For Thursday, please read Act One of Twelfth Night, so we can wade slowly into this wonderful and complex little comedy. There are no questions, but I'll give you an in-class response when we come to class--and I'll show you a few clips of the first act as well. However, here are some ideas to consider as you read and try to make sense of the play:
* As always, look for Prose and Poetry distinctions: scenes 3 and 5 in particular. Is there anyone who only speaks one or the other? Anyone who switches from one to the other?
* How might Orsino resemble certain ideas encountered in the Sonnets, particularly the earlier ones? Also, does he resemble any characters in Romeo and Juliet?
* What do you make of a play where the characters have such absurd names as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch? Can you play such characters 'seriously'? Or are they just cartoons?
* In this play we have a bona fide fool, Feste, who is like a funnier (and less cynical) Mercutio. What role does he seem to serve in the play? How might he be like Mercutio, or how is he quite unlike that famous character?
* What role does Malvolio seem to serve in the play? Is he comic or serious? (remember that even in comic plays, there can be serious elements). Another way of putting this is, are we supposed to take him seriously?
* Read the scene in 1.5 where Olivia flirts with Viola (disguised as a boy). Why does Olivia become interesting in him/her, and does Viola seem to encourage it? Also, why are they talking/flirting in prose? When does it change to verse (and why)?
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