part, the cause
of the hosts of issues in this play is the character themselves and their various
quirks and ignorance to change. The play
and the lecture both also touch upon the subjects of ambitions and dreams. Dr.
Stovall gave interesting advice to future educators when he said that if you
aspire to make changes and help the people you teach, you must make sure you
are helping for them and not for you or the whole process will never succeed.
The various characters in Twelfth Night
or, What You Will display in Acts I and II that they do not understand
their own ambitions and this will ultimately lead to their failure.
Right
from the beginning of the play we meet one of the eccentric lead characters,
Duke Orsino. The play opens with the Orsino stating the line “ If music be the
food of love, play on” but this statement is quickly refuted when only a few
lines later he exclaims “Enough; no more: ‘T is not so sweet now as it was
before” (Shakespeare, 1). These first few lines said by Orsino give us a direct
look into his dramatic, off the wall personality. It seems to be no surprise that
Orsino insists on pursuing Lady Olivia even after she has stated she will not
love him for at least seven years at best. Despite this obvious shut down,
Orsino continues sending various servants instead of addressing the problem
himself. This proves to be his ultimate downfall when he sends Viola, disguised
as a man, to speak to Olivia. Not only does Olivia make it even more clear that
she is not interested in Orsino when she states “Your lord does know my mind; I
cannot love him” she finds a new love interest from this exchange-Viola herself
(Shakespeare, 16). If Orsino truly loved
Olivia for who she is as a person and not who she is as a status symbol, he may
have had a chance with her. However, his motives were skewed and he will have
to pay the price for it when his most loyal servant becomes his fiercest competition.
Orsino
is not the only character in the play with dreams and ambitions that fall
short. Viola believes that in disguising herself as a boy, she will get an
automatic in with the Duke and have a good and steady life in Illyria. Despite the
good intentions behind her choice to disguise herself, we quickly see what the consequences
of his type of deception. In disguising herself Viola has access to the Duke
which she wanted, but she becomes infatuated with him and even mentions that she
wants to be his wife. These feelings can never be acted on firstly because of
her disguise, how will she explain to the Duke that she has been lying to him
this whole time? He will be angered and feel betrayed. Secondly, in being this
fake male servant she becomes the Duke’s messenger to the person he truly loves. She has put herself at a great risk for hurt
and disappointment all because she could not be honest with the others around
her.
Doctor
Stovall’s lecture on education, particularly in lesser fortunate areas, had
some related themes to those seen in the first two acts of Twelfth Night, or What You Will. One of the most important things
that I took from his lecture was that people in education have the power to
make great changes in their community, but first they most understand that
community, and most importantly themselves and their role within this
community. This connects to the idea of having no disguises in your life,
particularly about the person you are and the values you have. Much like the
lesson Dr. Ellis gave us on one of the first days of class, Dr. Stovall was
essentially saying don’t serve people because you think you have to or that it
will look good, but because you truly want to. Dr. Stovall admitted that he
often gets uninvited from places because of his strong opinions, but I found
his approach effective. He said that there needs to be less talk of change and less
theories on education and more action on the ground with the communities in
need. He was telling many of the future educators in the room to have ambitions
more about the collective and less about themselves which I think can be
applied in many fields.
Lastly,
one of the most important things I took from this class was the importance of
being able to critique and analyze quickly and effectively. The skills I have
learned in this class about keeping my writing more simple and to the point
have helped me greatly in all of my classes and have led to me making adjustments
on papers and essays outside of English. I have learned to analyze in depth and
communicate clearer and more concisely.
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