Twelfth Night VS. She's the Man
Comparing and Contrasting the two comedies
Comedy of Ideas (high comedy)- Laughing at implications of ideas
- She's the man: When Duke makes fun of Justin for crying at the game
- Twelfth Night: "Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage," (1.5.19) The Clown says this to Maria about hangings preventing marriage.
Comedy of Manners (high comedy)- Laughing at words
- She's the Man: When Viola criticizes Monique for being stuck up
- Twelfth Night: "Still you keep the windy side of the law: good," (3.4.164-65) Here Fabian is criticizing Sir Toby for his foolishness.
Farce-Laughing at situations
- She'st the Man: When Monique mistakes Viola for Sebastian from behind
- Twelfth Night: "Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be: when my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see." (2.4.16) The only way Viola's high pitch voice can be taken for a man is if she is a eunuch, which is what the captain calls her.
Low Comedy- Laughing at people
- She's the Man: When Viola sticks tampons up her nose
- Twelfth Night: "And your horse now would make him an ass." (2.3.153) Here Sir Andrew is calling Malvolio's horse a donkey.
Compare/Contrast Analysis
She's the Man and Twelfth Night, and have many things in common and many things that differ.
- The characters in common are: Viola, Sebastian, Duke, Toby, Andrew, and Malvolio
- In both shows, Viola disguises herself as a man
- In the Twelfth Night, Olivia is sad because her brother died
- In She's the Man, Olivia is sad because she just got dumped
- In both shows, Olivia falls in love with Viola's disguise, Viola falls in love with Duke, and Duke falls in love with Olivia
- In both shows, Sebastian and Viola are twins
- In Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as a made up man named Cesario
- In She's the man, Viola disguises herself as her brother Sebastian
- In the Twelfth Night, Viola and Sebastian get separated at sea
- In She's the Man, Sebastian leaves for London for two weeks and Viola takes his spot at his school, Illyria
- In Twelfth Night, Illyria is the land the play takes place