Compare and Contrast Essay: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and She’s the Man Movie

In both Twelfth Night written by William Shakespeare, and She’s the Man directed by Ewan Leslie, Karen McCullah, and Kristen Smith there are many key similarities and differences. Both have several similarities such as the same concept, same basic plot, character relationships, and character names. For example, in both the film and the play, Viola pretends to be a male, but for different purposes. In Twelfth Night, Viola does it to protect herself and also get love from Duke Orsino. In the film She’s the Man, Viola does it to play on the boy’s soccer team because the girls’ team was cut at her school. With this being said, Viola and Sebastian are twins in both productions and they resemble each other. In both Twelfth Night and She’s the Man, their themes are very similar in describing the fact that love 400 years ago and present-day love is still very similar, despite the fact unrequited love is present in both. 

Even though Twelfth Night is a comedy, it still exhibits serious themes throughout the play. For example, the key theme is based on love. Love is one of the major themes of the play because of the ending where lovers meet each other. Although love is shown causing pain upon the characters in the play, it also shows that for some characters it is a curse, but for others, it's their final destination. However, even though Viola suffers from love in the play, figuratively love is shown to be something that shakes its subjects violently. On another note, Malvolio and Antonio face obstacles in managing their desires to be with each other. 

In the movie She’s the Man, love is a key theme of the production as well as in Twelfth Night. The love story present in She’s the Man, is quite confusing though because all of the characters are attracted to someone, who is attracted to someone else. This is called unrequited love. In this production Viola disguises as her twin brother Sebastian, pretending to be a gender she's not, which causes confusion. Duke Orsino is attracted to Olivia in the beginning, but Olivia is attracted to someone she thinks is Sebastian but actually Viola. To make matters worse, Viola is attracted to Duke Orsino. By the end of the film, everyone is connected with the person of their desire, which exhibits a sense of romantic closure depicting the chaos and backward love triangle. 

However, in Twelfth Night instead of Viola disguising as her twin brother, she disguises as Cesario, who is also a male character. Olivia is in love with Cesario, rendering his feminine nature that is shown throughout the play. Orsino also agrees that he is attracted to Cesario even though he is a male. Orsino later realizes that Cesario is actually Viola and he is relieved. 

In both, she pretends to be male but for different reasons. In Twelfth Night, Viola does it to protect herself and generate love from Orsino. In She's the Man, Viola disguises herself as her brother, so she can play on the boys’ soccer team. Viola, in Twelfth Night, is a joker, and Viola, in She's the Man, is an athlete.

Lastly, the directed target audience in both films is meant for different audiences and generations. The play Twelfth Night is aimed at everyone regardless of their ranking in society. The main purpose is to entertain the audience, which was a common goal during Shakespeare’s time. She’s the Man was aimed towards modern-day teenagers as a whole. However, both plays' goal was to exhibit something similar in describing the fact that love 400 years ago and present-day love is still very similar, despite the fact unrequited love is present in both.