Effect of Twelfth Night being a play

     Jordan Drazen

     Ms. Sweezey





     Reading a play gives a very different perspective of the characters. A story will usually have more

detail, but it is told from one point of view. In the play, you are given the words directly from each

characters mouths. There is no narrator in the play, so nothing is simply explained. Everything either

happens right then and there or it doesn't happen. If Twelfth Night was a novel, it would probably be a

lot more detailed and be told from a narrator's perspective. This would make the story a lot less personal

and direct.
   
      The movie follows the play's script directly, but it is still different to visualize it. When reading,

everyone has a different concept of what they imagine a scene to be like. When someone else pictures

it, it's weird for the reader.

Twelfth Night Character Analysis

Jordan Drazen

Ms. Sweezey

English II (5^th pd)

2/13/13

            Viola is the main character of Twelfth Night. She is the twin sister of Sebastian. She is introduced on the shores of Illyria. She was on a boat in the sea with a crew and her brother. There was a bad storm which caused the ship to wreck. This accident leads them to believing that her brother is dead. She decides to start a life of her own, but can’t get any decent job as a woman, so she disguises herself as a man named “Cesario”. The captain of the ship helps her fix her disguise. “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.”(12 Shakespeare) She begins serving the Duke Orsino. She falls in love with Orsino, but can’t tell him because she is disguised as a guy. Orsino tells Viola all of his problems with love, and makes Viola help him deliver messages to Olivia, who he loves. “O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence!”(8 Shakespeare) So, unable to say anything against it without looking suspicious, she helps Orsino communicate with Olivia. “I’ll do my best to woo your lady.”(23 Shakespeare) Upon delivering the Duke’s messages to Olivia, Olivia falls in love with Viola. “Methinks I feel the youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes.”(40 Shakespeare) This causes Viola to feel bad because she can’t tell Olivia that she is really a girl, and Olivia will be wasting her time trying to impress someone who will never love or have interest in her. She gets stuck in the middle of everyone’s drama, and feels trapped in her disguise. Later on her brother will turn out to not be dead and return. The introduction of his character could be a bad thing depending on his personality, or it could be a great thing because he looks like Viola since they are twins.

My childhood best friend

                                                                                                                              Jordan Drazen

I had two best friends through most of elementary school. Their names were Austin and Mauricio. I believe it was the beginning of second grade when we first started to talk. I’m not sure why we began to talk, but all we used to talk about was video games. All three of us played an online game called Toontown. We would go to school, talk about it, then when we got home all of us would meet up in the game and play for the whole afternoon. I think this is how we got to know each other so much. We played that game for a long time, but eventually it started to get boring, so we quit.

            I started to look for something new to play and eventually I found a game called Maplestory. I started playing it and loved it. I played for about a month or so before I told Mauricio about it. Once I told him, he started to play. We both played a lot, but Austin never got into it. We got very addicted to it and would play for hours nonstop. We would stay up all night playing. It was a very fun game and I have a lot of good memories from it. At this point Mauricio was pretty much my best friend. We were still good friends with Austin, but most of the time we hung out was online, and only Mauricio and I played. I would go over to Mauricio’s house a lot, and we would just play Maplestory. One time during the summer I stayed at his house for a whole week and we pretty much did nothing but play Maplestory. His parents would take me with them when they went to restaurants, theme parks, and stores. We used to go to Target so Mauricio could get NX cash, which was a type of money in the game that you had to purchase with real money. His mom would buy some for me too.

We were pretty close friends until around sixth grade. It was then that we both made new friends and stopped talking as much as we used to. We still occasionally played online together, but not as much. At the moment, Mauricio and I don’t really talk much. We occasionally say hi in the hallway, or have a random conversation, but for the most part we don’t talk. However, Austin and I talk a lot now because we have advisory and film together, which is really fun because I haven’t had a class with him since around fourth grade.

Song analysis : Dogs by Pink Floyd

                                                                                                                        Jordan Drazen

                                                                                                                                  11/7/12

The song I chose is Dogs by Pink Floyd. It is from the album Animals, released in 1977. The album is a concept album; this means that there is a story or central theme that connects all the songs together. The song Dogs is 17 minutes long. The song is written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour.

            The idea for the album Animals is that there are three different animals; Pigs, Dogs, and sheep. Each animal represents a different social class. The pigs represent the careless people who don’t care about anything, the dogs represent the controlling and violent government, and the sheep represent the mindless followers who believe anything they are told.

            For the literary terms, starting off is the song title. The whole album personifies these animals as classes in society, so the Dogs are an example of personification. An example of assonance is towards the end of the song. There are eleven lines of the song in a row that start with the word “Who”. Every verse of the song is pretty much a metaphor. For example, the first verse, starting with “You gotta be crazy” and ending with “..when the moment is right without thinking”, that whole verse is saying how you have to adapt to society, and the outside world to survive, everyone is hunting you, and you are hunting everyone.

            As with every Pink Floyd song, the music is a huge part of the song. It’s 17 minutes for a reason; most of it is instrumental with amazing guitar solos by David Gilmour. Without the instrumentation, the song would still make an amazing poem, as the meaning behind it is very powerful. However, the instruments really drive it over the top and give it a lot more emotion. The song starts out with an acoustic guitar tuned down a whole step and is played in E minor which makes it sound like it’s in D minor. The strumming pattern starts pretty aggressive. There are also synthesizers playing in the background. The vocals come in shortly after the intro section. In between certain verses there is usually a guitar solo. The solos add so much feeling into the song. Restating what I said earlier, the instrumentation and lyrics are both amazing in their own right, but together, they form the masterpiece known as Dogs.

            I could go on forever about the songs off of this albums because it’s my second favorite album by Pink Floyd, the first being The Wall. When Roger Waters writes songs about government, religion, business, or pretty much anything that is a very serious part of modern life, he uses a lot of metaphors. He sings about the serious matters in a very direct way, but describes everything differently. Going off topic, anything by Pink Floyd is good. 

The song can be found at : http://youtu.be/0bqZFp7dWbg   

(Don't let the 17 minute label scare you from listening to the whole thing. When listening to Pink Floyd time flies by due to awesomeness)

Is Odysseus an epic hero?

In The Odyssey is a character that is called Odysseus. Odysseus is portrayed as a strong, heroic figure. He leaves his family to go off to a war in Troy and in the process ends up being away from home for twenty years. He goes through all sorts of different challenges to get back to his home in Ithica. Not only does he have to get home safely, but he also has to protect his crew.

Odysseus is indeed an epic hero is some ways, but he isn’t in some ways. Some of the obstacles he encounters are easy for him to overcome, but some of the simplest things he fails to overcome. He falls in love with women very easily, even though he has a wife and family at home. He also tries his hardest to obey the gods, hoping they will help him on his way home.

When Odysseus is captured on Calypsos’ island, he ends up falling in love with her, and stays there for a year. He was trapped, and claims he couldn’t escape, but he is so powerful that he could have if he really wanted to. He also fell in love with Circe when he arrived at her island and ended up staying with her for a year. These are the kinds of flaws that keep him from being completely epic hero quality. These events held him from getting him and his crew back home.

Even though Odysseus has some major flaws, he does have some heroic characteristics. He risks his life to keep his crew safe and return home. Even though he takes his time and gets distracted often, he still tried his hardest.

So, is he an epic hero or not? It’s more of a yes and no answer. In some ways he is, and in some ways he isn’t. The fact that he is and isn’t just adds to his character and makes him more unique. 

Hero Analysis

In The Odyssey by Homer, there is a character named Odysseus. He is the main character and hero of the story. Homer portrays him as a hero, which means that he has some of power and a flaw or two. Odysseus goes through a long journey to return to his palace in Ithica. His heroic qualities and personality flaws play a big part in his return home.

            Odysseus is portrayed as a strong human. He leads his crew around, protecting them, making sure they don’t die. He risks his life to ensure the return of his crew. In book nine Odysseus comes up with a risky plan to get out of the cave they were stuck inside. It was very risky, but he led it.

            Odysseus definetley has some personality flaws. One big one I can think of is the fact that he falls in love easily. When he gets captured by Calypso and trapped on her island, he ends up finding it hard to leave. He actually got sad when he had to leave her. Also, when he got to Aeolus and met Circe he ended up liking her too. He and his crew stayed with her for a whole year before the crew convinced Odysseus that they had to leave.

            Both the heroic characteristics and personality flaws contribute to the story. They are what pushed him foreword and held him back. If he didn’t have all these things contributing to his character, he would have nothing interesting in the story. 

Heroes

                                                                                                           

Ancient heroes from the mythology stories such as The Odyssey by Homer are described as bold, noble, people. They have some sort of super-natural strength, or power. They usually go on a long, epic journey. They overcome the problems that get in their way of the destination they’re trying to reach. The gods are typically the ones who mess with them the most. They are typically very handsome and muscular.

Modern heroes in movies such as The Avengers or Spiderman are normal everyday people with super powers. They are normal everyday people, but have a special ability. They don’t normally look so overly handsome and strong like the ancient heroes. Gods don’t play a big role in modern hero stories, but they still have someone or a group of people who try to stop them. It’s normally a villain, or an anti-hero. These are also normally regular people, with a special ability.

Ancient heroes and modern heroes are very similar. They have the same goal in mind, and that is to help people. They both have someone or something who tries to get in their way and stop them. They are different because of their attributes, like appearance, and powers. For the most part they have similar powers, such as strength.