Plays on Plays on Plays

Megan Ferguson

November 28, 2012

Dr. Juniper Ellis

Understanding Literature: Event Analysis

            As I ordered my ticket to the play that Sunday before break, I was overwhelmed with excitement. This being my first play at Loyola, I was looking forward to see what would happen next. As I made my way, alone, into McGuire Hall, I found myself feeling very anxious. Everyone was sitting together, and must have known everyone in the cast. I knew no one. This was a strange feeling. As the two, one scene, plays started I felt more comfortable sitting in that red comfy chair. The Inspector was the first play. This play fit perfectly to The Twelfth Night. These two plays are about miscommunications and disguises. Perfect similarity, right?! As the accusations and judgments went on, eventually the real inspector was revealed. In Act 3 Scene 4 in the Twelfth Night, when the Second Officer arrests Antonio, he insists that he has the wrong man. These false accusations and judgments was the plot line to this play. As the play in McGuire Hall drew to an end, the only true similarities and connections to these two pieces of literature was the plot line that was revolved around judgement and false accusations . Just as I felt judged walking into the theater, so did the characters in these two works.

The next play to be shown was titled, The Wedding. The whole act was surrounded around a long table and was set just after a wedding reception. The family and friend dynamic, to say the least, was chaotic. Whether it was from the father yelling, or the bride crying, something was always going on. Never any silence. Just as the chaotic dynamics in this play were exemplified, so are the chaotic characters in the Twelfth Night. The character who played the father was the comic relief, just how the Fool is in the play. The father could say absurd things and end it with a joke, so it was not taken too seriously. This exact type of speaking is shown through the Fool, when he attempts to talk Olivia out of mourning for seven years in her house.  Through all the chaos that was going on during the dinner conversations at the Loyola play, the mother of the bride was the mediator through it all. The mother is very similar to Sir Toby Belch. In Act 3 Scene 4, when the accusations are increasing, Sir Toby Belch attempts to sort everything out, just as the mother did in the Loyola play. There was one couple during the whole dinner scene that did not get along. As the wife kept on throwing jabs toward her husband, about how much he drank, the husband was finally sick and tired of the judgments that his wife would make. Just as Viola says in Act 3 Scene 4, “I have heard of some king of men that put quarrels purposely on others, to taste their valor.” This was exactly the reasoning that the husband had for why the women would say the hurtful judgments towards him. The wife only wants to see his reaction-that is it. In Act 4 Scene 1, the fool, disguised as the priest, refers to Malvolio as the lunatic. Just as the fool is not too fond of Malvolio, either were any of the characters of one of their friends. Malvolio is the odd one out. He is the joke of the group. Just like Malvolio, the bride and groom’s one friend, during the play The Wedding was always made fun of.

While reading the Twelfth Night and sitting through the two plays performed by fellow Loyola students, I learned that many different types of characters and scenarios can be displayed in two different types of scenes. Although, Twelfth Night is Shakespearean the situations at hand can still be applied to many different focuses universally. Whether it be from the “Malvolio”  that no one is too fond of, or the “father” would tells all the inapportatie jokes, it is still modern. We all know a Malvolio-let’s admit it already.

The most fun event that I went to thus far for this English Class, was the Zen Meditation. I am so grateful for this class, because then I would have never learned about it! During the iExamens in class, I found that I receive that same feeling from the Zen Meditation. This feeling can be characterized by a refreshing outlook on like. Once I stepped out of the Zen Meditation room, my whole outlook on life magically changed. I felt renewed and thanks to this class, I go there weekly for my daily Zen fix.