Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Final Blog!

The Shakespearian play, Twelfth Night, tells the story of a young woman Viola who gets herself into a messy situation by changing her identity. While reading Act I and Act II, I found myself relating the character relationships and story line to one of my favorite movies She’s the Man. When one of my friends told me that the movie was created based off of the Shakespearian play, I was shocked and excited to be able to relate what I was reading to what I have seen in the movie. The first thing that I noticed was the fact that all of the characters names are the same. As you can imagine, for someone who has a hard time understanding Shakespeare this made it a lot easier for me to understand the play.

The Duke, Orsino, is madly in love with a beautiful woman named Olivia. Olivia is in morning because of her lost brother and claims that she will hide under a vail for the next seven years in honor of her brother. In the movie, Olivia is sad and uninterested in men because of her recent ex-boyfriend. Although Orsino, also know as Duke, is shy and intimidated by Olivia in the movie, his expectations in the play the complete opposite. He is confident that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him and she will be so in love with him that she will forget all about her deceased brother.

When Viola arrives to Illyria, she decided to disguise herself as a man named Cesario so she can serve the duke. In the movie, Viola disguises herself as a man when she goes to Deliria so she can get what she wants there as well. In both the movie and the play, Duke and Viola form a close relationship together almost immediately. Duke decides that Viola is the perfect person to be a messenger and convince Olivia that she belongs with Duke. He sees Viola (Ceserio) as a very feminine and soft man and he thinks that someone with those types of qualities will be able grab her attention and get the job done. Before Viola is about to leave she expresses to the audience that she has fallen deeply in love with the Duke: “To woo your lady—(aside) Yet, a barful strife—Whoo’er I woo, myself would be his wife.” Viola realizes that she loves the duke and doesn’t understand how she is possibly being a matchmaker for the man she loves.

The real problem is revealed when Olivia, falls in love with Viola (Cesario). When Viola recites the love poem that the Duke prepared for Olivia, she is completely uninterested. Viola doesn’t get Olivias attention until she begins to have a deep, genuine conversation with her. Although Viola is relating their discussion to the duke, Olivia can’t help but see (Cesario’s) genuine, kind personality that she has been searching for in a man. Because of this, Olivia falls deeply in love with (Cesario) and sends him away to tell the duke she is not interested. When she sends (Cesario) away, she gives him an excuse to come back. When Sebastian returns, Violas twin brother, it opens the door to hidden secrets being revealed.

If I were to pick one thing form this semester that shocked me, I would have to pick one of the events that I chose to attend. On February 23rd, I went to the Library Auditorium to watch a 2-hour documentary called Waiting for Superman. The documentary followed a few low-income families from different areas of the United States and gave viewers an up-close look at the conditions of local school systems. I was absolutely devastated by some of the statements in this film. For example, 68% of inmates are high school dropouts. If you do the math, we could send each inmate to a private school with the amount of money that is spent to keep them in prison. Most people think that children from low-income families can’t learn, but the truth is, they can. If the right accountability is applied, you will get the results you need to. The proof was clear as I watched Anthony, Daisy, Francisco and Bianca excel when put in a stable, effective learning environment. The end of the documentary showed each child waiting with their parents to see if they had made the lottery for a spot at one of the best schools in their area. Watching them wait as a number after number was called truly broke my heart. Both the child, and their parents know that is they are not chosen the chance of them receiving a proper education is very unlikely. I have always been grateful for the life that my parents have provided my sisters and I, but I have never been as thankful as I was at this very moment. As soon as I got back to my room, I wrote my parents a letter, letting them know that I truly appreciate all that they have done for our family. My dad was surprised by the letter and called me to let me know that it almost brought a tear to his eye. Knowing that I have such a loving family and I am so incredibly fortunate for what they provide me really warms my heart. Waiting for Superman was truly an eye-opening documentary and I highly advise everyone to take the time to see it.

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