Perfect timing. The morning after I watched Boston-based Urban Improv troupe's anti-bullying workshop/performance, I saw this article in The Denver Post about a school in Colorado that's using Twelfth Night to talk about bullying.
The fake love letter that Maria and Sir Toby send to the wannabe-with-the-in-crowd Malvolio? Yup, just like the nasty stuff that happens on-line nowadays! What I love about this comparison is that it shows how we, the older people who didn't grow up with iPhones and Facebook, are not as clueless as the kiddies think we are. Maybe we should also make them read one of the bazillion anxious diatribes against Slander in early modern lit.
The more I think about it, the more Malvolio seems like such a textbook bullying-target. He's "weird" (priggish, uptight, does not read social cues), physically different (the cross-gartered yellow tights!), and wants more love than he gets.
Sad face.
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