Twelfth Night

         After reading acts I and II of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare my mind immediately went to the class of fourth graders at the Tunbridge Charter School. The past few months working with the students and Ms.Gladden has been eye-opening and given me a new appreciation for teachers. I go to Tunbridge on Mondays from 8-10 am which is not the best time, the early morning and on top of that it's a Monday I am tired and I can see as the fourth graders walk into class they would rather be in their beds as well.

Shakespeare's play made me think of the students and the tricks and jokes they play on each other. They laugh and giggle with each other and keep secrets. Shakespeare's play is also about romance and even though these fourth graders and around nine and ten there's romance going on in that class! The other day in class two girls sitting in front of me asked a boy sitting next to me if his friend likes her friend. I know this sounds a little complex but reading the play it immediately made me think of how even in fourth grade and the 1600’s not much has changed. Orsino is not going to tell Olivia how he feels but has Cesario tell her instead.

Service Blog 5

Jonathan Ocampo
Service Blog #5
Professor Juniper Ellis
November 20, 2017

 The Struggle to Find Ones Identity

In William Shakespeare’s comedic play, Twelfth Night, the readers are introduced to an apparent love triangle between three characters. The jealousy brought out from the triangle forces one of the characters, Viola, to ultimately change her identity to send a message. This aspect of the play reminds me a lot about the characteristic of the students in Mrs. Tates first grade class. Some students, regarding behavior, are always well behaved and get the work that has been assigned completed. On the other hand, there are some students who decide to change their attitude not take their work seriously. These students struggle in their academics and overall progress, and that is seen through the consistent uncompleted assignments I file for grades.

 In the first act of this play the reader is introduced to Viola who changes her identity to Cesario who currently works for the person she has fallen in love with, Orsino. Although Viola has these feelings for Orsino, Orsino sends Cesario on an errand to send a message of love to Olivia. This sudden change in identity reminds me of how the attitudes of the students at Tunbride can change and vary each week I see them. On one instance one of the children was paying attention and completing his work one week, and all of a sudden, the next week he was throwing a temper tantrum because he has missed his mom. I can relate to this because when I was younger I felt the same way, but was taught in private school that we were there to learn. This change in identity shows how vulnerable young children are, and that sometimes theh might need a little assistance to start their days on the right note. But at the end of the day each student at Tunbridge is doing their best to do everything the teacher says to prove that they want to become better students and learn new ideas every class period.

As a morning volunteer these types of situations happen every so often, and there are a couple of ways I help calm the situation down. As the teacher of a first-grade class, Mrs. Tate does anything to carry on the continuation of her student’s learning. When one child as a tantrum, she asks me to kindly take the student outside and speak to them personally and attempt to calm them down in order to return in the classroom. While I have the student outside I tell them to take a deep breath and walk him/her over to the water fountain for a drink. Taking these actions has not only taught me how to deal with sticky situations, but has also shown me the steps to take when my own young family members acts out in a similar way.

In conclusion, William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night teaches readers like me that a change in identity can be harmful to your values, but learning experiences can disguise themselves in weird ways. Being a teacher’s assistant for young children has taught me about my own identity, and the person I can become if I put my mind to the important things in my life. Tunbridge has been the home of my development as a college student, and has facilitated in showing me that there is more to college than bars and “having fun”.

Event Blog 5

Nicholas Zwobot

EN*101

Dr. Ellis

20 November 2017

Event Analysis 5

            I am always amazed as to how writings/plays are able to come together and show so much similarity. This can be seen in the comparison between Spring Awakening and Twelfth Night. When seeing Spring Awakening I was at first confused, then shocked as to what the meaning of this story was, but I chose to focus on the sub-theme, which is love. In most stories love is either a main or sub-theme, but in these two I feel as if it is the best connection.

            Twelfth Night is a perfect example of a “love triangle.” This is due to the fact that each person in the story is in love with someone else and is either having trouble perusing, at a loss for how they should approach the situation or they are in a predicament where they are not in-love with the right individual. The three-people involved make the aspect of the issue much more interesting. This “love triangle” consists of three people: Duke Orsino, Viola who has disgusted herself as a servant Cesario, and then finally Olivia. This story begins with a harsh turn as Olivia brother is lost at sea, which is a tremendously saddening event in her life. As the story progresses, we find out that The Duke is in love with Olivia, things take a turn when it is revealed that not only is Olivia not in love with Orsino, but she is in love with the disguised Viola, who is in love with Orsino. After a brief pause from the love triangle to revel that Sebastian is still alive, it then returns to Olivia giving a ring to Viola, who then realizes that Olivia is in love with her. There is a major revel, when Orsino notices the love on Viola’s face. He then asks her who is she in love with, with her replying that she is much like Orsino. Orsino suggests falling in love with a younger women, but little does he know that Olivia is in love with Viola.

            Although in Twelfth Night the main theme is love, you can see in Spring Awakening that the love is a sub-theme to the main theme of moving from childhood to adulthood. An area where these themes overlap, is when Moritz is extremely distraught after being kicked out of his house. He comes across Ilse, who is a childhood friend of his, and they being to reminisce. You first see the love from Ilse who you can see is reading Moritz and understands he is upset, she tries to bring him back with her in order to talk more, but he refuses. After she is gone, he then realizes it is too late, and proceeds to kill himself. This suicide is common, because of extreme love mixed with being distraught, it begins to tear a person up inside. This is how I see Viola’s character feeling. She is the only one of the three that knows how each person feels. She is doing all she can to change Orsino’s heart, but she is unable to and hopes that only time will help her.

            Another form of love can be seen later, where Melchior and Wendla, who is pregnant, keep contact through letters. This is a classic Romeo and Julliet type of scenario. In Twelfth Night, we see a type of love, even though it is only felt on one side. This is between Olivia and Orsino. Orsino, tries to get Olivia to fall in love with him through a recited love poem, but she does not accept it. Olivia is almost acting like the boy who took the letter from Melchior. They disgraced the letter, just as she is disgracing his words. It is sad to see love wasted, and in both scenarios love is given, but there is some factor that is there to put the love on hold or to completely destroy it.

            Love is a beautiful thing, but it can also be a major heartbreak. Although I have yet to read the ending of Twelfth Night, the ending to Spring Awakening ends in a beautiful manner. It shows that there are no boundaries to love, this could come true if Viola and Olivia were to fall in love, which would break a boundary just as the spirits of Wendla and Moritz have done for Melchior.

             

Sexuality and Justice Panel

As I was walking to class a couple weeks ago, I overheard a conversation between two girls ahead of me. As they discussed with their friends, they said “He’s just so gay,” and then started to use bunch of other terms of insult towards people in the LGBT+ community. Going to college at a Jesuit institution has helped me realize the importance and equality of every human being, no matter their sexuality and upbringing. However, I was never stuck in a situation when I heard such hurtful and negative terms as a way to describe people and bring people down. I moved on with my day, but what I overheard walking to class stuck with me in the back of my brain. When I learned later that day that Loyola was offering a Sexuality and Justice panel, I was interested because I wanted to learn more about this community and the way that we as a community and move forward to help people in this community feel as equals and respected.

When I attended this panel, I heard from four people who all identify as part of the LGBT+ community. I went in with no expectations, and just promised myself that I would sit and listen and learn as much as I could. Each of these panelists had a unique but beautiful story that needs to be heard. Megan Suder identifies as pansexual, however she struggles because her family refuses to accept her sexuality. Even though they do not look down on her, they struggle to relate to her and confront their community about her identity, since they are very religious and do not know how to deal with her identity. Kathleen Ball added to the conversation of the panel by discussing the stereotypes that many people in the LGBT+ community face everyday. Being part of the LGBT+ community, she struggles because she feels as though people consider something to be wrong with her due to her sexuality. She feels that no matter what, she is always judged and looked down upon and explained how people in this community are often thought to have a mental disorder.

Reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night truly contributed to what I learned at the panel because one of the major themes in the play raises similar questions to what I learned at the panel. In Twelfth Night, one of the main characters, Viola, disguises herself as a male and tricks Olivia into falling in love with her. However, when Olivia learns that Cesario is really Viola in disguise, she struggles to love her for who she truly is because of her gender.  In scene 1 act 5 of the play, Olivia describes how surprised she is that she fell in love with a woman: “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit/ Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast! Soft, soft!/ Unless the master were the man. How now?/ Even so quickly may one catch the plague?” Olivia describes her love for a woman to be a “plague,” something so looked down upon especially in the time period when this play was written.

The theme of sexuality in this play took my understanding of the LGBT+ community to a new horizon. Similar to the women who spoke in the panel, society has always struggled to accept all kinds of love, regardless of gender. Even today we are so far away from fully embracing every human being in this community and thinking of them as equals. After attending the panel and reading this play, I have made more of an effort to pay attention to the comments made around me, and the way that I think of and react towards situations where these issues are the most prevalent. Especially attending a Jesuit institution, it is important that as a community, we learn to expand the teachings of God and the Catholic Church, that every human person is equal and beautiful.