Twelfth Night And Fickman's Changing Contexts

Central ideas across time periods can be reimagined to better fit modern contexts, allowing contemporary audiences to form a more relevant and deeper connection to past literature. Shakespeare’s comedic play ‘Twelfth Night’ (1602) and Fickman’s film ‘She’s the Man’ (2006) have shown how changing contexts allow for differing representations of ideas such as love, gender and disguise, posing more relevant in modern contexts. Shakespeare’s and Fickman’s texts depict how different representations of love and relationship are reimagined from Elizabethan contexts to the modern 21st century, highlighting to audiences how despite a shift in context, human nature remains unchanged. This thus allows audiences to contemplate how shifting contexts can

Although it has improved drastically since Shakespeare’s times, there is still partial mindset of gender discrimination here and there, as shown in the adapted version of Twelfth Night Fickman has produced. “Diana’s lip is not more ruby. Thy small pipe is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound.” In this quote, Orsino describes how Viola as Cesario, regardless of disguise, looks rather feminine for a man. Comparably, Duke Orsino in ‘She’s the Man’ indirectly challenges Viola’s disguise, without actually knowing the deception he faces in saying “Dude, come on, you're a guy.” Both of these quotes put Viola in a difficult situation, as she cannot deny this statement, nor can she easily accept what Orsino says as she isn’t really a ‘guy’. As both text’s gender topics revolve around the idea of the ideology of men superiority, in ‘Twelfth Night’ Orsino declares “Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn, than women’s are.” In this quote, dramatic irony is evident, as Orsino contrarily states that men’s love is more ‘unfirm’ and changes more often than women’s, in which the audience knows Viola’s true identity, parallel with the statement. Opposingly, in ‘She’s the Man’ a coach states, “It’s a scientific fact, girls can’t beat boys! It’s as simple as that.” In the quote, the coach confidently expresses his ideology of men being far superior to women in sport. Fickman’s film adapts to Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ with less intense themes, switching from a compelled disguise due to a dangerous environment for females, to a chosen disguise to compete with equal opportunity for men. This adaptation further mitigates the confusion in relating and understanding a Shakespearean play. Fickman modifies ‘Twelfth Night’, and its central ideas to less intensify all aspects to correlate with more modern