William Shakespeare

• ​Modern reconstruction built near original site in 1997

• Today you can go there to see the plays

• Most esteemed, prominent England writer

• Notorious for his poems and plays

• Minimum documented information

• Did NOT attend an university

• Moved from England to London

• Created approximately 1700 words

• What is identity? What makes each of us who we are? 

• How is a person’s status derived? Can they change it? How?

• How much of gender is a performance?

• How can love be tied to all of the above?

Essential Questions

​The real Twelfth Night

• A holiday celebrated on the twelfth day of Christmas, the night before the Epiphany

• A day known for misrule, practical jokes, singing, drinking, and making merry

  • Dressing up in costume​ was a common practice, sometimes switching genders or having servants and masters switching roles

​The play is set in fictional Illyria, along the Adriatic Coast of the Balkan Peninsula

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Setting

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What's Happening? (the central plot)

A true comedy of errors and mistaken identities.

• The main character, Viola , pretends to be a man for her own safety in a foreign land. She believes her identical twin brother has died. Her new identity is Cesario, and she works for Duke Orsino.

• Duke Orsino is madly in love with the rich Countess Olivia who is mourning the death of her family and refuses to be courted. He tries anyway.

• Viola, as Cesario, is in love with Duke Orsino. She is not happy about helping Duke Orsino woo Olivia.

• Olivia ends up falling in love with Cesario, who is Viola.

• Olivia chases after Cesario (who is Viola) who is in love with Orsino who is chasing after Olivia who has no interest in Orsino.

• Viola's twin brother isn't as dead as everyone thinks he is.