Kyle Howard
Literature
April 17, 2013
Dr. Ellis
Twelfth Night Blog
“Aristotle,
Aquinas, and Machiavelli walk into a board room” was the title of the speech I attended
yesterday afternoon. The speaker did an excellent job of discussing the ideas
and general principles of the three men. As entertaining as the speech was, it
was equally filled with a lot of knowledge on ideas like prudential wisdom,
virtue and prudence, and state and soul craft. He also proved to the audience
that Machiavelli’s beliefs and practices were different than those of Aquinas
and Aristotle. Many of these ideas that were discussed relate to "Twelfth
Night” a play written by William Shakespeare. Overall the play centers on the
idea of a vicious love triangle and also a terrible case of mistaken identity
which plays a key role in the outcome of the play. But within the basic plot of
the story we also watch as characters make some questionable decisions. The
play gives a balanced look into the lives of all of the characters which allows
for a rather humorous read.
In “Twelfth
Night” we watch as a secondary character named Sir Toby teams up with Maria and
play a rather dark prank on a friend of theirs named Malvolio. The prank leads
the rest of the house to believe that Malvolio is possessed by Satan and he is
therefore locked in a dark room and tied to a chair. Maria and Sir Toby should
end the prank and reveal that they were joking but they allow for the prank to
carry on and it upsets Malvolio. The actions of Sir Toby point to the fact that
his priorities and his morals are a bit out of line. The speaker at the event
discussed the idea of prudence which is defined as the discretion in practical
affairs. Clearly Sir Toby takes this joke too far and is obviously not discrete
in this affair which leads to Malvolio becoming rather angry with him at the
end of the play. The speaker also discussed the belief in business craft which
he stated had two parts. The first was having an immediate concern and the
second was concerned with the good of order. Clearly Sir Toby does not care for
either of these ideas and allows the good of order to be disrupted and also has
no immediate concern to calm down Malvolio.
The speaker
for the event made a great analogy between the business world and the water
cycle by stating that both are always flowing and both are an example of a
scheme of recurrence. “Twelfth Night” also flows but in a different way and
allows the reader to view the triangle of love from the perspective of all of
the members of said triangle. Shakespeare used his literary genius to create a
well written and especially a well-balanced comedy. The speaker also showed
great balance in stating the ideas of Machiavelli, Aquinas, and Aristotle and
proving which ideas were similar and which ones were different.
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