#12n

three pages into Twelfth Night and I gotta say, my girl Viola is insane

twelfth night is so funny because despite the fact that all of the final couples are straight, it's IMPOSSIBLE to put on a production of twelfth night where everyone is portrayed as Strictly Heterosexual. you can make viola as straight as you want, but if orsino only has a crush on AND olivia immediately loses her interest in viola when she reveals that she's a woman, then the play doesn't feel right.

twelfth night (1996) really said "if i cannot find homoerotic subtext, i will create it"

that last post reminded me. out of all of the takes on viola in regards to gender that i've seen, i like the narrative of her as a trans woman the most for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it seems more fitting to the fact that viola is obviously distressed and feels trapped while pretending to be a man, whereas i would assume that most cis women would feel more exhaustion than distress while playing the role of a man.