Twelfth Night: Dude Looks Like a Lady

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To this day, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night remains one of his most widely read, performed and adored comedies. Wonder if it has something to do with the cross-dressing.

Seriously. There is a lot of cross-dressing in this one. Yes, true, it's only one character who does the dressing up, but it's a pretty central point of focus, and when you also consider that the women were all played by men in the first place in Shakespeare's time, you have a truly confusing (albeit entertaining) scenario. The issue stands out even more because plays about cross-dressing were simply not done back then. (Again - interesting, since half the actors on stage in any play during that time were cross-dressing.)

It was feared by certain members of the community that the very act of dressing in the clothing of the opposite gender would turn women into hermaphrodites. (There's a vocab word that may pop up on your PSAT.) Yeah, we're sure there were a lot of actual case studies of that happening for them to draw from. Nevertheless, the subject matter and treatment of it were frowned upon and heavily criticized, which probably thrilled Shakespeare, as he was such a controversy enthusiast.

Of course, today we all know the real truth, and that is that cross-dressing is just plain funny. No offense to the thousands of people who dress that way for reals - we're just referring to the comedic use of transvestism as applied in popular culture. Monty Python and Benny Hill figured it out, and in more recent years there have been such films as The Hot Chick, White Chicks and She's the Man (instant classics all of them) that have employed cross-dressing for humorous purposes. (She's the Man, by the way, was actually a modern retelling of - you guessed it - Twelfth Night.) You practically need to be an AP Calculus stud just to keep track of how many cross-dressing references there are in contemporary television and film. (Okay, so counting doesn't really entail having to know any calculus - you'll please forgive us for our hyperbole.)

But it must have been even funnier in Shakespeare's time, because there was that added 'should we be laughing at this?' vibe going on. Ah yes - he was the South Park of his generation. The playwright was no stranger to venturing into taboo or unexplored territory (that's one of the reasons he's the best!). Many of his female characters (such as Lady Macbeth and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew) were intelligent and strong-minded - something else that wasn't really being done. Romeo and Juliet was the first love story to be referred to as a tragedy, and his portrayal of certain historical figures came under fire as well.

So what have we learned? Well, that controversy is funny, obviously! Ever heard Robert Downey Jr.'s well-known speech in Tropic Thunder, or seen Borat or Knocked Up? If so, you'll know what we mean.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Twelfth Night, AP Calculus, and PSAT. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Life Is Not Futile If You Are Not Macbeth: You Have More Than One Chance on the SAT

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Although Macbeth is not exactly an idol for the ages, given that he committed murder in a crazed pursuit of power, he certainly does have some notable words to impart through the illustrious voice of Shakespeare. Catch this monologue:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing (5.5.2)

In a nutshell, he is saying: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Way before his time, Shakespeare in Macbeth created a nihilistic character far before the concept of nihilism came into being. While Macbeth's message is that life has no significance, he certainly utters the words in a significant way. At times in the play, we do not know if events are really happening, or the products of Macbeth's mind. We arrive so deep into his subconscious that his conflict becomes our conflict, no matter how horrific or unbelievable his actions are on the surface. It is much like the film American Psycho, in which we follow the logic of a serial killer. Although senselessly horrific, the film guiltily makes sense as it fascinatingly leads us into the depths of Christian Bale's twisted mind.

Macbeth speaks this monologue upon hearing word of his wife's death. He has plunged so far into regret that he shows no grief for her passing. Ironically, his wife often lit a candle when committing an illicit act, trying to bring light to a dark deed to justify her actions. Macbeth now sees the futility of her measures, just as he now believes in the futility of life. Faulkner was so taken aback by this monologue, that he took the phrase "the sound and the fury", and turned it into the title of one of his most famous novels. Upon accepting the Nobel prize, he alluded to the last line of this quote from Macbeth, asserting that life is neither worth living, nor writing about, if one does not explore universal truths. In other words, Macbeth became an idiot whose life signified nothing in the fictional universe, but is of great significance for the reader. His vie for power was but a stage play of a poor actor whose fame extinguishes quickly. Although Macbeth's descent into evil lead to his untimely end, his character has eternal significance: life is short.

Luckily for the rest of us, we in most cases have many chances to get it right, not just one. Life may be short, but it is certainly not futile when you make the most of it. This extends to the SAT. The test will not make or break you, since you have ample time and opportunities to practice. You just need to embrace them. In other words, if you did not do as well as you expected on the PSAT, the candle has not burnt out. It only means that instead of believing that you are controlled by the fates, as Macbeth mistakenly does, study, and you will certainly realize that willpower and hard work is the key to a prosperous future.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include SAT, PSAT, and ACT Prep. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Girl Power: Sourcing the Feminine Strength in To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes and Antigone

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When it comes to being a girl, To Kill a Mockingbird's Scout is more spice than sugar. In fact, she is particularly sugar-free. No frilly pink dresses, pretty baby dolls, or sweet make-believe tea parties for her. She is more likely to punch you in the face than smile sweetly at you, especially if you're being a Grade-A jerk. And that is why most readers love her: she's a spunky, rambunctious tomboy with a good heart-just don't call her a girl. To Scout, being a girl is a lot in life she'd rather not have. After all, what use are dresses to her when she wants to climb, play, and fight? Girls just want to have fun! A dress is a liability; she prefers pants. At least no one can accuse her of being impractical.

Many literary critics are quick to point out the similarities between Scout and To Kill a Mocking Bird author Harper Lee's life. Whether or not Lee was a rowdy tomboy like good ole Scout, Lee was certainly able to get inside the mind of a motherless little girl constantly running with the boys. In fact, a close analysis of some select To Kill a Mockingbird quotes will show Scout to struggle with being a girl. To her, it's a "pink cotton penitentiary." Yet, as the novel progresses, Scout starts to see the value and skill in being a woman, despite what her father Atticus calls the Southern environment that follows the "polite fiction" that female subservience and inferiority are a given. Scout symbolically overcomes this notion in the coming-of-age story near the end of the novel when she follows in Aunt Alexandra in assuming a polite decorum in spite of the death of Tom, the black man Atticus represented in a controversial rape trial. She says: "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." Scout sees there is strength and value in being a female, in bravely carrying on in face of trying situations. And she doesn't have to give anyone a bloody nose to prove it.

However, the idea of feminine strength and endurance in oppressive times is actually a theme that has been woven into literature for well over a thousand years-from Sophocles's Antigone to Nathanial Hawthornes's Scarlet Leter. In fact, Antigone, the daughter of notorious motherlover and Sigmund-Freud-darling Oedipus, is a prominent literary paragon of female strength in face of adversity. Scout could learn a lot from her. In spite of the tyrannous King Creon's decree that her brother Polyneices be left out like a sun-dried tomato instead of given a proper burial, Antigone does the moral, humane thing and buries him. The badass Antigone doesn't even flinch when Creon chastises and imprisons her for her supposed crime, sticking to her moral guns-or swords, if you want to be historically accurate in your expressions. She's got nerves of steel, that one. She accepts her punishment and then kills herself, arguably dying on her own terms to spite her impending death sentence ordered by Creon.

Sticking to your moral principles when the popular, much easier option is to abandon them takes some serious guts-something that Scout also learns in the novel's tense, racially motivated rape trial, the one Atticus refuses to quit because he believes representing Tom is is the right thing to do. Scout learns that men are not the only ones who have this moral ability to persevere-women have it too. Girl power for the win.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Antigone, To Kill a Mockingbird quotes, and Scarlet Letter. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Monster Madness: Fighting and Facing the Unknown in Beowulf and Lord of the Flies

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The word "monsters" usually recalls childhood fears of some ugly thing lurking underneath your bed, just waiting for your feet to dangle over the side so it can pull you under. It makes you remember the time when you were afraid so afraid of the dark that you had to dash quickly out of room after switching the lights off just to reduce the chances of that beast in your closet gobbling you up. Like last night.

Monsters, of course, are also important literary devices and symbols that have been used to represent the unknown, the inexplicable, and the truly creepy parts of our world. Deeply steeped in fantasy and myth, monster stories are usually about facing a grand fear, typically death. Such is the case for Old English epic poem, Beowulf, which has more mythological beasts than an episode of HBO's True Blood. You've got dragons, sea monsters, some half-human descendant of Cain named Grendel, and his protective mother. J.R.R Tolkien, author of the equally fantastic The Lord of The Rings trilogy, was a big supporter of examining the use of fantasy and monsters in Beowulf, arguing in the famous lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" that such elements were a work of art and integral to the poem's themes of mortality, bravery, and even religion.

Grendel is the biggest jerk in the story, attacking King Hrothgar's mead hall and eating his warriors for a late night snack. This is your worst childhood nightmare realized: monsters are not only real, but they are also breaking into where you sleep and eating you like a bag of potato chips. The fact that the attacks happen at night in the dark, desolate, and bone-chilling tribal regions of the Denmark/Sweden area only amplifies the fear that plagues King Hrothgar's people. No wonder everyone is holed up together in a giant mead hall.

Of course, such fear must be conquered. Enter Beowulf, a brave warrior who is not fazed by the possibility of death, mere monsters, or their overbearing moms. Long story short, he victoriously slews all of them-even though his last encounter with the dragon cost him his life-coming out as the singular hero who saved countless people. Hooray!

But some fear is not so conquerable. The fear of outside creatures or elements infiltrating a refuge is also found in William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies, in which a pack of British boys wash up on a deserted tropical island and start to establish a semi-society for them to survive-sort of like the Dane and Geat tribes represented in Beowulf. The boys are all fearful of an imagined beast somewhere on the island, offering it severed pig heads to appease it, as if it were a monster under a bed that could be satisfied by a stuffed teddy bear tossed under so it won't gobble you up. Talk about childhood nightmares. Of course, the childish fears are manifested in other events that bewilder the boys-such as a lifeless parachuting man gliding toward the island.

However, the fear that plagues them is not some Grendel-like creature that can be vanquished-it's something inside of the boys. Simon, the only boy on the island who gets this fact, confirms his suspicions after having a hallucinatory conversation with that severed pig head. Much like Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven in which a fairly one-sided chat with a stately bird causes the speaker to project his own fears and grief until he descends into madness, Simon's talk with the pig head also reflects the inner demons and monsters that are at work within the human psyche. There are no dragons to be slain, no battles to be fought, and no chance for a Beowulf character to ride in and save the day. The epic poem focuses on the external and more manageable unknown, while Golding's novel takes that unknown and follows that fear within. And that monster is something you cannot fight off with a nightlight.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Beowulf, Lord of the Flies, and The Raven. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

There's Something Rotten in the State of Denmark - And It Isn't the Eggs in Our Hamlet

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There's a major problem with trust between the characters in William Shakespeare's most famous play - Hamlet. How can you blame them? They're not the most upright, honorable bunch. In fact, they make Dexter look like a sweetheart.

A couple of these Hamlet quotes pretty much say it all in a nutshell:

GHOST: "Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast.."
(1.5.9)HAMLET: "O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!"
(1.5.10)POLONIUS: "At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him;Be you and I behind an arras then."
(2.2.12)LAERTES: "I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery." (5.2.12)

Sounds like these guys have got some issues to work out. Let's break it down and take a look at who's doing what to whom:

Claudius kills the king, Hamlet's father, takes over the throne and snags his own brother's wife while he's at itGertrude, Hamlet's mother, betrays her ex-husband the king by jumping into the sack with Claudius immediately after his deathLaertes interferes in his sister Ophelia's love life and demands that she stop trying to become involved romantically with HamletHamlet pretends to be crazy. Sure, he's just doing so to catch his uncle in a trap, but still - deceitful.Hamlet plots to kill Claudius.Polonius hides behind a curtain to spy on Hamlet. What - were there no closets in this castle?Hamlet (thinking he is Claudius) stabs and kills Polonius (wouldn't have been so easy if he were in a closet - we're just saying),Claudius conspires to have Hamlet's friends usher him to England where he'll be out of the way for at least a little while.Claudius and Laertes plot to kill Hamlet.Hamlet, upon discovering an incriminating letter ordering his own death, decides to serve Rosencrantz and Guildenstern a dose of their own medicine and has them killed. (That's some costly medicine.)Claudius unintentionally poisons Gertrude.Laertes kills Hamlet.Hamlet kills Laertes and Claudius.Horatio is caught cheating on the PSAT.

Now that's some treachery and deceit. If this isn't a FOX reality show in the making, we don't know what is.

There are plenty of aspects of Shakespeare's masterpiece that make Hamlet his most performed and most acclaimed effort, but you just have to give a shout-out to the element of duplicity that runs rampant throughout the text. It's no wonder that practically everyone ends up lying in a pool of blood and/or poisoned wine by the end of it.

Hopefully the above list will inspire you to go home, tell your mother you love her, hide the cutlery, and stop acting so crazy.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Hamlet, Hamlet quotes, and PSAT. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.

Lord of the Flies: Where Mother Nature and Human Nature Collide

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You know that guy at the grocery store whose shopping cart was hanging out in the exact center of the frozen food aisle, and he was so oblivious that he wouldn't move it out of your way even though you were clearly in his peripheral vision? Have you ever wondered what it was that kept you from grabbing the nearest bag of frozen pizza rolls and bashing him over the head with it? Your conscience?An innate sense of right and wrong?Perhaps.But then again, maybe not.

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the subject of our animalistic impulses. Our society is so structured - there are so many rules and regulations - that it's difficult to perceive how we might act if our natural instincts weren't so repressed and our revised behavior wasn't so molded by instruction.

In his book, Golding places a group of young boys on an island without supervision and lets them run wild. Indeed, 'wild' is exactly what they become. Their actions become brutally sadistic and they seem to lose much of what we tend to label our 'humanity.' But would this really happen? Could a group of previously civilized individuals really fall so far so fast?

As you might learn in an AP Psychology class, humans have something called 'brain plasticity'. Aside from this meaning that your brain can be recycled (be sure to leave it in the blue bin out front when you're done with it), brain plasticity implies that our minds can adapt and change to our surroundings and given set of circumstances. So even though you may be dealing with a group of intelligent, polite, kind-hearted children, once they are thrown into a dire situation and are forced to take drastic measures in order to preserve their lives, they can become quite different creatures in a very short period of time.

In fact, a psychology professor named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in 1971 that tested a similar sort of thing, and he came to the conclusion that indeed mankind can quickly degenerate into lawless, unfeeling beasts when placed in positions of authority in unfavorable conditions. Of course, Zimbardo performed his test on college students, and the way his subjects behaved during the experiment was admittedly not that far off from stripping a freshman naked and chaining him to the door of the dean's office. So I suppose we should take it with a grain of salt.

Golding paints a terrifying portrait of a world without a sense of morality, and hopefully none of us will ever have to experience anything like it. However, if you think about it, being stranded on an island wouldn't be all bad. At least you'd have a good excuse for avoiding doing your ACT Prep.

Paul Thomson is an writer and frequent online contributor who is passionate about improving college readiness. He frequently writes about the Lord of the Flies, AP Psychology and ACT Prep. In his spare time, he loves to promote the joy of reading to youth in his community.

Teen Queens of Tragedy: Romeo and Juliet's Leading Lady, Hamlet's Ophelia and the Men

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It's not easy being a girl, especially a young girl in love. First, you have to worry about what your parents will think about your new boy. Secondly, you have to figure out how far intimately you want to go with said boy. Then, of course, there's the whole boyfriend-killed-a-relative-and-has-been-exiled thing. Well, that's how William Shakespeare writes about young tragic love: forever fraught between the boy and family loyalties. What's a young girl to do?

Well, given Shakespeare's literary record in Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, young girls kill themselves when divided between lovers and families. Of course, those incidents are for tragic effect, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here. In fact, Romeo's Juliet and Hamlet's Ophelia have become sort of teen female idols-for better or for worse. Juliet, probably the most famous 13-year-old wife for the past 400 years, is often high schoolers' first introduction to Shakespearean female characters. Ophelia is also another relatable character, often used as a symbol for disenfranchised adolescent girls in countless psychological and feminist works, including books from Mary Pipher's Reviving Ophelia to Sara Shandler's Ophelia Speaks.

Yet, what makes these two female characters such figures of interest, beyond their emotional passion and tragic ends, is their relationship to the men in their lives and how they manage. Ophelia is often seen as a victim of good ole patriarchy, thanks in part to Shakespeare's sympathetic portrayal. She's entirely obedient to her father and brother, who both are constantly using her as pawns to entrap Hamlet or instructing her how to protect her euphemized "button"-or flower bud-because a "deflowered" woman is the worst thing ever.

In fact, a quick study of some select Hamlet quotes shows that the play is consistently concerned with her sexuality, as well as Queen Gertrude's, hence why many literary scholars are keen to point out some incestuous inklings in the Danish prince. Most of prominent quotes-such as the famous "get thee to a nunnery" tirade against Ophelia- are accusatory or condemning spouts from Hamlet, whose misogyny runs rampant in the story about the murder of his father and his uncle's fratricide. In fact, the whole murdered dad thing occasionally takes a back seat to Hamlet's concerns with Ophelia's and his mom's sexual purity or lack thereof, which is emphasized as a woman's only value in the play.

Back to Ophelia. After Hamlet unintentionally but not regretfully kills her dad, she goes bonkers, handing with symbolic flowers and herbs from the garden-there's a whole botanical theme going on here-and then sort of falls into the river and drowns. It is left uncertain if it was intentional or accidental, but many critics are in the suicide camp, quick to argue that her death came about because the loss of her dad destabilized her life so drastically she couldn't cope and muster any personal agency for herself. A victim of oppressive patriarchal society.

Juliet has different but equally trying situations with the men in her life. Yet, unlike Ophelia, she wields an unexpected amount of maturity-despite being only 13 years old. Girls do mature faster than boys, apparently. She starts out heavily dependent on her family (again, she's only 13) but evolves over the course of the play as someone who makes her own choices, family be damned. In fact, she decides to choose Romeo over her family, especially after they try to push a marriage to Paris on her. Little do they know she's already married (TWIST!) and she's sticking by her man, despite the fact he killed her cousin. While that may seem na?ve and slightly unhealthy-staying with someone who violently killed a blood relative-she makes her bed and lies in it too. In fact, she's got the gall to fake her own death in that same bed and evade her family so she can live happily ever after with Romeo. Too bad Romeo didn't get the whole fake death memo, though. Moral of the play: check your messages.

For a young woman of this time, she's sure breaking a lot of rules, but she is unapologetic about it, throwing off the demands and restraints placed on her purely because of her gender. Of course, she does it for a guy, but she does it nonetheless. When she decides to follow Romeo's suicide, she does it by choice and with conviction, something we can't say about Ophelia. Of course, Juliet had bet her whole family on her relationship with Romeo and cannot easily reconcile with them, especially since they think she is dead while also threatening to disown her if she didn't marry Paris. In fact, that is an area where Ophelia and Juliet share some common ground: loss of familial support and stability. Their shared situation-whether it was by choice or not-points to the larger theme at hand that envelopes these iconic Shakespearean female characters. They operate in a world that is not only unforgiving to them, but one that is constructed with a built-in trap door if they should step out of bounds. They have no real safety net, no back-up plan, no agency and no survival skills. Ophelia goes mad at the thought, while Juliet chooses suicide due to the lack of viable options. Shakespeare, a playwright who Virginia Woolf lauded as someone who could write knowingly from both the male and female perspective, understood this. Their deaths, prompted by lack of support, are the real tragedy.

Paul Thomson is an avid reader of English Literature. His areas of expertise include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet quotes. In his spare time, he loves to participate in online literature forums and promote reading for youth.