William Shakespeare s Twelfth Night - 1221 Words

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a widely known romantic comedy that was first published in 1623. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s finest works and it tends to have an affinity to modern romantic comedy films and stories. The play has love triangles, unrequited love, lies and deceit, playful comedic relief, and obstacles that interfere with characters’ goals. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were turned into film adaptations and many were used very loosely as source material. Hamlet had Lion King (very loosely), Romeo and Juliet had Romeo and Juliet (the DiCaprio version), and Twelfth Night has She’s the Man. She’s the Man is similar to Twelfth Night in three ways, the plotline, the names of the characters, and the humor. Despite the†¦show more content†¦The character names are also very similar, such as how Duke Orsino’s character in She’s the Man is also named Duke Orsino, but as a first name and last name instead of a title. Viola’s character in She’s the Man is also named Viola, however her disguised character is her brother Sebastian instead of Cesario. Olivia’s character in She’s the Man is also named Olivia and so is Sebastian’s character in She’s the Man. Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are inserted into the film as Duke’s soccer friends instead of their normal characters but are still in the film. Despite the general plot being similar, there are numerous differences between the play and the film. One of those differences is how and why Duke decides that Viola should help him serenade Olivia. In the play, Duke Orsino is impressed by Cesario and decides that Cesario should send his affections to Olivia. In the film, Duke had previously seen Sebastian (Viola) with women and because Sebastian was going to be lab partners with Olivia, Duke made a deal with Sebastian that if Sebastian would help Duke with Olivia, Duke would help Sebastian make first string on the soccer team. Another difference is Olivia’s reason for mourning. In the play she is mourning the death of her father and brother while in the film she is trying to get over a previous bad relationship and she did not want to be hurt again.