Viola
By: Hope Benavidez
Viola's Identity In The Play
In the play Viola shows herself as a strong, smart, caring person. She shows that she is strong because when she lost her brother and everything she had in the shipwreck she didn't cry or mourn about it, she just finds a way that she will be able to make it. She is smart because when all of this happened and she lost everything she knew she needed to come up with a plan so that she could make money and start a new life. In the play Viola describes her plan when she talks to the captain about it he says " Be you his eunuch, and your mute i'll be"(I.ii.58). This shows that she is smart because she is going to dress like a boy and work for the Duke, so that she can start a new life. Lastly, she would describe herself as caring. she is caring because throughout the play Viola wishes she could tell Duke about her love for him, but she can't because then she would have to come out with her lie. The only reason she doesn't confess her love is because she knows that Duke loves Olivia and she cares about Duke. So, even if she can't be with Duke that doesn't matter to her because she just wants her to be happy.
Viola's Gender In The Play
Throughout the play Viola faces many challenges with gender. One important problem that really stood out to me in the play was when Ceasario had to go back to Olivia's about the "ring". This is important because it shows that Olivia is falling for Ceasario because she had to come up with a fake plan to get Ceasario to come back. This is bad because Ceasario is actually a girl. So, Viola faces a gender problem where she has to go talk to Olivia again, but she just can't come clean with her lie she just has to take whatever Oliva is saying to her. Viola says "O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me to untie" (II.ii.38-39). This proves that Ceasrio knows that Oliva is falling for him, but he can't come clean because he is already too deep into the lie.
Viola's Perception In The Play
In the play Olivia sees Ceasario as a good person that is loving and understanding. She sees him as such an amazing person. The truth is, that Olivia cares so much for him, but he sees himself as such a different person. He knows that he went there for a reason and that is for the Duke. Even though, Olivia says "A cypress, not a bosom, Hides my heart" (III.i.112-113). Olivia is trying to show that she loves him, but all he says is "I pity you" (III.i.114). To me, this is proving that he doesn't care how she feels about him he came there for a reason and he is not going to let her get in the way of it. He came there to talk about the Duke and that is just what he does. He doesn't want to talk about himself like Olivia is trying to do.
Comparing Viola To Me
Me and Viola have some things that are in common. One thing is that stood out to me is that we both care about other a lot. We both put others happiness in front of ours. It doesn't matter if we aren't happy in the end if we can make someone else's day better that is enough for us.
Me and Viola also have things that make us very different. Like Viola usually will speak her mind. If she has something to say she usually will. Me on the other hand I bottle stuff in. I don't usually talk to a lot of people about personal things, where Viola will just say whats on her mind.
Viola's Identity In The Movie
In the movie She's the Man, Viola considers herself a tomboy, hardworking, and caring. She is a tomboy because in the movie her mother wants her to be a debutante, but she really doesn't want too. She wants to make it to North Carolina to play soccer. She is hardworking because when she went to Illyria she wanted to make it onto the boys team to beat her school's soccer team. So, she worked really hard with Duke after practice and put in extra work to make first string and play good on the boys team. She is also caring because throughout the movie she gets to be good friends with Duke when they talk about their feelings she keeps his secrets so, that just proves that she really cares about him as a person.
Viola's gender in the movie
In She's the Man I feel that Viola had to face a lot of gender challenges. One that i thought was hardest for her to deal with was when Duke talked to her about his feelings. This was hardest for her because as he was telling her how he was feeling she wanted to tell him that he had feelings for him, but she couldn't break cover.She wanted to tell him things that may help him with girls, but she couldn't because it would make her sound too soft like a girl. She had to deal with him falling for Olivia even if she had feelings and knew that it wasn't right for him to be with Olivia.
Viola's Perception in the play
In the beginning of the movie She's the Man when the Duke meets Sebastian he thinks he is a weak and kind of a weird boy. Duke thinks he is the complete opposite of him. Throughout the movie Sebastian has to prove to Duke that he is the same as the boys and that he can be just as cool as them. He has to prove to Duke that he is good at soccer, good with girls, and can just be cool with the boys. So, throughout the movie we see that Sebastian thinks he can be good at these things. Sebastian shows that he can be just as good as them. He practices really hard and even works after practice to become good enough for the soccer team. With the girls he gets assigned lab partners with Olivia and when they talk he just knows what to say and they end up becoming friends and get close with each other. Lastly, with the boys he ends up proving that he can be just as cool as them by pretending to get all these girls. By the end of the movie he ends up proving to them that he is cool. In the end they end up seeing him as a friend and as a cool boy by the end of the movie.
Comparing Viola to me
In the movie i feel that me and Viola were very similar because one thing that we both do is we go for stuff that we want and we work for them. In the movie Viola's girls soccer team got cut and she couldn't play for her boy's team so she made a plan to play for the boys team at Illyria. When she made second string she knew that she needed to make first string so she worked really hard and worked outside of practice to make first string. I do the same thing I know that if i want to be the best for my team I work hard even outside of practice so that I can be the best I can.
Me and Viola also have differences such as she is a tomboy. Even though i don't really like wearing dresses all the time, I do like dressing nice and getting ready for occasions and such.