(Recorded Course) William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; or What You Will (Catholic Shakespeare Series) with Henry Russell (Modern, Elizabethan, Drama, Renaissance)

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NOTICE: This is an older course recorded with Adobe Connect and/or Vimeo recordings. We are currently working to replace the recordings with new Zoom recordings.  Please don't hesitate to email us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com with any questions.

How to get the most out of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: or What you Will with Dr. Henry Russell:

  • First, read the course details below.
  • Prepare a notebook for note taking and homework.
  • Students begin the course by clicking on the "Recording" and watching the instructor's lecture for Class One.
  • Complete the Week One Activities.
  • If you need review, go back and watch the recording again and/or go over the PowerPoint.
  • Repeat until all classes are complete.
  • Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records. Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping.

 

Total Classes: 6

Prerequisite: Ability to read the text comfortably

Suggested Grade Level: 10th to 12th grade

Suggested Credit: ½ semester Literature or English

 

Instructor: Henry Russell, Ph.D.

 

Course Description: Twelfth Night, or What You Will is an Epiphany play. Shakespeare celebrates the sheer joy and redemption of the Christmas season even as he brings his characters to their own epiphanies.

Duke Orsino is in love with the idea of being in love.  Since he “loves” someone who will not have him, he need not engage in real life or real marriage. The Countess Olivia, for her part, is in love with melancholy, a common 16th-century sense of proud world-weariness, which makes her want to withdraw from marriage and love. Her melancholy is a condition stimulated by the influence of her Puritan servant Malvolio, who seems to see despising of the world as a virtue.

Into this static world come the shipwrecked twins, Viola and Sebastian. Exemplifying the second theme of the Epiphany (the Lord’s Baptism) they are “drowned” by the tempest that destroys their ship and reborn into the world of Illyria. Disguised as a young man called Cesario, Viola (note how close her name is to Olivia) brings genuine love and activity to this enervated world.

Sir Toby Belch is a man full of the Catholic spirit of joy, who has gone to seed (and lots of drink), lost in a Puritan world that suppresses such joy. If the other main characters learn whom they really love, he learns to remember what a man he once was and act like him again in battle and in love with Maria.

All of these characters join in the joy of the Wedding Feast at Cana—the third theme of the Feast of Epiphany, all but Malvolio, who chooses not to learn but only to seek revenge.

In the contrast between the original joylessness of Olivia’s house and the over-ripe comfort of Duke Orsino’s palace, there is a mirror of the Protestant/Catholic quarrel about the world, a theme that a critical tradition is just beginning to deal with. But all audiences seem to feel the joy of the feast, presided over by Feste the clown, as we come to the water and eat and drink the wine of laughter at the wedding of this Epiphany.

 

Course Outline:

  • Week One—The Catholic Shakespeare: Bio and method
  • Week Two—Twelfth Night; or What You Will Act I
  • Week Three—Twelfth Night; or What You Will Act II
  • Week Four—Twelfth Night; or What You Will Act III
  • Week Five—Twelfth Night; or What You Will Act IV
  • Week Six—Twelfth Night; or What You Will Act V

 

Course Materials: Any copy of Twelfth Night, or What You Will, which is complete and has line numbers.

 

Homework: The homework will be to have read the Act that we will discuss on that class day. There will be self-grading quizzes available after each class and a final.