William Shakespear's Twelfth Night Vs. Andy Fickmans She's The man

Sophie Lyttle

Mr. Hogan

May 19^th 2012

The Differences Of “Twelfth Night’ And “She’s the man”

So your probably reading this and thinking; “this is another boring essay about the similarities or differences between the original theatrical play ‘Twelfth Night’ written by William Shakespeare and the movie ‘She’s The Man’ directed by Andy Fickman.” (if your not  cool if you are cool) Like there the exact same right? They are both about cross-dressing and love (a love triangle) that’s all that matters right? Wrong! There is so much more to it. In Twelfth Night’ the Duke Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, who is in love with ‘Cesario’ (who is actually Viola) who is in love with the Duke. Viola is the twin sister of Sebastian. Both siblings think of each other dead because of a shipwreck where they are separated but, little do they know there twin is actually alive. Viola decides to go work for the Duke dressed as a boy and Sebastian decides to explore within Illyria. When Olivia mistakes Sebastian for Cesario they get married and the Duke finds out. He is upset with Viola for betraying him. Then the twins see each other and Viola reveals herself to Sebastian, the duke and Olivia. In the end the Duke and Viola get married while Sebastian and Olivia remain married. In “She’s The Man” Viola really wants to play soccer, it’s her passion, but the girls soccer team at her  school gets cut. In hearing that her twin brother is going to skip going to his school to play a concert in London, she takes the opportunity to play on the boys soccer them at his school dressed as a boy. She makes the team and falls in love with Duke (a soccer player) who loves Olivia who loves Sebastian/Viola. Duke has Viola ask  out Olivia for him and in return helps him/her make the soccer team however Duke sees Olivia kiss (real) Sebastian. Everyone, even Sebastian, was totally  oblivious that there were twins at the school, everyone but Viola. In the end they won the soccer tournament and Viola and Duke dated while Sebastian and Olivia dated. “Twelfth Night” and “She’s The Man” have many differences.

So if your reading this it means you want to know the differences between “Twelfth Night” and “She’s The Man”. Take the setting for example. In the movie “She’s then Man” there is a kissing booth, debutant and a soccer tournament. A setting is a place where an event occurs. Are you confused? It’s simple really, there are extra settings in “She’s The Man” compared to “Twelfth Night” Want more examples? Well in “Twelfth Night” there were no soccer fields where Viola (the twin of Sebastian who cross dresses) and Duke (Orsino) play in a soccer tournament. How weird would that be? Another example is the debutant ball and meetings in “She's The Man”. A debutante ball is where young woman are formally introduced in society by appearing at a social but formal event for example a dance or party for their first time. Viola from the movie attended a debutante however Viola from the play did not. Finally there was a kissing booth where Viola and Duke from he movie had there first kiss, which did not occur int he play. Andy Fickman wanted it to be appealing to his audience. Secondly there are many different characters. The word characters means someone who is in a book or a movie who finds themselves in unusual situations. The characters are different because Malvolio in the play is a man who loves Olivia and will do anything for her whereas in the movie Malvolio is the name of a spider who belongs to a man named Malcolm. Viola from the movie does not use the name Cesario instead she uses her brothers name Sebastian in comparison to how Viola in the play uses Cesario. Additionally in the play Antonio helps Sebastian where as int he movie there was no Antonio as a result Viola helped Sebastian. Likewise Viola did not have anyone to help her pretend to be a boy like Viola from the play who had the sea captain assist her therefore she was assisted by Paul who's occupation is a hairdresser. That’s a lot of difference with the characters!

If you still aren't convinced there are many differences between the movie “She's The Man” and “Twelfth Night” then I’ll talk about the plot, if you are convinced keep reading anyways! So the word plot means the event(s) that take place in one or more setting(s). There are many, many differences with the plot so I’ll just talk about the three most important plots in the movie which are: Sebastian and Viola are both aware each other is alive, Viola is worried about being caught, and the soccer tournament between Illyria and Cornwall. In the movie “She's The Man” Sebastian and viola know that each other are alive and even talk to each other during their separation within the movie. When Sebastian comes back from London, he and Viola talk about the soccer mix up where Viola reveals to him that she was pretending to be him just to play soccer. Which leads me to my next point, Viola (from the movie) was worried about being caught. Viola only told Paul (her friend who is a barber) what she was doing. Viola (from the play) did not need to be worried about this because she thought that her brother was dead. In the movie, at the carnival Viola would switch back and forth between Sebastian and Viola in order to please her mother and not get caught. That must be really hard! Speaking of hard imagine this, you are playing soccer and then your team gets cut because someone thinks your not good enough. That is what happened to Viola from “She's the Man”. Her soccer team got cut and she goes to play soccer at her brother's school, pretending to be him. The soccer game and practices were a really big part of the movie. Whereas in the play there was no mention or reference to soccer. The biggest parts of the play were when Viola dressed as a boy, the love triangle between Duke, Olivia and Viola (dressed as a boy). That's one crazy love triangle, considering Viola is a girl but appears as a boy.

So there you have it. So those are the most important reasons of why Twelfth Night and She's the Man are different. If you don't believe me now there's no hope, but if you do believe me yay! This is an essay. An essay with good reasons of why “Twelfth Night”and “She's the Man” have many differences.

The end