Monday, April 25, 2011

Final Blog 4/25/11

For this week we had to read the second half of “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare. Also, with this being my last blog, I will say what surprised me most about this year.

In Act III scene 1, Viola goes again to see Olivia to deliver another message of love from Orsino. As she is meeting Olivia before Viola can deliver her message, Oliva confesses her love for Viola’s alternate ego, Cesario. Cesario tells her that it is very kind that Olivia feels this way about “him”, but he cannot love her back. Cesario tells Olivia that “no mistress will ever have my heart” and although Olivia seems to take this to heart, she deep down really loves him and begs him to come back. Cesario does this for the sole reason of trying to convince Olivia to love Orsino.

In scene III Antonio and Sebastian finally arrive at Illyria. Antonio shows concern because he is not welcome in Illyria. Orsino has a grudge against Antonio and this bother Antonio and he shows genuine fear of being in Illyria. However, Antonio cares for Sebastian so much that even the most hostile places he will go for him. This is a true friendship and connection the two men have, they will do anything for one another. This seems to be one of the major themes of the book, love in different ways. There is love in passion like Orsino’s love for Olivia and there is love in friendships like that of Sebastian and Antonio.

Scene IV has Olivia very confused. She loves Cesario but cannot have him for reasons unknown to her. As she sends a servant to try and convince Cesario to come back to her, she has a confrontation with Malvolio. Convinced because of the prank that Olivia is in love with him, he wears his ridiculous yellow stockings and quotes the letter that he thought Olivia sent to him. Olivia knows nothing of the prank and is confused and leaves to go see Cesario. Malvolio however, still is sure that Olivia loves him. His stubbornness only adds to the enjoyment of those who have played the prank on him.


Further in the scene, Antonio arrives at Olivia’s. He sees Viola dressed as Cesario and mistakes her for Sebastian, her twin. Once there, since Cesario is supposed to duel Sir Andrew, Antonio volunteers to fight for “Sebastian.” This does not go over well as Antonio is immediately recognized as a wanted man in Illyria. They arrest him and he begs Viola to help him. Viola finds it strange that she speaks of a man named Sebastian and runs off to try and see if he is still alive somewhere, under pure hope that he is in Illyria.

The rest of the book continues with its maze like plot, as Sebastian is taken by Feste the clown to Olivia, with Feste under the impression that this is Cesario who Olivia wanted him to seek out. Thinking this is Cesario, Olivia tells Sebastian how much she loves him and wants to marry him. Seeing no problem in marrying such a beautiful woman, Sebastian agrees and they go off to get married.

In the final Act and Scene, Orsino finally musters up the courage to go to Olivia and confess his love to her in person with Cesario (Olivia). On the way they see Antonio being dragged by the Illyrian soldiers and once again Antonio mistakes Cesario for Sebastian and yells at him for betraying him as a friend. Having no idea what Antonio is talking about, they both continue on their way to Olivia’s. Upon arriving, all hell breaks loose. Sebastian gets into a fight with Sir Andrew and Sir Toby. Sir Andrew arrives and accuses Cesario, but Viola says that she was not responsible. Finally to clear everything up, Sebastian arrives and apologizes for beating both of them up. He then finally sees his sister Viola. They question each other for a while about their birth and realize that they have finally found each other. Discovering that Cesario is actually a girl, Orsino asks her to dress in woman’s clothes so he can see how beautiful she really is. After all is said and done, they have a double wedding and the play ends.

In my opinion, this was a very good play to read/end the year off with. The most surprising thing that I learned this year was that I enjoy reading poetry. I never knew how easy it was for me to understand and comprehend poetry. I plan on reading more poetry more often now because of what I have learned in this class.

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