I have just finished the book and a mixture of emotions arose when I read it. The story is very sad and frustrating at times. The story of this young girl is now known world wide because of this horrible period of time.

I have already known a lot of Anne Frank from studying the war and also going and visiting places such as what used to be her home in Amsterdam, Holland. The Beginning of the book seemed very slow to me and wasn’t very interesting though later on you would realize what everything about her life was like at that time.

What I enjoyed a lot about how Anne Frank wrote was the fact that she told the stories of good Germans too as well as of the Nazis. She was not biased because of the situation and she told things how she thought of them and how everybody else thought of them. I also liked that she compared what was going on in her own personal life to what others were facing. What I thought overall of this book was how Anne thought of things and how the situations facing her and her family influenced her actions and thoughts.

         So far the book has been very interesting but occasionally the book is dull when small details such as the appearance of people and the house, slight emotions and irrelevant conversations appear. I know that to fully understand what was going on, every detail must be told but sometimes it bores me a little.

         At this point of the story excitment mounts because a lot more things are happening. Tension between the people and news from what is going on from outside their hideout make the story more exciting and quicker to read. What always disturbed me when I read was knowing that Anne and most of her family was going to die along with many other innocent people. Up to the point where she died the the story made her soud hopeful and I perceived it like that even though I knew she was going to die. It is a sad story and the reality of it makes it even more so.

         Further on in the book the conditions of living and he time become more apparent. They are running out of food, space to house people and patience with each other. When a man named Dussel came things became even worse because privacy was becoming rarer and rarer. These conditions brought anger and sometimes despair to the eight people living in the attic.

          I’ve often heard about the terrible living conditions of the Frank family and their guests but when I read further in the book, I found out that they were more well off than most people in their situations. Sure, they still had very little room but they had some food and were relatively healthy. I also thought that they were living in a tiny room all for the eight people before I read the book. As the book describes, they actually live in a multi-room attic.

          What amazed me so far was how little the people in hiding knew about the situations. Even though Miep is giving them all the news that she has heard, they still live partially in oblivion. This made me think about how it was back then and I thing that the Nazis tried to cover everything up about the massacre of millions of Jews. If people only found out about this after the war, then they must have not been informed or noticing any difference in during the war.

Later on in the book, frustration mounts to a very high level and almost every conversation is carried out in arguments and shouting. They all have something against each other except Mr Frank and Margot who do not voice their thoughts as openly as the rest. What is quite amazing is how the guests of Mr Frank treat him with disrespect very often. Back then the tradition of hospitality must have been very strong if he ignored the accusations and rude comments toward him and his family.

            The first two scenes of the book were very quick to read and were just full of information about the current situations in  Europe and in the environment Anne Frank lived. What astounded me in these small two scenes was how little Anne and her family knew about the current events about the war. Recently before they went into hiding they were in school and did not seem to care about the war. Even when they went into hiding did they not seem very concerned about the condition. They acted like the war would be over in months. At the very beginning Anne Frank wrote in her diary about the activities she couldn’t do and the places she couldn’t go. She didn’t sound scared but merely sounded annoyed about the situation.

Before now I have never really thought about how poetry is in my life and how it makes me feel. I love the musical type of poetry. Does that even exist? Anyway petry has never really influenced me in any way. Sometimes it is nice to read a bit of Shell Silverstein but in general it’s not appealing in any way to me. In my former school we did a bit of poetry and learned about different types all around the world. That was actually quite interessting and I enjoyed that. But plain out poetry is kind of dull in my opinion. Anyway I hope that the next part of the year in english class will also be very interesting and enjoyable.

1.How important is merry-making in society?  This was our central unit question — now that you’ve studied a very silly play, complete with heaps of merry-making, what do you think? Is merry-making important? How? When? Why?

I think merry making is an important part of the way we live in the 21st century. It defines social statuses and what people are like. It can also reflect on how they are raised by their parents and how they are like as well. Usually when people are funny they are accepted by society and are appreciated by most.

2.What do you know now, at the end of our unit, that you didn’t before? Perhaps you now know a couple of lines of Shakespeare. Or maybe you’ve learned how to better speak in front of an audience. Or perhaps you now know how to work better in a group. Or you know that having fun really is the most important part of creating a play. Or you’ve learned that creativity requires long periods of time in order to “get into it.”  Whatever it is — please tell your readers what you’ve learned in our unit.

I’ve learnt a lot about speaking around a larger group of people about topics that are new to me such as Shakeseare. The reading of Shakespeare literature taught me a lot of different vocabulary and helped me read more fluent with harder text. I got some tips on how to present a text to a group of people and that made me more confortable so that was pretty much the biggest thing that I learned.

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” William Shakespeare

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”  John Keats.

“Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.”  Juvenal, Satires

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.  ~Albert Einstein

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.  ~William Shakespeare

Some ecosystems have distinguishing features that fascinates everyone, such as the forest. Other features, such as the simplicity of the desert, fascinates not everyone. For me all parts of the world have a uniqueness about them which a I find beautiful.

• If you were commissioned to design and direct a production of Twelfth Night, where would you set it? What would your Illyria look like? What would be your take on each character? What costumes, music, and special effects would you want?

If I was to stage Illyria somewhere I would place the setting in a small island that is very lush with forests the north somewhere with a cold climate. There would be a lot of snow in the scenes played outside. I would have buildings in the renaissance style just like in the Twelfth Night movie. I will have modern music to express the many moods of some of the scenes. I guess since it is cold the people living in Illyria should wear warm clothing such as animal fur and skins. I think since Twelfth Night does not have any large action in it there is no need for any special effects although when the ship sinks at the begining, waves should break apart the ship util there are only floating pieces.

• How would you get each character off the stage in 5.1? Think about where they are going and how they feel. Do they stop and shake hands with other characters? Do they slink off or run off? This will be the last time the audience sees them. What impressions do you want to leave?

At the end of 5.1 all of the characters in the scene are in a good mood. I think that the charachters present should all celebrate with food and beverages until late at night. Then when everyone is drunk and happy the two couples should just go their own way and leave the other people of the party to themselves. At the very end the audience will just see the outside of the house, then the whole compound, then the city, then Illyria from above and finally the world.

Paraphrase of Antonios speech in 3.4.316-321:

How vile can a person get! Sebastian, after all these things have don’t you have any shame, no one can be called evil but the unfriendly. Virtue is beautiful but beauteous is evil.

In this scene Antonio is furious with Sebastian/Viola for not giving him the money that he was supposed to have received. Then he comments on how looks can be deceiving and that good looks aren’t everything when you have a bad personality. He also says that they can be hidden mostly.

Give some of your own examples of what he is talking about. Use experiences you’ve had, seen, or heard about.

Antonio is in a very awkward situation because he doesn’t know who he is talking to and what’s even worse, the people in the scene now believe he’s mad. I have seen this multiple times. Once I mixed up this guy I know with brother. He looked at me and said, “Uh, who the… are you?!” For a while we were both ponderig what was currently going on when I diciphered that he was not actually who I thought he was. This also happened to me with a guy in my class at UNIS. What is also similar to his situation is that I was pretty humiliated after I figured out who he was.

               What’s a huge advantage when living oversees is that one can learn new languages and meet new people. These can be used in the form of good and also evil. Last summer a friend and I pretended to only be able to speak English which was hilarious when Germans were trying to speak to us. We did this to a lot of people on the road, in shopping malls, and many more. Sometimes the people would figure out that we both spoke German but it was fun while it lasted. A similarity from what we were doing and what Maria did to Malvolio was that we did not mess with our victim physically and the victim could not figure out right away, or never, that a joke was played on him. Another paralell is that Sir toby, Fabian, Sir Andrew and I were able to watch the prank.

Some epithets aimed at Malvolio:

 rare turkey cock of him (2.5.26)

Pistol him, pistol him! (2.5.32)

beat that rogue! (2.5.25)

“rascally sheep-biter” (2.5.4-5)

“…comes the trout that must be caught with tickling” (2.5.18-19)

“overweening rogue” (2.5.25)

“contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him” (2.5.26)

“Marry, hang thee, Brock!”  (2.5.87)

“This wench” (2.5.150)

“Noble gull-catcher” (2.5.154)

“most excellent devil of wit!” (2.5.170)