Truth in Masquerade: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as Storyteller's Manifesto

Conceal me what I am, and be my aid
For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent.
(Shakespeare 1.2:50-51)

Scholars have long recognized William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night as a celebration of the carnivalesque in Elizabethan England.  As the editors of The Norton Anthology of English Literature write in “Twelfth Night,” their introduction to the play of the same name, “[In Elizabethan England], Twelfth Night, the Feast of the Epiphany...marked the culminating night of the traditional Christmas revels...A rigidly hierarchical social order...temporarily gave way to raucous rituals of inversion” (1078), allowing the relief of class resentment and envy.  Twelfth Night's disguises, deceptions, eventual comic revelations, and assortment of happy endings mirror the Twelfth Night festivities.  The masquerades around which Twelfth Night's plot revolves, however, do more than express humanity's need for occasional communal games of dress-up and pretend.  A deeper significance lies in the statement Twelfth Night's masquerades make about the power of performance itself:  that some truths can only be transmitted through artifice, and that the theater serves a vital role in the transmission of those truths.

Midterm Essay: A Proposed Solution to the Afghan Conflict

Written in class as a midterm test.


Eight years after U.S. and coalition forces invaded Afghanistan with the stated mission of ousting the Taliban fundamentalist regime, finding Osama Bin Laden and the other Al Qaeda leaders who had claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and destroying the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, the outcome of foreign involvement in Afghanistan remains unclear, and the situation in Afghanistan bleak.  Despite the initial retreat of the Taliban and the recent establishment of democratic elections and a democratically elected government, Afghan security still fails to meet U.S. and coalition standards for stability and self-reliance.  Taliban insurgents continue to wage a bloody war with the occupying forces; corruption runs rampant in every level of government; and the life of the average Afghan remains one of poverty and insecurity.  This lack of definitive improvement serves as an indictment of U.S. and coalition tactics in the region.  The current military approach to democratizing and stabilizing Afghanistan is failing to achieve the desired outcomes of peace, stability, democracy, and improved human rights for Afghans; to create a more stable and secure Afghanistan, more attention and resources must be directed towards education, development, and infrastructure, thus concretely improving the lives of the Afghan people.

The Cultural Cost of Invading Afghanistan

Eight years after launching Operation Enduring Freedom in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States finds itself mired in a struggle for the future of Afghanistan, fighting, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, for “peace and security, rule of law, good governance, human rights protection and sustainable economic and social development” (“Mandate”).  In our attempts to reshape Afghanistan in its new conquerors' images, however, what cultural treasures are being lost?  Even a cursory examination of Afghan history should cause observers to question the means with which American forces are currently attempting to reform the region.  Afghanistan has suffered numerous foreign invasions during its long history, invasions which have cost the world not only human life, but human history:  once destroyed, Afghanistan’s irreplaceable cultural artifacts take precious knowledge of our past with them.