Day 16

[Bob Zaslow]

DAY 16- BOB’S PROFOUND MAP FOR ‘I’LL GET REVENGE ON THE WHOLE PACK OF YOU’:

What is Your Profound Truth? – Revenge ties both the injured and the injurer to a continual downward spiral of pain, and so true happiness can only be achieved when there is forgiveness on both sides.

1. What is the Transformational Journey?

Old Ways: Malvolio is an arrogant, egotistical blowhard who enjoys ordering others around and seeks high status. However, the play begins when he is incarcerated in a dark basement by people who he offended, he is cowed and even willing to be nice to Feste the Jester to help him escape. Old Ways continue when his blind anger leads to blind revenge. He has one goal: hit back three times harder than he was hit. His journey of revenge builds with each successful ploy. Until the last one transforms him.

New Ways: Malvolio relents against Fabian, the baker, but his ‘mild prank’ turns to disaster, when his bakery and mill burn to the ground, Fabian’s family has no way of supporting themselves, and the town has no bread. Malvolio regains his sense of right and wrong at that moment and realizes his punishments did not fit their crimes. He goes to great lengths to reveal the truth and repay his debts.

Transformational Logline: A retaliatory prank destroys a man’s livelihood and the prankster realizes his blind revenge only made him feel guilty, and seeing the truth, does his best to make it right for all.

2. Who are Your Lead Characters?

• Change Agent: Fabian, the baker

• Transformable Character: Malvolio, the steward

3. How Do You Connect With Your Audience in the Beginning of the Movie?

A. Relatability: Poor Malvolio! Locked up for what seems like a malicious reason.

He has a right to be angry. He is a God-fearing man. And the jester disguised as a parson is a cruel joke to play on him. Besides, we’ve all been unjustly punished at some time in our lives.

B. Intrigue: Who is this Malvolio and why has he been thrown into darkness? Why is the jester disguised as a parson? Why won’t he release Malvolio from incarceration?

C. Empathy: Malvolio is alone in the dark and has been wronged.

D. Likability: At first, Malvolio will be liked because we’ve all been unjustly punished for something.

4. What is the Gradient of the Change?

EMOTIONAL GRADIENT:

Forced Change. Malvolio is forced to shift from hurting his opponents with acts of blind revenge to realizing what a fool he’s been. We watch him go through these stages:

Denial: I am the superior Malvolio. Denies caring what others think about him.

Anger: How dare those low-lifes humiliate me, especially in front of Lady Olivia!

Bargaining: At first, he only wants to retaliate against the ringleaders of the prank. But can’t contain himself and each act of vengeance is worse than the next.

Depression: When he accidentally burns down Fabian’s mill, he is truly depressed and feels immediate remorse. For the first time he sees that his posing and superior attitude have been a mask for his feelings of inadequacy. And his blind revenge has led to misery on both sides.

Acceptance: He pays back all he hurt and leaves the town.

3 ACTION GRADIENT SETUP

•Malvolio (we learn in flashbacks) thinks he rules the roost and dreams of marrying his employer, Lady Olivia. He also has humiliated and lorded over five characters who now despise him.

•Maria forges a ‘love letter’ from Lady Olivia portending to love Malvolio and he is head over heels.

•Sir Toby, Maria, Sir Andrew, Feste the Jester, and Fabian the baker hide while Malvolio reads the letter and totally falls for it. He begins to dress and act so weirdly, the five convince Lady Olivia that Malvolio needs an ‘extended rest’ to regain his wits.

• Malvolio is humiliated and plans his revenge.

JOURNEY

• Malvolio fools Maria into thinking her new husband, Sir Toby, is still married to another woman, so her unborn baby will be a bastard.

• Malvolio compounds things when he sets up Sir Toby with a prostitute and ‘warns’ Maria about it.

• Malvolio plays on Sir Andrew’s lackadaisical business acumen by creating a false story about an investment and Andrew loses a great deal.

• Malvolio frames Feste and Jester by stealing valuable candlesticks from the duke and making certain he fires him and leaves him out on the street.

• Malvolio has gradually softened now, and because Fabian has been the kindest to him, comes up with a ‘mild prank’ which turns to devastation when a goat kicks over a lantern and burns down his mill.

• Malvolio feels remorse for his deeds.

PAYOFF

• In a letter, Malvolio reveals the truth to Maria and Sir Toby.

• He gives back to Sir Andrew most of his stolen investment.

• He gives the duke his purloined candlesticks and reveals the truth in another letter.

• He gives Fabian enough money to rebuild his mill to start making bread again.

• He leaves town in the dead of night, but feeling like he was about to start a new, more noble chapter of his life.

CHALLENGE/WEAKNESS GRADIENT:

Challenge: Malvolio begs for help. Weakness: Fear of being alone.

Challenge: Malvolio falls for the fake letter. Weakness: Believes he was born with greatness.

Challenge: He does whatever Olivia’s letter asks. Weakness: He is too dense to know Olivia does not love him.

Challenge: He swears to get revenge. Weakness: Deeply hurt and blindly angry about it.

Challenge: He gets even with Toby and Maria. Weakness: He nearly destroys their marriage but shows no remorse yet.

Challenge: He gets even with Sir Andrew and Feste. Weakness: He wreaks more havoc on their lives. (But a small crack in his anger opens to let in sanity.)

Challenge: He eases up on his revenge to Fabian. Weakness: He did not account for accidents and destroys his livelihood.

6. What is the Transformational Structure of Your Story?

7. How are the “Old Ways” Challenged?

A. Challenged through Questioning: After Malvolio sees how miserable he has made Maria, he softens a little, but doesn’t ask the question, “Does my punishment fit their crime? It’s not until he realizes that Sir Andrew may wind up penniless that he asks that question again and so eases up on the Fabian, last offender.

B. Challenge by Counterexample: Fabian is a big counterexample for Malvolio. He is everything Malvolio is not: humble, loyal, honest, forgiving and comfortable in his own skin.

C. Challenge by “Should Work, But Doesn’t”: After each act of retaliation, you’d think perhaps Malvolio would have tasted enough blood. But he gets worse. He goes so far as to break the law, cheating Sir Andrew and then planting false evidence for a crime against Feste. Instead of feeling overjoyed at his ‘victories,’ he harbors doubts about his entire vendetta. He wonders why it’s starting to scare him and make him feel miserable.

Challenge through Living Metaphor. — Opening in darkness. Malvolio is in the dark about his own psyche.

–Sir Toby (when Malvolio tells him he drinks and parties too much): “There’s more casket about you than cask.” (A prescient comment foreshadowing how Malvolio deadens everything he touches.)

–Malvolio wears yellow stockings (showing how low he’ll go to appeal to Lady Olivia at any cost.)

— Malvolio:“If they hit me in the arm, I hit them in the face.” (He sees nothing wrong with dispensing terrible punishment on the pranksters.)-

— The chair of power (Malvolio longs to sit in the chair is Lady Olivia sits in, which is one reason he will do anything to get it.)

— The most important living metaphor is the burning of Fabian’s mill and bakery. Malvolio sees clearly how his mindless revenge led to hurting so many. He realized that he always has wanted to lead a life of service, but getting back at his offenders blinded him to his purpose. He then does his best to make good.

8. How are You Presenting Insights through Profound Moments?

A) Action delivers insight

Action: After Malvolio parades before Lady Olivia smiling and wearing an outlandish outfit because he believed the forged letter that asked him to do so, he pushes back at Olivia insisting the letter cannot be forged. Insight: Malvolio’s arrogance makes him blind to the truth and ripe for trickery.

Action: After he berates Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria for their loud and unseemly behavior, he pontificates and threatens Lady Olivia on them. Insight: Malvolio is a paper tiger with no real power of his own.

Action: After his first ruse fools Maria and makes her bereft, he ratchets up the next punishment. Insight: Vengeance corrupts and absolute vengeance corrupts absolutely.

Action: After his ‘harmless prank’ accidentally burns down Fabian’s mill, it hits him. Insight: Rather than feeling happy at his vendetta, he feels remorse and wants to make amends.

B) Conflict delivers insight.

Conflict: Malvolio berates Maria for her bawdiness and the company she keeps.

Insight: he picks on those less powerful than he.

Conflict: Lady Olivia tells him the letter is a fake. Malvolio cannot believe it at first and tries to prove his point. Until Maria admits she wrote the letter.

Insight: Raving mad, he now will go on a rampage to avenge those who made a fool of him.

Conflict: He wants to get even with Sir Andrew, but is afraid he might be arrested for stealing his money in a phony scheme.

Insight: His anger is so hot, he goes ahead and steals from Andrew anyway.

Conflict: By the time he gets to punishing Fabian, he decides he wants to go easy on him, but accidentally burns down his mill.

Insight: Once you’ve been in a state of blind rage and revenge, even when you’ve cooled down a bit, unintended negative consequences often occur.

C) Irony delivers insight.

Irony: Malvolio’s biggest desire is to be respected by all. But he becomes despised by all.

Insight: Some people are their own worst enemy.

Irony: Malvolio thinks the punishment should fit the crime. But when he looked back at the destruction he caused, he realized he was blind to the truth of his actions.

Insight: He is a hypocrite.

Irony: Malvolio getting what he wants (revenge), but losing what he needs (admiration). Insight: think long-term before jumping into an angry response; you’ll probably regret it if you don’t.

Irony: Sir Andrew getting a special deal (a can’t-miss investment), that turns out to be worthless (it was Malvolio’s clever scam).

Insight: you may not be as clever as you thought you were. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Irony: Sir Toby’s group of five do the wrong thing (humiliate Malvolio) for the right reasons (he does need to be taught a lesson).

Insight: the ends don’t justify the means.

Irony: Maria is fooled into thinking her new husband, Sir Toby, is married to another woman, which means her baby will be a bastard; but her misery also reveals the truth about how important her bond is with Sir Toby.

Insight: sometimes, the darkest moment shed their own light on something deeper.

Irony: Fabian is the one who freed Malvolio from captivity and the first to fess up to the group’s dirty tricks, but Malvolio (accidentally) punished him the worst.

Insight: don’t get complacent about your position. Accidents do happen, and the tide could turn against you at any moment.

Irony: Feste the Jester is known to be wise as well as a joker himself, but he easily falls for Malvolio’s lying trick to get the duke to fire him.

Insight: Don’t get too cocky about your own talents. There’s always someone around who might outplay you.

Irony: At the end of Act 5, Malvolio the pompous, mean-spirited, egocentric steward, transforms into a far better man, even though he is forced to flee the town.

Insight: sometimes it takes a journey of terrible choices to finally learn the truth about what works to be happy and at peace with yourself.

6. What are the Most Profound Lines of the Movie?

MALVOLIO: I’ll Get Revenge on the Whole Pack of You!

MALVOLIO (to FESTE disguised as PARSON TOPAS): Please, listen if you value light over darkness, which I do now more than ever in my life.

MALVOLIO: You’d make a dung heap from a palace! Your wit is too clever by half.

SIR TOBY: And you, sir, turn celebrations into cemeteries. There’s more of casket than cask about you.

MALVOLIO: Mistress Maria, if you prize my lady’s favor, drop these two ruffians.

MARIA: When did your father stop beating you?

Malvolio (to himself, looking up from the forged love letter) – I will do everything that you will have me do, my love. Everything!

MALVOLIO: (looking up from the forged love letter) – I will a steward no more be / Your deepest love hath set me free!

MALVOLIO- Sweets to the sweet, sours to the soured / Maria’s joy’s now beat, so sad she was deflowered.

MALVOLIO: Let the one who punished me fit the crime. She who wrote the missive will bear the bastard!

MALVOLIO: My zeal, now melted by the smell of burnt flour and petty payback, has cooled and congealed into a mass. Mark this stench, steward. To purge it, you must right it. To right it, you must purge thyself.

FABIAN: I thought I had nothing to lose, but now I have nothing but loss.

FABIAN: By his revenge, by our revenge, we are all engaged to this loss.

7. How Do You Leave Us with a Profound Ending?

I think the ending is ironic, emotional, and will have a satisfying sense of completion.

A. Express the Profound Truth: By the end of this play, the humble Fabian has proved to be the righteous one and Malvolio has finally realized that his punishments did not fit their crimes. He does the right thing and fesses up to the truth and returns the stolen money.

B. The Change: Malvolio sees that his pomposity was just a mask he wore because he was afraid he was not good enough. He also now understands that blind revenge made both himself and his victims miserable. But at the end of the play, he does everything in his power to right his wrongs. The change is night and day.

Payoffs: Answers to: Will Sir Toby actually kill Malvolio for what he did to Maria and him? (He does not, also realizing the futility of revenge’s downward spiral.)

Will Fabian ever be able to recover from the destruction of his mill by fire? (He does, thanks to guilt-money supplied by Malvolio.)

Will Maria and Sir Toby get back together after Malvolio’s lies nearly tore them apart? (Yes, and it was a boy!)

Will Feste the Jester regain his sense of humor? (Yes, you can’t keep a good jester down.)

Is Malvolio really changed, as in a change of heart? (Yes. He does run off to another town under a new name, but then, he did commit crimes. But never again. And he will no longer be the arrogant poser he was. For the first time in his adult life, he’s comfortable in his own skin.)

Surprising: We think that once Maria catches Sir Toby with a prostitute, their marriage would be over, but because Toby rejected the prostitute, he is a changed man, and their marriage remains intact.

We think that when Sir Andrew is notified that he is almost penniless, he would break down in anger and pity. But instead, he sees it as a relief from all the responsibilities of his knighthood. And for a few moments, he is genuinely happy. We think that when Feste the Jester gets kicked out of Duke Orsino’s palace, he would be distraught. But, when the truth comes out, Lady OIivia hires him immediately we he will be appreciated for his “wit and wise counsel.”

We think when Fabian’s mill burns down, he might go insane, but with help from the townspeople they create a temporary water mill so the people can eat bread.

We think when Malvolio feels such remorse, he will also turn himself in, but he runs away on a donkey where he will live as an upright man, comfortable in his own skin.

Parting Image/Line: Malvolio trotting off into a barely lit dawn sky to a new village, talking to his donkey:

MALVOLIO: “Now I know I was not born great, and certainly have not had greatness thrust upon me, but…with my full repentance…I FEEL well! And all’s well that ends well, right, Toby?!”

With this line and final image, the audience knows that here rides a transformed man who is ready to start a new life where he’s actually happy for the first time. And we, the audience, can perhaps forgive even him.

[Bob Zaslow]

I’d like anyone interested to go over my assignment and give me feedback based on the criteria. I’ll reciprocate. Thanks. Bob