Tag Archives: Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night and the End of Carnival

By Robin Bates | Published: January 8, 2015

Twelfth Night in New Orleans, as in Shakespeare’s play, seems to be about carnival time winding down.

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The Bard as Couples Counselor

By Robin Bates | Published: January 10, 2014

Shakespeare charts the way to new kinds of relationships in his cross-dressing comedies.

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Cruz Comes Out, the Bard Would Approve

By Robin Bates | Published: November 10, 2012

Boxer Orlando Cruz has just come out, bringing to mind Shakespeare’s hyper-masculine gay characters.

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Reading for Fun, the Best Education

By Robin Bates | Published: September 7, 2011

In “Northanger Abbey,” Jane Austen advocates the ideal way to raise one’s kids: encourage them to read good literature and they will learn the life lessons that they need.

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Viola, Lost in the Friend Zone

By Robin Bates | Published: June 1, 2011

If literature can change our lives, then there should be something in the play that would help get these women out of their friend zones. Imagine Twelfth Night reframed as a “Dear Abby” column dispensing relationship advice to young adults.

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Bullying in Twelfth Night

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2011

Although I’ve been teaching for over 30 years, students continue to provide new insights into works that I thought I knew. Sophomore Wick Eisenberg did so recently with a Twelfth Night essay in which he examined an issue that has become a national concern: bullying.

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The Bard’s Business Advice

By Robin Bates | Published: March 8, 2011

Later today I’m going to be interviewed, along with my son Darien, by Boomer Alley Radio.  As producer Sharon Glassman described it to me, this is “a weekly hour-long show of upbeat, useful information that airs on the CBS news affiliate in LA, across Colorado and nationally via podcast.” Finding a post I had written […]

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The Bard Weighs in on the Election

By Robin Bates | Published: November 1, 2010

One curious aspect of this very loud election season has been that the two largest political rallies were staged by entertainers: Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally of August 29 and John Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” this past Saturday. A rightwing pundit and two liberal comedians (one of them who […]

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Republicans Need a Shakespearean Fool

By Robin Bates | Published: April 20, 2010

William Dyce, “King Lear and the Fool in the Storm” (1851)         There’s been a lot of talk about bubbles in recent years.  Tiger Woods’ bubble, which cut him off from his fellow human beings, may have led to some of his self-destructive behavior.  The Vatican has been living within a bubble for a while, unable […]

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