3 pieces of information I learned from the presentations which can influence my scenes are:
- Shakespeare had twin children-this influences my scenes as Viola is the twin of Seb. I learned this information from Sav's presentation on Shakespeare's life. Twins appear in more than one Shakespeare play and this is definitely because he has a connection to twins as his son and daughter were twins. And one of them sadly passed away at a young age. So I feel from this information Viola and Seb have a deeper meaning to Shakespeare himself and the duality is clearly very important in this play
- From Greta's presentation I learned that in Shakespeare's time, female status was still very low but was getting higher, as women could inherit family money, which before they could not. This influences my scene with Olivia, as Olivia is a very high status character who has just inherited her father and brother's fortunes and she is very powerful. Women status also influences my character Viola and I can use this information to help develop my character. As Viola is posing as a man, it is clear she feels being herself is not good enough and will not get her anywhere, but acting as a man gives her status and authority in the play as she becomes close to the Duke and Lady Olivia. And without posing as Cezario, she would not have gained this authority.
- Further on Women's status, I learned from Sav's presentation that Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway when he was only 18 and she was 26 years old! This to me suggests he married her as she had a status and was already wealthy, whereas he was only just getting started on his career. This in those days was quite strange as it was usually younger women marrying older men, so I feel Anne had a status to Shakespeare and he liked this about her. I researched further into this information and learned that Anne out lived Shakespeare by Seven years. When Anne and William were married, she was already pregnant with their first child, which leads to speculation that the two married due to the pregnancy and there could of possibly of been some pressure on them to marry from her family, as he was 8 years younger than her and it was seen as a sin in those days to be pregnant whilst not married. There is very little information on Anne and she has only appeared in legal documents due to her marriage and birth of her three children with Shakespeare. Hamnet, one of the twins died at age 11 due to the plague outbreak. With reference to Shakespeare's play "HAMLET" this name is very similar to his son's so I feel this is where the name Hamlet came from. I have noticed in a lot of Shakespeare's play's there are constant references to his family, the repetition of twins and the names of the characters. Anne remained in Stratford, unlike Shakespeare who fled to London to begin his career. This caused speculation due to the fact that the couple were not living together and he was not living with his children, but they never separated or divorced as there was never any legal evidence to prove this. However, when he retired from writing and acting he returned back to Stratford to live with his wife. I feel Shakespeare could possibly be referencing to Anne in Twelfth Night, as Olivia is an older woman with status and wealth, so this could possibly be influenced by his relationship with Anne.
- I am going to use all these pieces of information to develop my characterisation, mainly focusing on womens status back in those days, and how the duality of the twins has a deeper meaning to Shakespeare, and I have learned that Viola is almost like a symbol to Shakespeare of his daughter Judith, and how Seb being lost at sea could represent the death of his son, Hamnet. This information has helped me to have an emotional connection with Viola and I feel I understand her purpose and objectives much more now. As she is in a way representing the stronger twin as she achieves much more in the play and portrays determination and strength, whereas Seb is seen as "lost" at sea, and he does not feature in the play very much at all.
Anne Hathaway
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