English Blog Group 2. . . . . . . .Looks can be deceiving!!

ThesisThe authors of Faerie Queene and Twelfth Night suggest that

the outward physical appearance cannot always be trusted to represent a person’s

true character and nature.

Do we judge on appearance?

Faerie QueeneLines 775- 783

Said Guyon, “See the mind of beastly man,That hath so soone forgot the excellence

Of his creation, when life began, That now he chooseth, with vile difference* *preference

To be a beast, and lacke intelligence.”To whom the Palmer thus, “The donghill kind

Delights in filth and foule incontinence:Let Grill be Grill, and have his hoggish mind,

But let us hence depart, whilest wether serves and wind.”

Twelfth Night: Viola to CaptainAct 1 scene 2Lines 43- 47

“There is fair behavior in thee, captain,And though that nature with a beauteous wall

Doth of’t close in pollution, yet of theeI will believe thou hast a mind that suits

With this thy fair and outward character.”Footnote 8: Appearance (suggesting moral qualities)

Act 5 Scene 1: Duke Orsino referencing Olivia“To spite a raven’s heart within a dove”

Twelfth Night: Antonio to Sebastian

Act 3 scene 4, lines352-357“But O, how vile an idol proves this God!Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.

In nature there’s no blemish but the mind.None can be called deformed but the unkind.

Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evilAre empty trunks o’er flourished by the devil.”

Twelfth Night: Maria

Twelfth Night: MariaProper Maria

1.3, 3-8MARIA: By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o’ nights. Your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.SIR TOBY: Why, let her except, before excepted.MARIA: Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order.

Small Maria

1.5, 192-195MARIA: Will you hoist sail, sir? Here lies your way.VIOLA: No, good swabber, I am to hull here a little longer. [To OLIVIA] Some mollification for your giant, sweet lady.

Twelfth Night: MariaMalvolio upsets

Maria2.3, 114-118

MALVOLIO: Mistress Mary, if you prized my lady’s favor at any thing more than contempt you would not give means (drink) for this uncivil rule (behavior). She shall know of it, by this hand.MARIA: Go shake your ears (like an ass).

Maria gets even2.3, 145-152

MARIA: I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein by the color of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated. I can write very like my lady your niece; on a forgotten matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands.SIR TOBY: Excellent, I smell a device.

Twelfth Night: MariaMaria: “Little Villian”

2.5, 11-18SIR TOBY: Here comes the little villain. How now, my metal of India?MARIA: Get ye all three into the box-tree. Malvolio’s coming down this walk. […] Observe him, for the love of mockery, for I know this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him. Close (hide), in the name of jesting.

Maria keeps it up

4.2, 1-3MARIA: Nay, I prithee put on this gown and this beard, make him believe thou art Sir Topas the curate. Do it quickly. I’ll call Sir Toby the whilst (in the meantime)

The Faerie Queene:The Bower Bliss

Book 2, Canto 12 Stanza 42“Thence passing forth, they shortly do arive,Whereas the Bowre of Blisse was situate; As place pickt out by choice of best alive,That natures worke by art can imitate:In which what ever in this world stateIs sweet, and pleasing unto living sense,Or that may daytiest fantasie aggrate, Was poured forth with plentifull dispence,And made there to abound with lavish affluence.”

Stanza 43“Goodly it was enclosed around about,

As well their entred guests to keepe within”

The Faerie Queene: Acrasia the Witch

Book 2, Canto 12 Stanza“Her snowy brest was bare to readie spoyleOf hungry eies, wich n’ote therewith be fild,And yet through langour of her late sweet toyle,Few drops, more cleare then Nectar, forth distild,That like pure Orient perles adowne it trild,And her faire eyes sweet smyling in delightMoystened their fierie beames, with which she thrildFraile harts, yet quenched not; like the starry light…”

Acrasia-whose name means both “intemperance” and “incontinence”

The Faerie Queene:The Beasts

Book 2, Canto 12 Stanza 85

“Said he, ‘These beasts are men indeed,Whom this Enchauntresse hath transformed thus, Whylome her lovers, which her lusts did feed. Now turned into figures hideous….Let them returned be unto their former state.”

Twelfth Night: ViolaViola is the classic example of why you can’t always take characters at face value. Showing up in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night first as a woman, changing her appearance to that of a man, and then later changing it back again to a woman, Viola plays with the idea that you can’t tell just by looking at someone what their true character is like. The male version of her is in constant conflict with the emotions, hormones, female tendencies and instincts that she can’t help but follow.

Twelfth Night: Viola

Clips:6:30 - 8:30http://youtu.be/33c2zqNnKUI

Full:http://youtu.be/W8_tYRcJe6I