Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night takes place in the kingdom of Illyria.  The book is mainly about a girl, Viola and the duke of Illyria, Orsino.  In the book, Orsino believes he loves Olivia, the countess. Olivia has just lost her brother and refuses to see the duke. Viola comes into the picture when she is shipwrecked and becomes Orsino's servant. She runs messages to Olivia asking her to see Orsino. But Olivia ends up falling in love with Viola who is disguised as Cesario, so she can work for the duke without anyone knowing she is a girl and Viola ends up falling in love with Orsino.  

Orsino is a very kind-hearted character, he is crazy in love with Olivia almost throughout the whole book. Viola tries very hard to act like a man. She is also a little stubborn. Viola is also a very smart character and is always a few steps ahead of the game. Olivia is very poised. She is described as beautiful throughout the book. You realize as you read that she is aware of it and it begins have an impact on the way she acts. By the end of the book she has a major change in attitude and is a more caring person. Sir Toby is Olivia's Uncle and wants her to marry his friend Sir Andrew, who is far from smart and considerate. Maria is Olivia's maid, and she enjoys pulling pranks on Malvolio. Malvolio is Olivia's steward and is in love with Olivia. He will do anything to impress Olivia. But ha fails every time. Feste is simply a fool. Sebastian is Viola's brother, who she thought had drowned in the shipwreck. He gets into a bit of legal trouble in the book, but he finds ways around it. Antonio is a sea captain and Sebastian's friend. Fabian is another fool and is also a servant.

 

The book was good. It was a little slow and a little confusing, but it was a great story line. The movie "She's the Man" is actually based on the book. That is why some of the names sound familiar if you have seen the movie. I wish I had gotten the book in a modern text version, it would have made the book a little bit easier to understand. 

The reading strategies I used were visualizing and comparing.Visualizing was like seeing the play in my head. I compared the book to the movie "She's the Man", there were a lot of similarities. Some of the characters had the same names and had the same personalities. The movie really captured the outline of the book. The movie took the story Shakespeare wrote and turned it into what would happen if it took place in this time period. 

Shakespeare was and still is a famous play writer. He wrote "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet", "Macbeth", "Midsummer's Night's Dream", "The Tempest", "Two Gentlemen of Verona", "Julius Caesar" and many others. He started school at the most likely at the age of 6. He went to Stratford grammer school. It was built 200 years before he was born and is still standing today. There are two periods of time where we have no knowledge of Shakespeare. It as if he had disappeared from the world. The two time periods we have no information on him are 1578-82 and 1585-92. They believe he married in November of 1582. To a girl named Anne. Historians are unclear of the exact date. Records show the dates November 27th and 28th of 1582. Shakespeare died April 23rd, 1616.