Comparing Twelfth Night And She's The Man

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Deception, disguise, and performance is present in both Twelfth Night and the adaptation, She’s the Man. The storyline of both the book and the movie involves a girl named Viola, who wants to prove something to people. In the book, she is trying to be accepted in society and in the movie, she has a longing to play soccer. Her point is to prove that girls are just as good as guys. To prove her point she dresses up as her brother, so no one will know that it is her. Deception, disguise, and performance affect how people view Viola as a character because she had to make everyone believe her disguise in order to prove that she is good enough in many aspects of life. Deception, disguise, and performance affect how people view Viola as a character…show more content…
In the book, in order to fit into society she has to dress herself up as a boy and serve Sir Duke Orsino. In the movie, since she is dressed like a boy, she has to figure out how to be socially accepted as a boy. In order to do that, she must act and dress like one. When she is trying to impress Duke and his friends in the movie, she has some of her friends come up to her and pretend like they dated at one point. The plan backfires when Sebastian’s real girlfriend shows up. Put under pressure she responds by saying, “You're hot Monique, smokin' hot. But there are plenty of hot girls out there. And the truth is you have nothing else to offer! And when my eyes are closed, I see you for what you truly are, which is UUUG-LAY!” Viola was put in a situation that she did not know how to deal with since she actually was not dating Monique, her brother was. Viola soon comes to understand that it is a harsh world and equality among the sexes is always a challenge. In the book, when Viola is dressed up as Cesario, Duke almost suspects something by saying, “Thy small pipe is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound, and all is semblative a woman's part” (I.iv.35-37). In today’s English, he is saying how she resembles a woman. In reality, she is a woman and that is why she has a womanly figure and sounds like a woman. Viola’s disguise has to be believable and it has to portray to…show more content…
In the book, after the shipwreck, she runs into the Captain who helps her dress up as a man so people would accept her. While talking to the Captain, Viola says, “ Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent” (I.ii.56-58). She is telling the Captain her plan to fit in to see if it is believable. In the movie, Viola has to try even harder for people to believe her disguise. She has to pretend to be her brother and she also has to be herself and act like she has never met some people. For example, when she is at the fair she has to go back and forth between her disguise because she has to be Sebastian when she is with Duke and his friends and she also has to be herself around her mom. To make everyone believe, she dresses like her brother, wears a wig and sideburns, and even tries to talk in a lower voice. To make her look more like an idiotic boy, she says things like, “ You know how it is. New school, new babe pool.” It makes her sound like a boy who treats women as objects. To portray to everyone that she is her brother, she has to dress and act like him for people to
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  • Comparing Twelfth Night And She's The Man

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    are often compared to movies like She’s the Man. She’s the Man is an adaptation of the play Twelfth Knight. The plot of She’s the man consists of mistaken identities and the main female character who wants to be treated the same way as the guys are in soccer. Twelfth Night was a play that was written by William Shakespeare around 1601-02. There are similarities in She’s the man and Twelfth Knight. One of the similarities in She’s the man and Twelfth knight is the character duke of Illyria

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