Beyond Seriousness to Wisdom in Twelfth Night
Shakespeare seems preoccupied with madness and folly in Twelfth Night. The word "fool" and its variants ("foolery," "foolish," and so forth) appear eighty times in the play, and the word "folly" occurs seven times. There are, in addition, other means of indicating foolishness such as Maria's "Now, sir, thought is free" (1.3.67). As Feste suggests, "Foolery ... does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere" (3.1.39-40).
Robert Armin, who originated the role of Feste, was fascinated by fools and wrote Foole upon Foole, a book which treated this subject. David Wiles writes that Armin "was a pioneering realist in his study of how fools actually behaved. His stage fools were based on observation rather than on the recreation of an emblematic stage type" (158). He goes on to point out that "Armin's interest in fools allowed Shakespeare to tap one of the richest veins in the medieval dramatic tradition: the idea that the Vice reveals vice to be folly" (158). M. C. Bradbook notes that Armin did influence Shakespeare's writing. "From the time that Armin joined the company Shakespeare very noticeably began to give his clowns the catechism as a form of jesting.... Feste catechizes Olivia on why she grieves and proves her a fool for doing so; later, in the guise of the curate, he catechizes Malvolio" (228). Indeed, Shakespeare seems to have utilized this valuable resource for Twelfth Night, creating a broad spectrum of fools in this play.
The actions and words of almost all the play's characters fit the recognized behavior patterns of fools. Feste is, of course, an "allowed" or professional fool; Sir Toby Belch, like Falstaff, is a "Lord of Misrule" who orchest...
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Sitting Bull became a leader of the Strong Heart warrior society, and increased Sioux hunting grounds. U.S. army continually invaded their territory. This created problems within the Native economy. In 1867, Sitting Bull became the first principal chief of the entire Sioux nation. When natives came to peace with the U.S. government, but Sitting Bull refused to attend the peace conference or sign the treaty. The Fort Laramie treaty promised the Black Hills would remain in the Sioux possession forever.
There is a tremendous difference between a fool and a jester. Fools are regarded as light-hearted, dim-witted, and absent-minded people whose outrageous stupidity amused the rest of the population. These jovial folk represented the lowest in society: too carefree to get ahead in society and too stupid to care. Many people believed that Jan Steen, a prominent and well-educated artist of the Dutch Golden Age, was a fool. It is not a far-fetched assumption to make since he donned the appearance of a fool in his own paintings. However Steen was no fool. Much like the history of jesters, Jan Steen’s unsavory appearances in his own work is often misunderstood and taken at face value. To look into Steen’s own depictions of his life in his paintings one might completely agree that he is a foolish drunkard who happened to be blessed with the ability to paint. It is interesting, then, to realize that Steen is more jester than fool, especially in his self portraits. In medieval times the only person who could get away with insulting the king and royal family was the court jester. Jesters would use their quick wit, silver tongues, and superior intellect to insult or comment on the presiding royalty and would often be received with thunderous laughter and applause. Steen, much like the jester, used a foolish appearance to give social commentary on the world around him. One of the best examples of this is in Steen’s “The Continence of Scipio” (see Figure 1). A goofy cast of characters replace the traditionally serious and dignified roles of the figures in the classic story but none so ridiculous as the narcissistic husband, Aluccius (who looks suspiciously like Stee...
The Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand, took place in Montana on June 25, 1876 to settle the dispute over the Black Hills and drive the Indians back to their reservations. The Indians fed up with the white people trespassing on their tribal land went to battle them. They had a treaty but the government went back on their word once they found gold in the Black Hills. Sitting Bull defeated Custer and his men were killed in the worst American military disaster ever.
At one time in history he said, “This earth the Creature I am, Ye Tribes, you may live. This earth the Creator I am, Ye Tribes, may you behold it (West 32). As Sitting Bull’s significance was at the Little Bighorn Bay was a significance of wisdom and leadership, which drew people together and hold on to it says Robert M. Utley. In the late year of 1876, Sitting Bull and his tribe was harried, or being rushed, overworked, or harassed, into Canada.
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Homelessness can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Many poor people are at the risk of homelessness. The cost of living and trying to find affordable housing can be very difficult. Many who are homeless are in poverty, have a mental illness, or addictions. Homelessness happens from personal, as well as structural factors. Many aren’t able to make enough for rent, as well as, utilities, food, and other expenses each month. More than 6 million Americans pay more than half of their income towards rent (Reamer, 1989). The trend is once someone becomes homeless, it is likely they will be homeless repeatedly. To end homelessness, affordable housing will have to be created because it is peoples largest single expenditure (Anderson, 2013).
Sitting Bull was a war chief in the Lakota tribe during the 1800s. He was born in 1831 at the Grand River in South Dakota. When he was a child, he was not called Sitting Bull. His name was Jumping Badger but everybody had called him ‘Slow’ at first because they believed that he lacked many skills. It wasn't until he was 14 when he fought in his first battle that they renamed him and started calling him Sitting Bull, like his father.
The idea of homelessness is not an effortlessly characterized term. While the normal individual comprehends the essential thought of vagrancy, analysts in the sociological field have connected conflicting definitions to the idea of homelessness, justifiably so as the thought includes a measurement more exhaustive than a peculiar meaning of a single person without living arrangement. Homelessness embodies a continuum running from the nonappearance of a changeless safe house to poor living courses of action and lodging conditions. As per Wolch et al. (1988), homelessness is not an unexpected experience rather it is the zenith of a long procedure of investment hardship, disconnection, and social disengagement that has influenced a singular or family. Furthermore, states of vagrancy may come in fluctuating structures, for example, road habitation, makeshift home in safe houses, or help from administration associations, for example, soup kitchens and the Salvation Army. Homeless is characterized as those regularly poor and, once in a while, rationally sick individuals who are unable to uphold a spot to live and, subsequently, regularly may rest in boulevards, parks, and so forth (Kenyon 1991).
Homelessness has become a serious problem in today’s society. Despite the organizations that help multitudes of homeless people, homelessness is continually increasing. In recent years, America’s culture has been changing due to economic, political, and social issues. These issues have caused a lot of stress on America resulting in abject poverty in several cities. Poverty is not nationwide, but if dealt with lightly, the affects can be catastrophic. Homelessness is increasing more than ever, and research proves that changing culture contributes to rising amount of homelessness.
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Bradbrook, M. C. "Robert Armin and Twelfth Night." Twelfth Night: A Casebook. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1972. 222-43.
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the Fool is a source of chaos and disruption in King Lear’s tumultuous life. The Fool causes the King distress by insulting him, making light of his problems, and telling him the truth. On the road to Regan’s, the Fool says “If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I’d have thee / beaten for being old before thy time.” (1.5.40-41). He denies the king the respect due to him as an aged King, causing the King to wonder at his worthiness. The fool also makes light of Lear’s qualms making snide remarks in response to Lear’s ruminations. When Lear asks Edgar cryptically, “wouldst thou give ‘em all?” the Fool responds, “Nay, he reserved a blanket, else we had been all shamed” (3.4.69-72). The Fool’s snide remarks do little to maintain Lear’s fragile control of his faculties. However, the Fool speaks to the king candidly, a rare occasion in Lear’s life. Even Kent acknowledges the truth of the Fool’s statements, saying, “This is not altogether fool, my lord” (1.4.155).
King Lear is not the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to contain a comical scapegoat; in the Merchant of Venice, Gobbo is used to bring comedy and irony to an otherwise serious play, although his supposedly comical exploitation of his father’s blindness in the first act may also prepare us for the theme of cruelty which is evident in the play. We may further suggest that the fool’s surreal and absurd comments in King Lear ("thy bor’st thine ass on thine back o’er the dirt") imply the disorder within the hierarchy as a whole. However, as Touchstone in As You Like It is used as a comedic device by Shakespeare, so the fool is sometimes used for comic effect, employing the Elizabethan/Jacobean euphemistic "thing" as a synonym for penis. The fool in King Lear is an example of Shakespeare using the fool as a voice to bridge the gap between the audience and the stage. The "all-licensed fool" makes many of his quips at the expense of the king. Due to his role as Lear’s amusing sidekick, he was able to get away with this unlike any other, as is shown in the confrontation between Lear and Kent in act one scene one. Lear is the absolute ruler of the country - what he says is as good as God’s word – which reflects the Divine Right of Kings, a Medieval doctrine which was still extant in the early seventeenth century although it was beginning to come under sig...
Logan, Thad Jenkins. "Twelfth Night: The Limits of Festivity." Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. N.p.: Rice University, 1982. 223-38. Vol. 22 of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Rpt. in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.