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Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 26, 2020 • ( 0 )

Twelfth Night is the climax of Shakespeare’s early achievement in comedy. The effects and values of the earlier comedies are here subtly embodied in the most complex structure which Shakespeare had yet created. But the play also looks forward: the pressure to dis-solve the comedy, to realize and finally abandon the burden of laughter, is an intrinsic part of its “perfection.” Viola’s clear-eyed and affirmative vision of her own and the world’s rationality is a triumph and we desire it; yet we realize its vulnerability, and we come to realize that virtue in disguise is only totally triumphant when evil is not in disguise—is not truly present at all. Having solved magnificently the problems of this particular form of comedy, Shakespeare was evidently not tempted to repeat his triumph. After Twelfth Night the so-called comedies required for their happy resolutions more radical characters and devices—omniscient and omnipresent Dukes, magic, and resurrection. More obvious miracles are needed for comedy to exist in a world in which evil also exists, not merely incipiently but with power.

—Joseph H. Summers, “The Masks of Twelfth Night”

William Shakespeare was in his mid-30s and at the height of his dramatic powers when he wrote Twelfth Night , his culminating masterpiece of romantic comedy. There is perhaps no more rousing, amusing, or lyrical celebration of the transforming wonderment of love nor a more knowing depiction of its follies or the forces allied against it. Twelfth Night is the ninth in a series of comedies Shakespeare wrote during the 1590s that includes The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It and is a masterful synthesis of them all, unsurpassed in the artistry of its execution. In recognizing the barriers to love it also anticipates some of the preoccupations of the three dark comedies that followed— Troilus and Cressida , All’s Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure —the great tragedies that would dominate the next decade of Shakespeare’s work, as well as the tragicomic romances—Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest—that conclude Shakespeare’s dramatic career. Given the arc of that career, Twelfth Night stands at the summit of his comic vision, the last and greatest of Shakespeare’s pure romantic comedies, but with the clouds that would darken the subsequent plays already gathering. Shakespeare never again returned to the exultant, triumphant tone of sunny celebration that suffuses the play. Yet what makes Twelfth Night so satisfying and impressive, as well as entertaining, is its clear-eyed acknowledgment of the challenge to its merriment in the counterforces of grief, melancholy, and sterile self-enclosure that stand in the way of the play’s joyous affirmation. The comedy of Twelfth Night is earned by demonstrating all that must be surmounted for desire to reach fulfillment.

Twelfth Night , or What You Will was written between 1600 and 1602. The earliest reference to a performance appears in the diary of barrister John Manningham who in February 1602 recorded that the play was acted in the Middle Temple “at our feast.” He found it “much like the Commedy of Errores or Menechmi in Plautus, but most like an neere to that in Italian called Inganni. ” Manningham provides a useful summary of Shakespeare’s sources and plot devices in which a story of identical twins and mistaken identities is derived both from his earlier comedy and its ancient Roman inspiration, Plautus’s The Twin Menaechmi. This is joined with an intrigue plot of gender disguise borrowed from popular 16th-century Italian comedies, particularly Gl’Ingannati ( The Deceived Ones ), in which a disguised young woman serves as a page to the man she loves. Shakespeare also employs elements of the new comedy of humours, popularized by Ben Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour in 1598, for his own invention of the duping of the choleric Malvolio. Mistaken identities, comic misadventures in love, and the overthrow of repression, pretense, and selfishness are all united under the festive tone of the play’s title, which suggests the exuberant saturnalian celebration of the twelfth day after Christ-mas, the Feast of the Epiphany. For the Elizabethans, Twelfth Night  was the culminating holiday of the traditional Christmas revels in which gifts were exchanged, rigid proprieties suspended, and good fellowship affirmed. Scholars have speculated that Twelfth Night may have been first acted at court on January 6, 1601, as part of the entertainment provided for a Tuscan duke, Don Virginio Orsino, Queen Elizabeth’s guest of honor. Whether it was actually performed on Twelfth Night , the play is, like A Midsummer Night’s Dream , a “festive comedy,” in C. L. Barber’s phrase, that captures the spirit of a holiday in which social rules and conventions are subverted for a liberating spell of topsy-turviness and revelry.

As in all of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night  treats the obstacles faced by lovers in fulfilling their desires. In an influential essay, “The Two Worlds of Shakespearean Comedy,” Sherman Hawkins has detected two basic structural patterns in Shakespeare’s comedies. One is marked by escape, in which young lovers, facing opposition in the form of parental or civil authority, depart the jurisdiction of both into a green world where they are freed from external constraints and liberated to resolve all the impediments to their passions. This is the pattern of Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter’s Tale, and Cymbeline. The other dominant pattern in Shakespeare’s comedies, as employed in The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night , is not escape but invasion. In these plays the arrival of outsiders serves as a catalyst to upset stalemated relationships and to revivify a stagnating community. “The obstacles to love in comedies of this alternate pattern,” Hawkins argues, “are not external—social convention, favored rivals, disapproving parents. Resistance comes from the lovers themselves.” The intrusion of new characters and the new relationships they stimulate serve to break the emotional deadlock and allow true love to flourish.

As Twelfth Night  opens, Orsino, the duke of Illyria, is stalled in his desire for the countess Olivia, who, in mourning for her brother, has “abjured the company and sight of men” to live like a “cloistress” for seven years to protract an excessive, melancholy love of grief. As Orsino makes clear in the play’s famous opening speech, lacking a focus for his affection due to Olivia’s resistance, he indulges in the torment of unrequited love:

If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall. O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more, ’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

Both have withdrawn into self-centered, sentimental melancholy, and the agents to break through the narcissistic impediments to true love and the stasis in Illyria are the shipwrecked twins Viola and Sebastian. Viola, believing her brother drowned, dresses as a man to seek protection as a page in the household of Orsino. As the young man Cesario, she is commissioned by Orsino, with whom she has fallen in love, as his envoy to Olivia. Viola, one of Shakespeare’s greatest heroines in her wit, understanding, and resourcefulness, is, like Olivia, mourning a brother, but her grief neither isolates nor paralyzes her; neither is her love for Orsino an indulgence in an abstract, sentimental longing. It is precisely her superiority in affection and humanity that offers an implied lesson to both duke and countess in the proper working of the heart. Both Olivia and Orsino will be instructed through the agency of Viola’s arrival that true love is not greedy and self-consuming but unselfish and generous. Initially Viola plays her part as persistent ambassador of love too well. In a scene that masterfully exploits Viola’s gender-bending disguise (as performed in Shakespeare’s time, a boy plays a young woman playing a boy) and her ambivalent mission to win a lady for the man she loves, Viola succeeds in penetrating Olivia’s various physical and emotional defenses by her witty mockery of the established language and conventions of courtship. Accused of being “the cruell’st she alive / If you will lead these graces to the grave / And leave the world no copy,” Olivia finally yields, but it is Cesario, not Orsino who captures her affection. In summarizing the romantic complications produced by her persuasiveness, Viola observes:

. . . As I am man, My state is desperate for my master’s love; As I am woman (now alas the day!), What thriftless sights shall poor Olivia breathe! O time, thou must untangle this, not I, It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.

Not too hard, however, for the playwright, as Shakespeare sets in motion some of his funniest and ingenious scenes leading up to the untangling.

The romantic comedy of Orsino, Olivia, and Viola/Cesario is balanced and contrasted by a second plot involving Olivia’s carousing cousin, Sir Toby Belch; his gull, the fatuous Sir Andrew Aguecheek, whom Toby encourages in a hopeless courtship of Olivia for the sake of extracting his money; the maid Maria; Olivia’s jester, Feste; and Olivia’s steward, Malvolio. Maria describes the dutiful, restrained, judgmental Malvolio as “a kind of puritan,” who condemns the late-night carousing of Sir Toby and his companions and urges his mistress to dismiss her jester. As the sour opponent of revelry, Malvolio prompts Sir Toby to utter one of the plays most famous lines: “Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Virtues, Toby suggests, must acknowledge and accommodate the human necessity for the pleasures of life. All need a holiday. Malvolio as the adversary of the forces of festival that the play celebrates will be exposed as, in Olivia’s words, “sick of self-love” who tastes “with a distemper’d appetite.” Malvolio is, therefore, linked with both Orsino and Olivia in their self-centeredness. By connecting Malvolio’s particular brand of self-enclosure in opposition to the spirit of merriment represented by Sir Toby and his company of revelers, Shakespeare expands his critique of the impediments to love into a wider social context that recognizes the efficacy of misrule to break down the barriers isolating individuals. The carousers conspire to convince Malvolio that Olivia has fallen in love with him, revealing his ambition for power and dominance that stands behind his holier-than-thou veneer. Malvolio aspires to become Count Malvolio, gaining Olivia to command others and securing the deference his egotism considers his due. Convinced by a forged love letter from Olivia to be surly with the servants, to smile constantly in Olivia’s presence, and to wear yellow stockings cross-gartered (all of which Olivia abhors), the capering Malvolio prompts Olivia to conclude that he has lost his wits and orders his confinement in a dark cell. Symbolically, Malvolio’s punishment is fitted to his crime of self-obsession, of misappropriating love for self-gain.

With the play’s killjoy bated, chastened, and contained, the magic of love and reconciliation flourishes, and Twelfth Night  builds to its triumphant, astounding climax. First Sebastian surfaces in Illyria and, mistaken for Cesario, finds himself dueling with Sir Andrew and claimed by Olivia as her groom in a hastily arranged wedding. Next Viola, as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, her brother’s rescuer, and is saluted by Olivia as her recently married husband, prompting Orsino’s wrath at being betrayed by his envoy. Chaos and confusion give way to wonderment, reunion, and affection with the appearance of Sebastian on stage to the astonishment of Olivia and Orsino, who see Cesario’s double, and to the joy of Viola who is reunited with her lost brother. Olivia’s shock at having married a perfect stranger, that the man she had loved as Cesario is a woman, and Orsino’s loss of Olivia are happily resolved in a crescendo of wish fulfillment and poetic justice. Olivia fell in love with a woman but gains her male replica; Orsino learns that the page he has grown so fond of was actually a woman. Viola gains the man she loves, and the formerly lovesick Orsino now has an object of his affection worthy of his passion.

The one discordant note in the festivities is Malvolio. He is released from his confinement, and Olivia learns of the “sportful malice” of his deception. Invited to share the joke and acknowledge its justification, Malvolio exits with a curse on the guilty and the innocent alike: “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” Shakespeare allows Malvolio’s dissent to the comic climax of love and laughter to stand. Malvolio, as Olivia acknowledges, has “been most notoriously abused.” Much of the laughter of Twelfth Night has come at his expense, and if the play breaks through the selfish privacy of Orsino and Olivia into love, companionship, and harmony, Malvolio remains implacable and unresolved. He is an embodiment of the dark counterforce of hatred and evil that will begin to dominate Shakespeare’s imagination and claim mastery in the tragedies and the dark comedies. Twelfth Night  ends in the joyful fulfillment of love’s triumph, but the sense of this being the exception not the rule is sounded by Feste’s concluding song in which rain, not sunshine, is the norm, and Twelfth Night comes only once a year:

When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man’s estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, ’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas, to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, With tosspots still had drunken heads, For the rain it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, But that’s all one, our play is done, And we’ll strive to please you every day.

Twelfth Night Oxford Lecture by Prof. Emma Smith

Twelft Night Ebook PDF (2 MB)

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Analysis Pages

• Character Analysis
• Foreshadowing
• Historical Context
• Literary Devices
• Personification
• Quote Analysis
• Rhetorical Devices

Themes in Twelfth Night

Themes examples in twelfth night:, act i - scene i.

"so full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene I)

Orsino muses on love in this opening speech, lamenting its melancholy nature while noting that it manifests itself in different ways, which makes it magical. While dramatic and excessive, this speech not only gives the audience insight into Orsino’s views on love, but it also foreshadows the many "shapes" and disguises that the characters wear during the events of Twelfth Night .

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"surfeiting..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene I)

This archaic noun refers to excessive indulgence in things like food or drink in an effort to gratify one’s appetite or senses. By wanting to surfeit himself, Orsino wishes to be overwhelmed with pleasurable things so he can distract himself from thoughts of his love, Olivia. This touches on the theme of love that runs through the play and how desire and love can be so overwhelming that he feels as if he were drowning in it.

Act I - Scene II

"Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent. ..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene II)

Viola establishes a major theme in this play when she describes how she will dress as a man: tension between one’s external and internal identity suggests that a pose can shape one’s actual identity. Her “disguise,” or external male appearance, will “form [her] intent,” or shape her interior goals.

"That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the Duke's...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene II)

The audience may wonder why Shakespeare chose to begin his play in Orsino’s court when this shipwreck is the main event that sparks the conflict in the play. When the Captain repeats the plot that was revealed in the first scene, this makes Shakespeare’s beginning more odd. One explanation for this may be the thematic importance of Orsino’s hyperbolic love. Orsino sets the tone and subject of the play on love and the effects of love. Had he begun the play with the shipwreck the audience might believe that the play was going to be about survival and grief.

Act I - Scene III

"great eater of beef..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene III)

“Great eater” signifies a gluttony. Aguecheek eats beef excessively, so much so that it causes him to be an “ordinary man.” This comment about his eating habits touches on the theme of dangerous excess in this play.

"Is that the meaning of ‘accost’..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene III)

This exchange about the word “accost” reveals Aguecheek’s lack of knowledge. Aguecheek does not know the meaning of the word and mistakes it for Maria’s surname. This demonstrated lack of education is another way in which the play reveals a reversal of the social order: as a nobleman Aguecheek should be well educated but he is not.

Act I - Scene IV

"Yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene IV)

Viola’s instant love could come from Orsino’s poetic allusions in his previous speech. His use of the poetic blazon to describe Cesario invokes the motif of poetry and shows that there is no stronger power over human emotions than poetry and writing.

"It shall become thee well to act my woes;..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene IV)

Orsino’s command touches on the theme of performance, especially emotions as a type of performance. This further suggests that Orsino’s love for Olivia is more of a pose of love that anyone can assume. Viola is able to “act his woes” because he is also acting.

Act I - Scene V

"Methinks I feel this youth's perfections With an invisible and subtle stealth..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Notice that Olivia claims her attraction to the youth comes from his “invisible” stealth and mystery. This could be read as a comment on disguise or costuming. Because Cesario wears a costume and does not speak about his past, his “perfections” come from Olivia’s perception. She can read any of her own expectations into his appearance and background and therefore invent the perfect man.

"Unless, perchance, you come to me again,..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Notice that Olivia seems to fall in love with Cesario after he describes her using poetic metaphors, just as Viola fell in love with Orsino after he used a poetic blazon to describe her. Both instances of love underscore the theme of writing and poetry in this play.

"Give me my veil..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Before she will allow Cesario to see her, Viola has to put on her costume of mourning, the dark veil that covers her face. This underscores the importance of acting throughout the play: characters cannot simply feel an emotion, they must hyperbolically act out the emotion in order to convince all onlookers of their feeling.

"mouse of virtue..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

“Mouse” was a common term of endearment for women in this time. Feste uses this term in order to show an unusual level of closeness with Olivia, who should be his superior. This demonstrates the theme of social inversion.

"I wear not(50) motley in my brain...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Though many other characters in the play rely on costumes and perceptions to shape their identities, Feste offers a counter example with a metaphor. Feste does not wear “motley” on his brain, meaning his jester costume does not characterize his witty mind. In other words, his clothing, or outward appearance, does not characterize his inner personality.

"‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.’..."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Here, Feste claims that he would rather be seen as a witty fool than a “foolish wit,” meaning someone who acts foolish in trying to seem witty. This chiasmus underscores the theme of social inversion present throughout this play. Feste claims that “foolish wit” is more dangerous than a “witty fool” because a “foolish wit” falls from a privileged position and dishonors that position.

" if Sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Here, Feste points out the disarray within the social order. He claims that Maria, a servant, is the cleverest woman in Illyria, and this makes her a suitable wife for Sir Toby, a nobleman. In the hierarchical social system of Early Modern England, a servant marrying a nobleman would have been prohibited. However, because these characters do not conform to the expectations of their social positions—Sir Toby is a drunk and Maria is witty—Feste can logically suggest this subversion of the social order.

"you are now out of your text: but we will draw the curtain and show you the picture...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Much of this scene has involved performances on the parts of all characters present. Olivia’s lifting the veil is yet another love performance, a part of Orsino’s courtship ritual. Notice how she jokes that she is lifting her veil because they are out of “text,” suggesting that her actions are not scripted. This is, however, a highly theatrical, clichéd moment. It’s as if Shakespeare were using these traditional clichés to simultaneously talk about love while satirizing them.

"Between the elements of air and earth, But you should pity me...."   See in text   (Act I - Scene V)

Viola, as Cesario, tells Olivia what she would do if she loved Olivia as much as Orsino: write poems of love, sing them through the night, and cry “Olivia” so loudly it would echo off the hills. Viola’s speech is beautiful and true compared to Orsino’s tired, clichéd speeches on love and lust, and it does the one thing that Orsino’s cannot: it makes Olivia fall in love. Viola appears to speak from the heart, using natural imagery, and since she is a woman, she appears able to find ways to appeal to what Olivia likes in a way that Orsino never could.

Act II - Scene I

"for some hours before you took me from the breach of the sea was my sister drowned...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene I)

This means that Antonio saved Sebastian from drowning. This might suggest that Sebastian would then be indebted to Antonio for saving his life. However, throughout the rest of the scene we will see Antonio’s extreme dedication to Sebastian. This marks a restoration of the social order: Sebastian's servant Antonio is devoted because Sebastian is his master.

"therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express myself...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene I)

Sebastian reveals his identity and gives up deception, disguise, and performance in order to assert his aristocratic “manners.” In this way, Sebastian becomes a symbol of aristocratic order: his appearance in the play signals a return to order contrary to the social inversion that characterizes the rest of the relationships in the play.

Act II - Scene II

"Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we!..."   See in text   (Act II - Scene II)

Here, Viola separates women’s “frailty,” which she suggests is inherent, from an individual’s actual identity. She claims that Olivia’s love comes from her frailty, which is out of her control, rather than her person. This ability to separate individuals from their sex suggests that gender expectations are faulty: one’s actions depend more on their identity than their sex.

"I am the man: if it be so, as 'tis, Poor lady, she were better love a dream.(25) Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness,..."   See in text   (Act II - Scene II)

Here, Viola realizes that she is the object of Olivia’s desire. She is “the man.” Notice that Olivia’s love and assumptions about Viola’s identity create her manliness: her gender is constructed by the perceptions of it.

Act II - Scene III

"on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause(140) to work...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene III)

Here, Maria claims that she will use Malvolio’s vanity to trick him into making a fool out of himself. Notice that while the other characters do not get punished for their socially subversive actions—public drunkenness, crossdressing, speaking casually with social superiors—Malvolio pays for his excessive vanity and social aspirations.

"‘Hold thy peace, thou knave’ knight? I shall be constrained in't to call thee knave, knight...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene III)

A “knave” is a dishonest or unscrupulous man. Knights were supposed to be characterized by their chivalry and honor; however, here Feste characterizes Sir Toby as the exact opposite of these expectations. This demonstrates the inversion of the social order within this play.

"My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene III)

Malvolio has just left after berating Sir Toby and Sir Andrew for excessive partying. After he leaves, Maria tells the others of a way they can trick him: she will write a love letter to Malvolio in Olivia’s handwriting. Sir Toby loves the idea, and Maria confirms the plan with this expression, agreeing that her “horse,” or “idea,” is the same “color,” or “kind,” that Sir Toby is thinking of. This plan demonstrates how deception and disguise can be used to hurt instead of to help, providing a valuable counterpoint to the disguises already in the play.

Act II - Scene IV

"Our shows are more than will; for still we prove Much in our vows, but little in our love...."   See in text   (Act II - Scene IV)

Viola refers to her love as a “show.” This metaphor further emphasizes the idea that her love is a type performance: it depends on its audience’ perception to “prove” its worthiness.

Act II - Scene V

"Why, thou hast put him in such a dream..."   See in text   (Act II - Scene V)

Remember that Viola claimed Olivia “had better loved a dream” when she realized that the poor woman was in love with her. Malvolio too seems lost in a dream, but unlike Olivia there are consequences to his unrealistic love. While Malvolio’s love of his superior will cause his downfall, there will be no consequences for Olivia’s misplaced love because she is an aristocrat.

"If I could make that resemble something in me,..."   See in text   (Act II - Scene V)

Notice that Malvolio interprets the words in this letter to match the fantasy in his head. This is another example of women’s with and power in this play. Like Viola, Maria knows exactly what to say to manipulate the mind of a man.

"To be Count Malvolio!..."   See in text   (Act II - Scene V)

Malvolio’s desire to marry Olivia is an example of dangerous social ambition. While the play’s theme of social inversion shows multiple characters enact social inversion—women dressed as men, aristocrats acting like drunkards, fools being too familiar with their masters—Malvolio’s is the only one that is punished. The other instances of social inversion in this play are not lasting changes, but Malvolio marrying into a better social class would permanently change his status and the status of his children. This is a form of social inversion that was unacceptable in Elizabethan England.

Act III - Scene I

"I am not what I am...."   See in text   (Act III - Scene I)

This confession and its reception underscore the theme of performance in this play. Viola insists that she is not what she appears to be, but Olivia refuses to accept this reality. Olivia so believes in the performance that she mistakes Viola’s acting for reality.

"This fellow's wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit:..."   See in text   (Act III - Scene I)

Notice how the line between fool and wise man is blurred once again. Viola claims that a fool needs wisdom to successfully carry out his art. However, she characterizes this life as a type of “play,” meaning the fool is constantly performing his identity. This realization about the fool touches on the theme of performance in this play.

Act III - Scene III

"I'll be your purse-bearer,..."   See in text   (Act III - Scene III)

The relationship between Antonio and Sebastian is a type of social reversal. Antonio, who is not of a noble class, is giving Sebastian, who is of noble blood, money to spend in the town. Antonio becomes Sebastian’s benefactor.

Act III - Scene IV

"Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil Are empty trunks, o'erflourished by the devil...."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

Here, Antonio remarks on the cruelty in beauty. It looks like virtue, but it can give a false impression of an evil interior. The theme of performance and disguise resurfaces here to show that love based on looks is folly: looks can be deceiving.

"knight..."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

Toby tells Cesario that Sir Andrew is a knight in order to scare him. The audience knows that Sir Andrew is an innocuous fool. However, his title is enough to scare Cesario. This reinforces the importance of titles and social positions in this play.

"Go, hang yourselves all! you are idle shallow things: I am not of your element. ..."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

By “element” Malvolio suggests that he is made of better stuff than these people. Malvolio again transgresses the social order: he believes his actions and the substance of his character elevates him above Toby, Fabian, and Maria. However, the social caste system of Early Modern England was determined by birth, not character. Thus, Malvolio is punished for trying to subvert the social order.

"how hollow the fiend speaks within him! did not I tell you? Sir Toby, my lady prays you to have a care of him...."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

Though Maria wrote the letter that convinced Malvolio to act like a fool, Fabian, and Maria all perform ignorance in this scene. Their performance is a type of deception that causes Malvolio to appear possessed.

"Good Maria, let this fellow be looked to. ..."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

Olivia tells Maria to lock Malvolio up because of his madness and forward advances. Malvolio is punished because he overtly tries to subvert the social order. He gives a “bad performance” of love and his audience punishes him for it.

"the man is tainted in his wits...."   See in text   (Act III - Scene IV)

Notice again that there is a fine line between foolishness and wittiness. Maria suggests in this line that Malvolio’s wits have spoiled his mind and driven him mad.

Act IV - Scene I

"Nothing that is so is so...."   See in text   (Act IV - Scene I)

The fool unwittingly states the major theme of the play in this line: disguise and performance change the inherent nature of people and feelings. Feste’s statement serves two purposes. First, it reminds the audience that they are watching a play and that everything performed is not real. Second, the actual characters within the play are constantly performing and therefore never who they appear to be.

Act IV - Scene III

"That they may fairly note this act of mine!..."   See in text   (Act IV - Scene III)

Notice that Olivia’s performance of marriage must be witnessed in order to be valid. She notes that the heavens are watching because it is an otherwise secret marriage.

"For though my soul disputes well with my sense, ..."   See in text   (Act IV - Scene III)

The strange predicament that Sebastian finds himself in demonstrates one of the main themes of the play. His reality, what he perceives, disagrees with what he knows to be true.

Act V - Scene I

"queen...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Notice that Viola never changes back into her “woman’s weeds” in this play. She remains Cesario in attire. However, Orsino’s final lines can be read as breaking the fourth wall: the audience can decide whether or not they want to see Viola as Cesario or as Orsino’s wife at the end of the play. The audience can decide how important external dress and performance is.

"Cesario, come: For so you shall be, while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen,(400) Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Here, Orsino claims that Viola will be defined by the perception of her: when in men’s clothes she will be Cesario and when in women’s clothes she will be Orsino’s wife and the master of his love. He essentially claims that she will perform forever: identity is a performance that is solidified by the perception of others.

"laughter than revenge; If that the injuries be justly weigh'd(380) That have on both sides past...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Fabian rewrites the history of the abuses they have brought against Malvolio. He claims that their performance was meant to induce laughter not hatred; it was merely the performance of abuse rather than actual abuse. This claim resembles a theme of the play in which something’s essence, in this case the hatred of Malvolio, is disguised as something else, in this case a funny joke or prank.

"But this my masculine usurp'd attire, Do not embrace me till each circumstance(260) Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump That I am Viola: ..."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Notice that reclaiming her identity involves changing her clothes. She re-establishes her character by taking off her “masculine attire” and putting on her “woman's weeds,” meaning women’s clothing. Though her conversation with Sebastian moved identification from exterior performance to interior identity, this speech again focuses on the importance of perception in one’s identity: she cannot be Viola unless people see her as Viola.

"O, that record is lively in my soul!(255) ..."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Sebastian and Viola’s collective memories begin to restore order in the play. They tell intimate stories to each other in order to recognize their identities. This recognition is based on their interior knowledge rather than their outward show; therefore it is able to combat the disguise and performance that has clouded identity throughout the play.

"One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons; A natural perspective, that is, and is not...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

“Natural perspective” here means an optical illusion created by nature. Orsino realizes that he cannot trust his perspective because what “is,” what he can see, “is not,” is not what it actually is. Orsino’s lines reiterate the main theme of this play: disguises distort reality and prevent the characters from truly knowing each other.

"After him I love More than I love these eyes, more than my life, More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

Viola’s lines here demonstrate the blindness caused by her disguise and the other character’s gullible nature. Orsino is blind to what loves him and Olivia is blind to what she loves. Neither sees through Viola’s disguise and therefore they do not hear her.

"When your young nephew Titus lost his leg: Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state,(60) In private brabble did we apprehend him..."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

The First Officer reminds Orsino that this “skilled fighter” has humiliated noblemen. His nephew Titus not only lost the fight but lost his leg, and Andrew lost a fight with him in the streets. Antonio’s chief crime is usurping his class.

"I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you...."   See in text   (Act V - Scene I)

In this last scene, the characters are revealing their deceptions and removing their disguises. While deception has worked positively for some characters, Malvolio realizes that he has been thoroughly and cruelly tricked. His claim for revenge here is the only thing that disrupts an otherwise traditional ending of a comedy. It is likely that Shakespeare used Malvolio, a generally unlikeable character, to show how love can be cruel and unforgiving and to remind his audience that the difficult realities of a class structure remain intact despite the happy ending for the nobles.

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Twelfth Night

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This volume in the Shakespeare Criticism series offers a range of approaches to Twelfth Night , including its critical reception, performance history, and relation to early modern culture.

James Schiffer’s extensive introduction surveys the play’s critical reception and performance history, while individual essays explore a variety of topics relevant to a full appreciation of the play: early modern notions of love, friendship, sexuality, madness, festive ritual, exoticism, social mobility, and detection. The contributors approach these topics from a variety of perspectives, such as new critical, new historicist, cultural materialist, feminist and queer theory, and performance criticism, occasionally combining several approaches within a single essay.

The new essays from leading figures in the field explore and extend the key debates surrounding Twelfth Night , creating the ideal book for readers approaching this text for the first time or wishing to further their knowledge of this stimulating, much loved play.

Madness in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

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Twelfth Night appears very much to be a straightforward and conventionally delightful comedy. After the great whirligig of various holiday desires, all things seem to get restored in a way that reaffirms the prevailing social order. The play has thus inspired many readings that detect a socially oppressive ideology at work, especially in the play's ending. Prominent in such readings is the idea that the "upstairs" and "downstairs" plot lines decisively diverge at the play's end, and thereby reinforce class hierarchies. Malvolio, as the most conspicuous class "jumper," is thought "naturally" to suffer the most humiliation, for example. At the same time, proper class relations are seen to be linked in the play to proper gender relations. Despite the gender confusion and strong undercurrents of homoerotic passion that mark the holiday spirit of the play, gender identity is indeed restored and romantic desires are realigned towards heterosexual union. The word "gender" might also be extended, with reference to its etymology, to include family relations; emotional attachment to a family member (dead or thought to be dead) gets properly redirected towards a romantic other. Thus, the various romantic intrigues of this play might be plotted somewhere along two symmetrical movements: from desire for someone who is, as an erotic object, unsuitably alike to desire for one who is suitably other; and, conversely, desire for someone who is unsuitably other to one who is suitably alike. Viola, for example, begins the play deeply attached to her brother (unsuitably alike), but quickly transfers her longing to a suitable, male other (Orsino). Sebastian would similarly appear deeply attached at the outset to two unsuitable likenesses-his twin sister Viola and the same-sex Antonio; his marriage to Olivia would then supersede both attachments. Only Malvolio and Antonio seem to stand out from this pattern. If Malvolio is condemned for desiring a social unequal, Antonio suffers a similar fate for desiring a sexual double, a desire that is linked in its unsuitability not only to Malvolio's fantasy of social mobility but also to excessive "consanguineous" (2.3.77) attachment. The play would thus seem to distinguish both Malvolio's fantasy and Antonio's homosexual desire from the temporary deviations wrought principally by playful confusions. This distinction would also appear endorsed and indeed orchestrated by "Nature"; as Sebastian puts it at the end to Olivia, So comes it, lady, you have been mistook. But Nature to her bias drew in that. (5.1.259-60) The plot of the upstairs story line is written, not by a prankster like Maria, but by a sacred authority called "Nature." Private erotic fulfillment would thus appear not only desirable but also possible only when desire suits with "naturalized" public practices, only when eros and public telos coincide. In this chapter, I would like to examine the various ways in which the play evades the finality of such a conventionally anticipated ending, first by exploring the desires aroused in a world of mutability, and secondly, in the second part of the chapter, by attending more closely to the political vision of the play. This part of the chapter came into focus in the course of an NEH Institute on Shakespearean Staging, during which I saw the same production of Twelfth Night a good seven or eight times. Despite my

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This one-act farce in prose has importance in Molière's oeuvre far more than its categorization as one of his petites pièces [minor plays] would suggest. No mere farce, it is a complex combination of farce, Italian comedy and social satire—an amalgam that became a defining feature of Molière's work.

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Este trabajo trata de la evolución del bufón isabelino a través de la comedia clásica latina con el Miles Gloriosus de Plauto y el parásito latino en Terencio, sin olvidar la comedia en la literatura medieval con Los Cuentos de Canterbury de Geoffrey Chaucer y los interludios del Teatro Tudor con la figura del Vice, utilizando como ejemplo a Ralph Roister Doister y su Matthew Merrygreek, hasta llegar a las características del bufón isabelino aplicado a tres obras de Shakespeare: Mucho Ruido y Pocas Nueces, Sueño de una Noche de Verano y Enrique IV. Palabras clave: Comedia clásica, Parásito latino, Plauto, Miles Gloriosus, Terencio, Chaucer, Los Cuentos de Canterbury, Teatro Tudor, Interludios, Vice, Ralph Roister Doister, Matthew Merrygreek, Bufón isabelino, William Shakespeare, Dogberry, Bottom, Falstaff. The purpose of this essay is to present an evolution of the Elizabethan fool since the Classical comedy with Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus and Terence’s parasitus, without forgetting the comedy during Medieval literature with Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and the interludes when the Tudor theatre with the figure of the Vice, using as an example Nicholas Udall’s interlude Ralph Roister Doister and his Matthew Merrygreek, to the characteristics of the Elizabethan fool in relation to three Shakespearean plays: Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV. Key Words: Classical comedy, Latin Parasitus, Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, Terence, Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Tudor Theatre, Interludes, Vice, Ralph Roister Doister, Matthew Merrygreek, Elizabethan Fool, William Shakespeare, Dogberry, Bottom, Falstaff.

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Dr.ahmed Alali

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Twelfth Night: Interpretations ( OCR A Level English Literature )

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Interpretations

AO5 assesses your ability to understand different ways of reading and interpreting texts. Those different readings can take different forms, from interpretations discussed by different members of the peer group in your class, to reading and utilising published critical material, to watching and analysing different productions of plays.

There are numerous ways to explore “different interpretations” to meet the AO5 criterion and you must explore a range of secondary readings to supplement your understanding of the text. These can include:

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Author: Sam Evans

Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.

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Twelfth Night

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In the kingdom of Illyria, the Duke Orsino laments over his unrequited love for the Lady Olivia , who is in mourning for her brother and has refused to see anyone for seven years.

Meanwhile, a ship has been wrecked by a storm off the coast, casting the young noblewoman Viola onto shore. Finding herself alone with the Captain , Viola assumes that her twin brother, Sebastian , with whom she was traveling, is dead. Grieving, she learns from the Captain—who, by chance, was born in Illyria—about the region, and decides that she would like to conceal her identity and offer her services to this Lady. However, after the Captain informs Viola that Olivia refuses to see anyone. Viola resolves to conceal her identity—she dresses up as a pageboy, Cesario , and go work for Orsino . The Captain agrees to help.

Viola advances quickly in Orsino's household. However, she soon finds herself falling in love with Orsino—a love which she cannot pursue, since Orsino believes her to be (the male) Cesario. At the same time, when Orsino sends Cesario to Olivia's house to woo her in his stead, Olivia becomes passionately attracted to "Cesario." Only Viola understands the love-triangle that her disguise has brought about: she loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves her. None of these loves can be fulfilled.

While the plot between Orsino, Viola, and Olivia unfolds, scenes at Olivia's house introduce a second group of characters: Olivia's uncle, the drunkard Sir Toby ; his equally vulgar friend and suitor of Olivia, Sir Andrew Aguecheek ; Olivia's charming lady-in-waiting, Maria ; the clown, Feste ; and Malvolio , Olivia's self-important steward, who constantly scolds and irritates the rest of them. Maria devises a prank to get even with Malvolio. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to a secret beloved "M. O. A. I."; the letter instructs its anonymous addressee to wear yellow stockings and crossed garters, to act haughty, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself in order to show that he returns Olivia's affections. Malvolio finds the letter and assumes that he himself must be "M. A. O. I." Following "Olivia's" instructions, he behaves so oddly that she worries that he has gone mad.

Viola's twin brother Sebastian soon arrives up in Illyria: he was saved from the shipwreck by a local, Antonio , but thinks his sister is dead. Antonio has grown so attached to Sebastian that he follows him into Orsino's territories despite the fact that Orsino is an old enemy.

When Sir Andrew starts to notice that Olivia is in love with Cesario, Sir Toby encourages him to challenge Cesario to a duel. They are just about to fight when Antonio shows up and asks to defend Cesario, whom he mistakes for Sebastian. (Viola, in her disguise, looks exactly like her twin brother.) When Orsino's police show up and haul Antonio off, Cesario slips away. But then Sebastian happens to arrive on the scene. Sir Andrew and Sir Toby resume fighting—mistaking him for Cesario. Sebastian is baffled, but defends himself. Olivia shows up during the scuffle and, mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, calls Toby and Andrew off at once. She immediately asks Sebastian to marry her. Sebastian is mystified. But, seeing that Olivia is beautiful and wealthy, he accepts her offer.

Meanwhile, Olivia's belief that Malvolio is mad, has allowed Maria, Toby, and the others to lock him up in a dark cell for "treatment." They enjoy tormenting and mocking him. However, Sir Toby starts to get worried, since he knows how angry Olivia already is with him for attacking Sebastian (or, as she thinks, Cesario). Therefore, they let Malvolio send a letter to Olivia, arguing his case and demanding to be released.

Cesario and Orsino visit Olivia's house. Olivia welcomes Cesario as her husband, thinking that he is Sebastian. Orsino is shocked and enraged, but when Sebastian himself arrives on the scene, everything falls into place. Viola and Sebastian are reunited. Now aware that Cesario is in fact the woman, Viola, Orsino declares that he is in love with her and asks her to marry him. It is reported that Sir Toby and Maria have also married privately. Finally, Olivia remembers Malvolio and summons him out of the dark room. Furious, he accosts her. When she tells him he should not take things so seriously, he threatens that he will have revenge against them all and storms off. The happy couples await their marriage ceremony.

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