Although Viola in She's the Man may be discriminated against, because of her gender, Shakespeare's Viola has never been allowed to be assertive in a physical manner because the way women are socialized. This is why Shakespeare's Viola is both a sadder and more vulnerable character throughout Twelfth Night, in contrast to the more tomboyish Viola in the modern film who can fend for herself.
The romantic aspects of the original are relatively the same: Viola loves Duke Orsino (simply known as "Duke" in the film), Duke loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Viola, whom she thinks is a boy. But there is none of the melancholy that characterizes Shakespeare's comedy in this frustration of desire. Olivia rejects men because she is pining for her brother, who is dead, and when she allows herself to fall in love again, she finds herself cruelly rejected despite the fact that "he" seems to be her social inferior, Orsino's servant. Sebastian comes to love Olivia, but must reject his friend Antonio. More is at stake in the film, namely the character's entire romantic lives. The film, which is about teenagers and their relationships, never suggests the characters will get married or that their various couplings and uncouplings are to be taken very seriously beyond the world of high school. When Viola talks about a sister who died for a man's love, she is seriously speaking of herself and her own passionate feelings for Orsino -- instead, Viola and Duke in the film have a more funny "man to man" bonding about what women really want.
The very sinister "madness plot" and the characters of Toby and Andrew in Twelfth Night are toned down in She's the Man. In Twelfth Night, Olivia's maid Maria, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch convince Olivia's puritanical overseer Malvolio that Olivia is in love with him, and cause him to adopt strange mannerisms, like wearing yellow stockings and grinning constantly. Although this plot may seem like a "side show," it shows how desire between social inferiors and superiors is never really allowed to transgress class boundaries in Shakespeare....
REFERENCES Brown, G. Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywod. New York: McMillan, 1995. Byrge, D. The Screwball Comedy Films. New York: McFarland, 1991. "Censored Films and Television." January 2000. University of Virginia. September 2010 . Dale, A. Comedy is a Man in Trouble. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Ebert, R. "Some Like It Hot." 9 January 2000. Roger Ebert.com. 12 September 2010 . Engleking, A. "A Barbed But Generous Comedy of Manners." 17 June 2010.
All the while he is never in any danger because there is no risk of falling: he is simply playing at spoofing. But this is not Airplane -- a classic spoof comedy where every character, setting, and action in the film is designed to spoof airport genre thrillers popular at the time. Ace is not exactly a derelict but he is outside the conventional social order: he is an outcast
Many young people voted for Reagan as he represented rebellion against the authority figures in society but was a rebellion characterized by valiance and effectuated through skillful communication. The approval rating of Reagan was approximately 42% when 1982 began but dropped to the record low 35% later that same year. The U.S. entered a recession. If one is to set their focus upon obtaining a chance at being the
For example, the popular sitcoms Good Times and Sanford and Son showed working class neighborhoods and the problems of violence, crime, and social oppression, and yet how humor always finds its way into these character's lives. The 1970s also brought about a new late night live comedy show, called Saturday Night Live. This show had its first run from 1975 to 1980, and made political humor the centerpiece of Saturday
The parallels between these situations and Frye's basic assessment of the plot of New Comedies are not, perhaps, immediately apparent, but they have the same effect by the end of the play, where "the audience witnesses the birth of a renewed sense of social integration" (Frye 94). The parent/child relationships have been largely done away with in favor of te romantic ties that seem to be favored by the play.
Juliet's speeches to the Friar after learning that she must marry Paris in a week's time indicate this as she lists the horrors she would rather endure: "bid me leap... / From off the battlements of any tower...lurk / Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears..." (Riverside 1130, IV.i. 77-80). She continues in much the same vein, and this is not her only moment of such emotional extremity.
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now