Shakespeare and She's the Man

In the movie, She’s the Man, Viola, the female lead character pretends to be a boy, her brother, Sebastien, in order to play soccer. Since the girls’ team at her high school was cut, she attends her brother’s boarding school while he leaves the country to perform his music with his band. As a man, a girl named Olivia falls in love with Sebastien, who is actually Viola. However, while at the school, Viola actually falls in love with one of the boys on the soccer team, Duke Orsino, and finds herself in a situation in which where she gets caught in her lie. At the end of the movie she reveals that she has been impersonating her brother the entire time she has been at his school. Although her coach and everyone at the school is upset that she lied to them, she helps them win the championship soccer game and proves that girls are just as good at soccer as boys.

This movie was based off of William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. In his play, he writes about a woman named Viola who wants to get a job under the Duke of Illyria, so she disguises herself as a man. Throughout the play she quickly falls in love with Duke Orsino. However, Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia, which creates a love triangle between the three people. The movie She’s the Man is a modern take on this movie. The entire movie is an example on intertextuality, for the two story plots of both She’s the Man and Twelfth Night are almost parallel with each other. The same names for the majority of the characters and places are the same such as Viola being the female lead in both the play and the movie as well as the other characters and where both medias are placed, Illyria. In Twelfth Night, Illyria is the kingdom in which the story is set. Likewise, the college that Viola goes to and pretends to be a boy in order to play soccer is name Illyria.

Although the play and the movie have almost parallel story plots and the same names for characters, the most important reason for making this movie shadow the play is to highlight the fact that a girl was able to overcome prejudices in order to obtain what she wanted. This contradicts what is ‘normal’ societal roles are. Both of these pieces of media portray the strength a woman possesses when she is unable to do something according to the power of men. She’s the Man was created in order to appeal to the modern generation and give instances that people of the twenty first century could relate to.

For instance, instead of Viola dressing as a man in order to obtain a job in Shakespeare’s play, she pretends to be a boy in order to play soccer because the girls soccer team at her school was cut. While both of these types of media were made for entertainment foe whoever watched them, She’s the Man created for a young audience since the entire movie is set in high school. As previously stated, the reasoning for making both the play and the movie were for entertainment. However, there is a deeper meaning within both of these. Although women are being subjugated under men in both Twelfth Night and She’s the Man, the prevail by showing men and others around them that they have the capability to do anything a man can do and in the case of She’s the Man, Viola contributes to the men’s soccer team’s win in the championship game.

In conclusion, She’s the Man incorporates Twelfth Night almost in its entirety with all the
examples of intertextuality weaved in throughout the movie. By integrating aspects of Shakespeare’s play into the movie, it sheds a light on how important the play is to convey to audiences of today. The message throughout both the play and the movie is to not listen to those who look down upon people because of gender because it’s never certain what they are capable of accomplishing.