From Jacqueline

Looking at Viola’s choice to disguise herself as a man, actually made me notice something about the character relationships in this play.

From the very beginning, it is very easy to tell that Viola is absolutely not stupid. She just went through a tragedy and has the awful weight of being a survivor; that is the only reason she tries to deny the probable fate of her brother. One of the first things I noticed about Viola is her ability to read people very well. She can tell when someone isn’t being completely honest with her and she uses it to her advantage. She does this by pretending like she doesn’t know they’re being untruthful, thus letting the other person think they’re getting away with the little white lie, such as the one the Captaien tells her at the very beginning of the play in order to calm her down. The fact that she can see through people so effortlessly got me thinking about how this is an ability the people around her don’t have. She dresses up as a man, and no one can tell! No one realizes she is in fact a woman. Therefore, she is basically making a fool out of everyone around her. Her intentions aren’t to make everyone look stupid, but in a way, that’s what happens. It is amazing to be able to play around all the time with the fact that I share a secret with the audience that no one else in the play is aware of. Viola ends up always having an edge over everyone and she is kind of the smartest one in the room, at all times. That’s a lot of power to play around with…