Twelfth Night is a very open-ended text. Different readers may come away with multiple or even conflicting interpretations of the play and its characters.

Write a response that addresses these questions:

1. What do you think is the moral or main message of Twelfth Night, and why?

2. What two passages or quotes can you provide to support your interpretation of the play? (Be sure to include the act, scene, and line numbers.)

How exactly do the two passages or quotes you've chosen support your interpretation?

Through the first four acts of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare has managed to place almost every one of his characters in a difficult or precarious situation. Now that you're nearing the end of the play, speculate as to how you think the play will end.

Write a response that addresses the following questions:

How do you think the play will end, and why?
Who do you think will be the happiest character in the end, and why?
Who do you think will be the unhappiest character in the end, and why?

If you've already read ahead and finished the play, please do your best to recreate the initial reactions or predictions you had when you finished Act 4.  Make sure to support your answers with specific evidence from the first four acts. 

Finally, respond to a classmate’s post.

Shakespeare uses blank verse throughout Twelfth Night. However, he often deviates from a textbook-perfect definition of unrhymed iambic pentameter. You'll catch him rhyming two lines, starting a line with a stressed syllable instead of an unstressed one, breaking up a line between two different characters, or using nine or eleven syllables instead of ten. Shakespeare does this for a variety of reasons, such as to emphasize a particular word, to express a certain emotion, or to speed up or slow down the pace of a speech.

For this discussion, pick 1-2 lines from act 2 where you notice one of these variations in blank verse, and post a message responding to these questions:
         What's the variation?
         Why do you think Shakespeare placed the variation in this particular spot?
         How does the variation contribute to the development of the scene and/or the character(s)?

Be sure to include the lines themselves at the beginning of your answer so your classmates know what part of the text you're analyzing.  For this prompt, you do not have to reply to a classmate.

Refer to the PDF below for more information about blank verse (of if you missed class).

As you read Act I of Twelfth Night, you'll notice that Shakespeare often uses strange or complex sentence structures. 

Pick one sentence from Act I that you found particularly difficult to understand because of its syntax or word order. Using that difficult sentence, complete the following two activities:

     1. Rearrange the sentence, without changing or omitting any of the words, to make it as clear as possible to a modern-day reader. For example, "So in love with you am I" becomes "I am so in love with you."

     2. Translate the sentence into modern-day English, changing the words but keeping the meaning. For example, "So in love with you am I" becomes "I've got a huge crush on you" or "I love you so much."  (Come up with your own – don’t just steal it from Sparknotes!)


After completing these steps, post a message that includes the following items:
    The original sentence.
    Your rearrangement of the sentence.
    Your translation of the sentence.
    A short paragraph explaining why you think Shakespeare chose to arrange the sentence as he did.

Finally, give another student feedback on their translation.