Twelfth Night

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/twelfth-night

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the estimated composition period?1601–1602. This places it within Shakespeare's mature period of writing
2. What is the first documented public performance?February 2, 1602, on Candlemas, the traditional end of the Christmas season
3. What is Twelfth Night about?It’s a funny Shakespeare play where a girl named Viola pretends to be a boy, and everyone gets mixed up with love and identity.
4. Why does Viola pretend to be a boy?After a shipwreck, she hides as a boy named Cesario to stay safe and help her brother, and it lets her explore who she is.

Illyria: A historical region on the Adriatic coast, serving as the fictional setting for Shakespeare's play.
Eunuch: Historically, a castrated male, often employed in royal courts; in the play, Viola's disguise as a male page.
Dramatic Irony: A literary device where the audience possesses knowledge that one or more characters on stage do not.
First Folio: The first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623, crucial for preserving his works.