Twelfth Night's the Man

So, recently in my English Honors class, we've begun our big "Shakespeare Unit". I, personally, love this section. It gives us know all, sarcastic, too-smart-for-you adolescents a chance to actually challenge ourselves to read and decipher all Shakespeare is trying to say in his various plays and sonnets. Our school likes to celebrate the Bard with our annual Shakespeare Day, in which kids can get married just like Romeo & Juliet, have a monologue reading contest, join in the pie eating contest ('cause what Brit doesn't like some pie?), and even make our own crowns out of ribbons and flowers. It's a chance to reflect on how many of the plays and poems we write today are made up of words Shakespeare just made up; although I'm not sure he'd be so proud of the ones we've, as a society, made up over the years. I wonder how it'd be to know people use a word I just thought up one day. Like...bluggerige. I don't know what it means, but suppose I was having a conversation with Bridget and somehow said "he was such a little bluggerige, I wanted to scream." She'd look at me blankly and say "Um...what?" and as soon as I'd explain what it's hidden meaning was, she'd use it and a chain reaction would start! Alright, I know bluggerige isn't the cool word everyone would want to be caught saying, but you get the idea.

Another thing I like to think about is how they've tried to make Shakespeare "modern". Movie makers, both American and foreign, have made many attempts to interpret Shakespeare in a way that us "kids" would understand. For example:

They live in a modern day "hood", if you will, and shoot at each other with guns instead of sword fighting. This way, when kids watch it, they'll either think "Oh! That's what Mercutio means when he says nlah, blah, blah..." OR "Why are they talking so funny?" But what's good is that they modernize it so we will watch it and if we go back and read the actual play, we will understand what Shakespeare is saying when Juliet says things like "Wherefor art thou, Romeo?" We all know she doesn't mean "Where are you, Romeo?" Another example (which is the inspiration for this blog's title) would be:

She's the Man is a perfect example of Shakespeare modernization at work. It is based off of Twelfth Night. If you've ever read it, you understand why the description in the movie's ad seems so confusing at first glance. Same thing with the real Twelfth Night! The names are all almost the same, but of course some have been changed to make the time gap a little less noticeable. I first noticed that they were parallels when we first cracked open the play in English, just last week. Seeing all the names and Viola's predicament with having to always pretend to be a boy, the gears in my head finally clicked for once! Having seen the movie more than once, it's made reading the play easier than I would have expected. Of course, having the translations of words and phrases on the even pages of the play also help quite a lot. Over all, though, it's been making the whole "Shakespeare Unit" a lot easier than one would think. So, the purpose of this was to basically thank Shakespeare for all he's done for us. If he had never decided to pick up a plume, I wouldn't have written half the words in this blog. Maybe he even invented the word blog? Nah. But he has given us a lot to work off of throughout history. I hope everyone can pull something from what he's written the way I have. It makes me excited to get to Shakespeare Day and hopefully compete in the monologue reading contest. Until then, I bid thee goodnight. (HA! Shakespeare's words!) B.G.G.