12th Night Quotes

"I am the man." (2.2.25-Viola)

Viola realizes that Olivia, in believing that Viola is a man, has fallen in love with her. At first Viola finds this amusing but then realizes that this could potentially pose a rather large problem. She, being a woman is not capable of loving Olivia back so Viola is not entirely sure what she will do if Olivia decides to pursue her. Of course, this situation adds to the lunacy of the rest of the play, so while Viola becomes worried with this sudden realization that "she is the man" the audience finds it absolutely hilarious.

"and yet to crush it a little, it would bow to me..." (2.5.143-145-Malvolio)

Malvolio has just read a letter that he found. From reading it he can tell that it is a love letter that appears to have been written by Olivia but it is not very clear to whom the letter is addressed to, only the letters M, A, O, and I. Because Malvolio already believes that he, and only he, has what it takes to be master of the house, and because the letters M, A, O, and I are in his name, Malvolio is convinced that the letter is addressed to him. This shows Malvolio's overconfidence in himself which of course will get him into trouble later in the play. Malvolio does not quite understand his station in life. He is a servant which of course means that he is in a lower social class than Olivia which means that Olivia would never even think of him as a suitor.

Viola: Then think you right. I am not what I am.

Olivia: I would you were as I would have you be. (3.1.148-149)

In this scene Viola is trying to get away from Olivia who is starting to show that she has feelings for Viola, who she thinks is a man. Viola is trying to subtly hint to Olivia that she is really not a man and therefore does not have feeling for Olivia. Olivia is frustrated with this "man" who does not seem to be taken in by her charms and answers that she wishes Viola was what she wanted her to be.

So apparently the word "time" occurs in 12th Night 22 times. Most of the references to time use the word as a normal noun, but what I found interesting was that every now and then Shakespeare would use "time" as a proper noun. Viola refers to Time as a sort of entity twice and Orsino once.

"What else may hap to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy silence to my wit." (Act 1 Sc. 2)-Viola

"O time! thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie!" (Act 2 Sc. 2)-Viola

"When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case?" (Act 5 Sc. 1)-Orsino

When Viola has a problem that she dosen't believe she can solve herself she calls on Time to solve it for her. I thought it was interesting that time was personified this way.

Reflection on 1st Paper

For me, writing the small object/large subject essay was difficult for me. This paper was quite different from the papers I'm used to writing. I'm used to writing book/play analysis papers and creative writing but I've never really had to do a research paper on an actual object...at least not recently. I tried something new in my introduction this time. I usually do a sort of funnel introduction where I start with a very broad topic and change to a very specific topic for my thesis. But this time I tried opening my essay with the "tell a story" technique. I wasn't particularly happy with how it turned out but I'm glad I tried something new for this paper. I didn't find my topic that interesting although I found out some information that I definitely didn't know before that piqued my curiosity and helped drive me to finish the paper. I also didn't have as much time as I would have liked set aside for writing this paper, it seemed like all my professors conspired to overwork me that week, I had three other essays besides this one that have been due at around the same time, so I managed the best I could with what time I had. Overall I was happy with how the paper turned out but I haven't actually seen the grade I received on it yet so that opinion might change...

Inkshedding: Shakespeare Quote

Quote:

Andrew: "In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou spok'st of Pigrogromitos, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus."

(Act 2 Sc. 3 Lines 20-23)

Andrew is talking to Feste who apparently told a story about Vapians and Pigrogromitos and such the night before. Sir Andrew is not the brightest bulb on the tree and doesn't really realize that while Pigrogromitos, Vapians, and Queubus sound like real astronomical terms they are really just Feste making fun of astronomical unnecessarily long names. When Andrew says "very gracious fooling" he is complimenting Feste on his show of wit last night.

12th Night

After reading the first act of 12th Night, I can't stop thinking about....

Shakespeare must have thought that his audience was capable of great feats of imagination. This play was originally written for the theatre of the 1600s, which means there was not much in the way of costumes and practically no scenery. I can't help but wonder how Shakespeare managed to achieve the effect of a shipwreck on the his audience with no scenery and no sound effects. Yes, I know the whole argument that Shakespeare put clues in certain character's lines to help the audience figure out the setting but honestly, if the majority of modern high school students can't catch these clues after about 10-12 years of education, how on earth did uneducated 17th century people manage it? How did Shakespeare ever keep his audiences interested?

12th Night Act 1

1. How is everyone so fooled into believing Viola is a boy?

2. Why is Orsino so hung up on Olivia? There must be other women in Illyria...

3. If Olivia is really set upon giving up men for 7 years why does she tease Cesario?

4. I can understand why Olivia would be in mourning for her brother, but what does that have to do with her refusal to get involved with any men for 7 years?

5. Do we ever get to know where Viola is from?

6. Where does the word Illyria come from?

To Take Wilderness In Hand

While this article poses a very interesting theory of how to save a species by relocating them to a less dangerous environment for them, at the same time I wonder: What happens to the plant/animal life that lived in this relocation site originally? I commend the effort to save an endangered species but I feel like this relocation idea simply puts the native life in the relocation site in danger of becoming endangered as well. Then one ends up with two endangered species as opposed to one, not to mention the unknown effects of introducing a new species in an area would be.

I’ve heard about the idea of assisting migrations before, and while, again, I think it’s commendable that people are willing to do that, I’m not really sure that we are capable of it. There are hundreds of different species that migrate all over the world. We probably don’t know much about the habits of the more endangered species simply because there aren’t that many of them left to study. Can we really reliably say we have the information necessary to help them with one of the more important parts of their lives? It’s like trying to help your best friend through his/her daily routine when he/she is no longer capable of doing it his/herself. You may think you know them well enough to do it but there will be things you’re going to miss and some of them may be unimportant but others might be vital. And even if we were to succeed we risk the species forming a dependence on us to survive which may not go over so well.

I think we should focus on what our own species can do to minimize its effect on our world. Try to control our emissions and waste, spend more effort on staying “green”. If we did that then most of these problems with other species that stem from our messiness would not exist.

Hi-Tech Trash

To me this article is rather upsetting. I know that most people don’t really think about where what they throw away goes, but the fact that even the people who try to do well by the world by giving their e-waste to charities, that are SUPPOSED to dispose of it in a good way, that are giving their e-waste to the same people as the dumping corporations that are only out for a profit is astounding to me. It just makes the whole situation seem so hopeless. If people really think that in today’s world they can just ship something far away and that it will never come back to haunt them than they really need to wake up. As Carroll states in his article, the countries that end up with all the e-waste just turn around and sell it right back in a different form. So not only are developing countries’ e-waste ruining the people’s lives who live in under-developed countries but it bounces back and risks the original sender’s health as well when they inadvertently buy Chinese made jewelry that contains an unhealthy amount of lead because it was made from the scrapes of e-waste.

The other thing that bothers me about this article is that Carroll doesn’t really give any sort of definite solution to the problem. He does talk about a recycling machine that can safely dispose of e-waste, but he offers not possible solution to how to clean up the mess that has already been made by the dumping of e-waste. This just bothers me, if I was going to write an article for National Geographic than I would at least make a suggestion for how to help, or mention a group that is trying to help clean up or something…

Small Object, Large Subject

Laptop computers have become somewhat of an epidemic. I don’t know anyone who does not own and actively use one. A laptop is the ultimate way to stay connected to the rest of the world. Often people, especially students, consider their laptop to be their prized possession. It is always within easy reach and a lot of people take their laptop with them wherever they go. Perhaps it is the fear of feeling completely isolated that causes people to be so attached to their laptops. The world has become so much smaller. We are used to being able to get in touch with a friend anywhere and at anytime. We always want to be somewhere where we can connect to a wireless network and often feel quite twitchy when we have to put up with being outside any kind of network.

Laptops also make it possible for us to carry our life around with us. They contain our music libraries, our pictures, they give us access to the internet which in turn gives us access to other people’s lives…the list goes on. They also have hundreds of applications designed to make our lives easier and entertain us at all times. We would be lost and bored without our laptops to focus on.

Companies that make laptop computers have noticed how attached we are to our laptops and have exploited this attachment to a point where everyone wants to have the newest, most advanced laptop. They take extra time and money to make laptops look aesthetically pleasing when they don’t really have to be so that more people will want them.

Whether this epidemic of laptops is really a bad thing, I’m not entirely sure. I know I am very attached to my laptop; it’s usually with me all the time and I can’t really picture my life without it. Is this a bad thing? Honestly, I’m not sure.