Students will be graded for their performances in Act II of "Twelfth Night." You had better practice--and that means enunciating the words and speaking with feeling. Be prepared. Do not just wing it. Pretend that it is a "cattle-call" for a real play and that you want the part. I might do a re-play and have your classmates rate your performance. Be ready to answer questions about your character. Be ready to explain why you have chosen to portray him/her in the way that you have. Finish the prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale.
Homework: Read Act III. Some of you will have parts.
Thursday: Quiz on Acts I-III of "Twelfth Night" and "The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" and "The Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale." Graded performance of Act III. Grading will include the actor's understanding of his/her part.
Homework: Read "The Wife of Bath's Tale." Read Act IV of "Twelfth Night." Students will be assigned parts. Expect a reading quiz on both on Tuesday.
By the way, I've been working on grading your papers. Some of you did not answer the right question; others did not use quotes or used them minimally and did not give them a context. Some essays seemed as though the student had not even read the work. I'm still grading them, but, in an effort to show you what might be done, I wrote my own response to one of the questions from sixth period. I also wrote down my process:
First, I reread the story of "Sir Gawain" and took notes on passages that really stood out for me. I advised you to do the same.
Prompt Choice #2: Our school is in need of a new director. Disregarding the fictional characters’ age and experience, focus on those characteristics that would make either Sir Gawain or Oisin the best possible choice. You should probably start by identifying what characteristics would be most desirable in a leader of this school. Then identify those in the character you have selected. Ultimately, think of this as a kind of letter-of-recommendation for that character—only in essay format. When I write letters of recommendation, I always give specific examples. In your case, your examples will include paraphrased passages as well as direct quotes.
Next, I considered what qualities I would like in a new director. After determining these, I would try to find some concrete words to embody those qualities. Then I would decide which character best fits this.
Director’s qualities: A diplomat—knows how to deal with parents—from the over-involved to the uninvolved. Knows how to deal with students. Treats everyone with respect and makes them feel valued. Humble—knows that he/she can learn from others—including students, faculty, and parents. Intelligent—well-educated but also has common sense. He/she should have a strong sense of loyalty and do what he/she can to get whatever he/she can for our school. He/she can take a stand, and fight for what is even uncomfortable or difficult—consider finances. He/she sees him/herself as part of a larger body—the school. He/she considers him/herself a role model. He/she is consistent in actions—not arbitrary. Everyone plays by the same rules. He/she is also flexible if necessary, but not to the point that his/her actions are perceived as unfair. Merciful. A risk-taker.
Next, I considered what qualities I would like in a new director. After determining these, I would try to find some concrete words to embody those qualities. Then I would decide which character best fits this.
Director’s qualities: A diplomat—knows how to deal with parents—from the over-involved to the uninvolved. Knows how to deal with students. Treats everyone with respect and makes them feel valued. Humble—knows that he/she can learn from others—including students, faculty, and parents. Intelligent—well-educated but also has common sense. He/she should have a strong sense of loyalty and do what he/she can to get whatever he/she can for our school. He/she can take a stand, and fight for what is even uncomfortable or difficult—consider finances. He/she sees him/herself as part of a larger body—the school. He/she considers him/herself a role model. He/she is consistent in actions—not arbitrary. Everyone plays by the same rules. He/she is also flexible if necessary, but not to the point that his/her actions are perceived as unfair. Merciful. A risk-taker.
I am not going to be able to use all of these qualities, but a few will certainly apply.
Gawain would make a great director of the Governor’s School. He shows himself to be a born leader and a risk-taker even as a young man. While others sit back, quaking in fear, Gawain offers to fight the Green Knight. Though we know little of his education, Gawain demonstrates intelligence in his actions, especially in the interactions with the lady. Not only does he demonstrate emotional intelligence in avoiding sin, but he also shows the finesse of the accomplished diplomat. He avoids hurting the lady's feelings—to the greatest extent possible. A leader of the Governor’s School also needs to interact with other leaders, subordinates, students, and parents. He/she may hurt people’s feelings now and then, but tries to minimize the effects. As a role model, he/she must also be introspective. He/she must be willing to take risks but also willing to admit when he/she has erred. Ultimately, he/she needs to act out of a sense of justice and for the good of the school as a whole.
Gawain’s resume begins when he first stands up to the frightening green giant who has just entered Camelot, and assaulted the lot with words. The monster calls the knights of Camelot “beardless children” (280). He even laughs at them. “’Where now is your haughtiness, and your high conquests,/ your fierceness and fell mood,/ and your fine boasting?’” he asks (310-311). No one moves forward but Arthur himself. More loyal to king and country than to himself, Gawain steps forward. Not only does he show courage, but he also demonstrates humility, calling himself “the weakest…and in wit feeblist,/ and the least loss, if I live not” (354-355). Not only that, but unlike Beowulf or Wiglaf, he doesn’t put down his fellow-knights for not taking the challenge. A real leader does not allocate blame but accepts responsibility.
Though the court treats him like royalty for many months, ultimately Gawain must venture off into the wilderness and move toward his fate. The court arms him well, and he arms himself with the symbols of his faith—the pentangle, the Endless Knot, and the image of the Virgin Mary. These images will serve him well during the times when “he had no friend but his horse in the forests and hills,/ no man on this march to commune with but God” (695-696). His faith sustains him during this journey. And it is faith that leads him to find the castle where he will find temptations that are resonant of Christ’s temptations in the desert.
A former ladies’ man whose reputation has preceded him (“Who hears him will, I ween, / of love-speech learn some art’” (926-927)), he arrives tired, lonely, and scared. The beautiful host’s wife yearns for such words from the famous knight. She is “fairer in face, in her flesh and her skin,/ her proportions, her complexion, and her port than all others [italics mine],/ and more lovely than Guinevere to Gawain she looked” (943-945).
After a fine feast, Gawain prepares for bed. He expresses anxieties about finding the Green Chapel, but the host assures him that he will take care of that. He also, like the scary Green Knight, makes a deal with him. He will go hunting. When he returns, Gawain will have whatever he has caught. In return, Gawain will do the same for the host.
The next morning, the host goes hunting. Gawain, resting in his comfortable bed, soon finds himself sharing it with the host’s comely wife. Not knowing what to do, he pretends to be asleep. This does little good, for the lady is “an urgent wooer” (1259). She offers her beautiful body, “’of delight to take your fill’” (1238). After a few exchanges in which God and the Virgin Mary are invoked, he finally wins the battle by saying that she is married to a better man than he. He does relent a little, however, when he gives her a single kiss.
For two more days, Gawain receives the lady’s kisses, returning them to the host, as agreed on that first night. On that third day, however, he does not entirely keep his word. In addition to the kisses, the lady gives Gawain her belt, modest by all appearances, but great in its utility. “’For whoever goes girdled with this green riband/ while he keeps it well clasped closely about him,/ there is none so hardly under heaven that to hew him were able/ for he could not be killed by any cunning of hand,’” she explains (1851-1854).
Though Gawain keeps his word at all other times, he does not this time. And that “sin” costs him. The wound, however, is minor. It is mostly Gawain’s pride that has been hurt. At the same time, Gawain has grown from the experience. Although a member of the famed Knights of the Round Table, he is also human. He is also a good human, one who admits his mistake, asks forgiveness, and moves forward to become one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table.
Even though the Governor’s School has received the accolades in various contests, and even though Newsweek recognizes us as one of the twenty elite public schools in the country, neither we, nor our leader, should become too full of ourselves. In order to truly grow, we need to constantly assess ourselves, and then to seek to improve on what we have. Like Sir Gawain, our director should possess the courage to fight for our school and the humility to sometimes ask for help or to delegate tasks. He/she should take risks, but be willing to acknowledge it when things go wrong. Like Gawain, he/she should not play the blame-game. In the long run, our leader should be someone for whom any one of us would be willing to support, even to the extent of wearing the proverbial green girdle.
