themes in twelfth night essay

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A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Of all Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night is perhaps the most perfect: the most technically and structurally accomplished, the most unified in terms of its wordplay and themes and characters, and the most profound. Beneath all of the cross-dressing and mistaken identities, Twelfth Night probes some deep truths about the nature of love.

When Olivia falls in love with Viola at first sight, when Viola is disguised as Cesario, whom does she fall in love with, exactly? And when she marries Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, in the mistaken belief that Sebastian is actually Cesario, does this suggest that her love is only skin deep? This is why Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most continually popular comedies.

It invites us to ask such questions about the nature of love and deception: questions which resist easy answers or analysis. Nevertheless, let’s try to analyse some of Twelfth Night ’s most salient themes and features.

Plot summary of Twelfth Night

The play opens with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino, pining away with love for Olivia, a countess whose father died a year ago and whose brother has recently died. Olivia has vowed to shut herself away from society for seven years as a result of these deaths. Meanwhile, a lady named Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, and fears her twin brother, Sebastian, with whom she was travelling, may have died during the wreck. Viola, keen to establish herself in this new place, decides that she will serve Orsino, disguising herself as a male youth named Cesario.

Olivia’s uncle, a drunken aristocrat named Sir Toby Belch, is chastised by Olivia’s gentlewoman and chambermaid, Maria, for coming home late, drunk. Sir Toby’s friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, arrives; Sir Toby is trying to put in a good word for his friend, who is trying to woo Olivia (unsuccessfully). Sir Andrew, convinced Olivia will never agree to see him, is intent on giving up the chase, but Sir Toby persuades him to stay a little longer, convincing him that he has a chance with the countess.

Viola has only been serving Orsino for three days, but – disguised as a boy, Cesario – she has already made an impression on the Duke. Orsino tasks Viola-Cesario with securing an audience with Olivia and telling Olivia about the Duke’s affection for her. Meanwhile, Maria chides Feste, Olivia’s Fool, for being late.

Feste tries to cheer up Olivia, much to the disapproval of Malvolio, Olivia’s humourless steward. Viola (as Cesario) arrives at the gate, and Olivia grants ‘him’ an audience after Viola-Cesario refuses to go away until she sees ‘him’. Olivia is smitten with ‘Cesario’, but tells ‘him’ that she cannot return Orsino’s affection. However, she tells Cesario that ‘he’ may call upon her again.

When Cesario leaves, Olivia takes a ring from her finger and gives it to Malvolio, claiming that Cesario left it behind by accident, and that Malvolio should go after the youth and give it back.

Meanwhile, Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, has also survived their shipwreck, but like Viola he believes his sibling has been drowned at sea. And, like Viola, he decides to head for Orsino’s court. Antonio, who has enemies at Orsino’s court, nevertheless resolves to follow his master there.

Malvolio catches up with Cesario, and presents the ring to ‘him’, which Cesario denies having dropped at Olivia’s. When Malvolio has gone, Viola wonders why Olivia sent Malvolio after her with the ring. She realises that Olivia loves her as Cesario. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste drunkenly sing at Olivia’s, rousing both Maria and Malvolio, who tells Sir Toby that Olivia is getting tired of his behaviour and would be glad to see him gone from her house.

When Malvolio has gone, Maria tells Sir Toby and Sir Andrew how she dislikes Malvolio’s vanity and self-regard, and that she plans to bring him down a peg or two. She hatches a plot to leave love letters in Malvolio’s chamber, written in what looks to be Olivia’s handwriting (but is really Maria’s).

As Orsino and Cesario listen to music, it becomes obvious that Cesario – i.e. Viola – loves Orsino. Orsino sends Cesario to Olivia again, with a jewel for a gift. Meanwhile, Maria’s plan to make a fool of Malvolio begins to come to fruition: Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian (another member of Olivia’s household) conceal themselves in a box-tree while Malvolio prances about, talking to himself, convinced that Olivia loves him.

Malvolio imagines what it would be like to be married to Olivia and thus be able to lord it over her uncle, Sir Toby Belch; from their concealment in the tree, Sir Toby and his friends take exception to Malvolio’s arrogance. Malvolio then discovers a letter, forged by Maria, but purporting to be in Olivia’s handwriting; the letter makes Malvolio think that Olivia wants him to be cross-gartered and wear yellow stockings, so he resolves to get kitted out in such clothes to impress her.

The letter also suggests that Malvolio smile in Olivia’s presence, so that she might discreetly know he returns her affections. When Malvolio is gone, Sir Toby and the others laugh at Malvolio’s gullibility.

Viola, as Cesario, has another audience with Olivia, during which Olivia confesses her love for ‘him’. Cesario rebuffs her, and leaves. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who walked in on them, complains to Sir Toby and Fabian that Olivia, who spurns his advances, was bestowing her affection upon a mere servant.

Sir Toby and Fabian persuade Sir Andrew to write a letter challenging Cesario to a duel: they say that Olivia is bound to be impressed by his valour. When he’s gone, Maria arrives to tell Sir Toby and Fabian that Malvolio has acted upon the advice in the forged letter, and is cross-gartered and wearing yellow stockings.

Olivia speaks with Malvolio, and is shocked by his attire and his perpetual smiling. She leaves to welcome Cesario back, and Sir Toby, Maria, and Fabian confront Malvolio, pretending to think him mad. Malvolio leaves, and Sir Andrew appears with his letter of challenge drafted for Cesario, challenging ‘him’ to a duel over Olivia.

Once Sir Andrew has left to await Cesario, Sir Toby reveals that he will not deliver the letter to Cesario, but instead goes and tells ‘him’ about Sir Andrew’s challenge in person. Cesario retreats into the house, but Sir Andrew pursues him. They go to duel, but just as they are drawing their swords, Antonio shows up, thinking he’s found Sebastian – because ‘Cesario’ looks exactly the same! Antonio is arrested for piracy, leaving Viola hoping that her brother really is alive.

Olivia, mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, is overjoyed when Sebastian agrees to marry her. Meanwhile, Feste, disguised as Sir Topas the curate, visits Malvolio where he has been incarcerated because of his strange behaviour, with everyone thinking he’s gone mad. Olivia and Sebastian marry, with Olivia still thinking she is marrying Cesario.

Orsino confronts Antonio for his crimes, and when Olivia arrives and rejects Orsino’s advances again, he denounces her. Olivia, believing she is speaking to her newlywed husband Sebastian, is amazed when Viola (as Cesario) professes her love for Orsino.

Olivia demands Cesario remains behind when ‘he’ goes to follow Orsino, and calls upon the priest who married her to Sebastian to confirm that they are married. Orsino believes that Cesario has betrayed him and married the woman he loves, and flies into a rage again. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, having been beaten up by Sebastian, turn up and accuse Cesario of having done it.

Thankfully, Sebastian then arrives and when everyone sees him and Cesario/Viola in the same place, the confusion is cleared up. Malvolio is brought out of his cell, and confronts Olivia about the letter he thinks she wrote to him, professing her love and asking him to dress cross-gartered in yellow stockings. Olivia, seeing the letter, recognises it is Maria’s handwriting, made to look like her own. Malvolio, realising he’s been duped and that his mistress does not love him, storms off, announcing he will have his revenge on them all.

With Viola’s true identity now revealed, she and Orsino agree to be married. Twelfth Night ends with Feste singing a song, ‘ When that I was and a little tiny boy ’.

Analysis: the background to Twelfth Night

Samuel Pepys went to see Twelfth Night three times – despite thinking it ‘a silly play’. In January 1663, he saw the play performed, and thought it was ‘acted well, though it be but a silly play, and not related at all to the name or day’. This is true enough: despite featuring a Fool named Feste and being named after the festival of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s play does not make much of this day in the calendar beyond the carnivalesque feel to the comedy, whereby roles are reversed and swapped, and the world is comically turned on its head (Malvolio being tricked into making a fool of himself, for instance).

The first recorded performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was on Candlemas, 1602. Candlemas is 2 February – better-known in the United States as Groundhog Day – and was the date on which Christmas decorations were often traditionally taken down in Shakespeare’s time – unlike these days, when it’s traditional to take them down by, oddly enough, Twelfth Night or 5 January, the eve of Epiphany.

Perhaps that provides a clue to how we should analyse Twelfth Night : it was first performed (as far as we know) at the end of the (the far longer) Christmas season, and is named for the end of the shorter ‘Twelve Days’ of Christian feasting. Twelfth Night is ultimately about having to relinquish such carnivalesque japing and return to a world stripped of illusion and topsy-turviness.

Shakespeare’s classic comedy of cross-dressing, separated siblings, love, puritanism, and yellow stockings was, then, quite possibly first performed in February 1602, though it’s possible there was an earlier (unrecorded) performance, perhaps a year earlier. (Some critics believe the play was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I for Twelfth Night 1601, when an Italian nobleman, Don Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano, was a guest at court. However, it’s more likely that Shakespeare simply borrowed the name from the real Duke, rather than that he wrote the part specially for the Duke’s visit.)

Themes of Twelfth Night

Disguise plays a vital role in this play, and Viola’s disguising of herself as Cesario is only the most prominent example. In a sense, the forged letter to Malvolio, proclaiming itself to be from Olivia herself, is a form of ‘disguise’, while Malvolio’s comical dressing-up, cross-gartered and in yellow stockings, is what we might call an inadvertent disguise, since he believes he is turning himself into the man his mistress will fancy.

Twelfth Night is a play where people are often not what they seem: Viola is not really a boy, Sebastian is not Cesario though is mistaken for ‘him’, Olivia does not really fancy Malvolio, the letter purporting to be from Olivia was actually her chambermaid Maria doing an impersonation of her mistress’ handwriting, and so on. As Viola (disguised as Cesario) tells Olivia at a couple of points, ‘I am not that I play’ (I.5) and ‘I am not what I am’ (III.1).

The relationship between love and disguise – and, by extension, love and illusion – is a key one for the play, as Viola herself acknowledges in II.2:

Disguise, I see, thou art a wickedness, Wherein the pregnant enemy does much. How easy is it for the proper-false In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!

Many of Shakespeare’s comedies use actual masks and disguises to hint at something which actually runs far deeper, especially in the field of romantic love: the capacity to fall in love with a shadow, for looks to be deceiving, and for lovers to get the wrong end of the stick (so, for instance, in Much Ado about Nothing Claudio is tricked into thinking he’s ‘seen’ his betrothed, Hero, being unfaithful). Olivia falls in love with a ‘youth’ who doesn’t really exist.

The fact that Sebastian looks identical to Viola-Cesario is surely of only superficial significance: they are, nevertheless, different people. Perhaps the truest love, viewed this way, in the whole of Twelfth Night is the steadfast loyalty shown by Antonio to his master, young Sebastian: he follows him to Orsino’s court out of devotion, and the youth he serves is who he says he is.

By contrast, Malvolio’s designs on Olivia stem from his own self-regard, and a desire to lord it over Sir Toby Belch and chastise him for his drunkenness, rather than from any deep love for Olivia herself. It’s her title and status he covets, not her personality.

In this respect, in being tricked into putting on a false ‘costume’ – those yellow stockings – Maria succeeds in revealing the real Malvolio, in all his self-important ugliness, rather than concealing him behind a disguise. But the case of Malvolio obviously stands apart from the other disguises and dressing-up in Twelfth Night , most notably Viola’s adoption of the ‘Cesario’ persona.

Twelfth Night is a play about doubles, and not just because it has a set of identical twins, Viola and Sebastian, at its centre. Olivia is in double mourning (she’s lost both her father and brother), she has two aristocratic suitors (Duke Orsino and the hapless Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Sebastian has two admirers (Olivia, thinking him Cesario; and Antonio, who is suffering from no such delusion), Viola plays two parts, and so on.

Even the role of music finds itself doubled in the two plots, with Orsino finding that music echoes the deep pangs of love he feels for Olivia, while the songs that Feste, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek sing also reflect love, albeit in a different register. The two meet in Feste, who sings for both Sir Toby and Sir Andrew (‘O mistress mine’) and Orsino (‘Come away, come away, death’).

This shows just how structurally well worked-out this is: perhaps of all of Shakespeare’s comedies it is the most cleverly assembled, in that ‘doubling’ goes beyond simple dressing-up and the adopting of a handy disguise. Like the theme of disguise itself, doubling is ingrained within the fabric of the play at many levels.

In the last analysis, Twelfth Night endures as one of Shakespeare’s most structurally effective comedies, but its japes involving cross-dressing and mistaken identity aren’t merely there for comic effect, as they tend to be in his earlier ‘double’ play, The Comedy of Errors . Shakespeare is making some profound observations about love and deception, especially self-deception. Malvolio is deluded into thinking he can become a great man. Olivia is deceived by Viola’s disguise. There is a vein of potential tragedy in all this, even while the play is celebratory and comic.

Some final trivia about Twelfth Night

The play has been turned into a musical on numerous occasions. These include Your Own Thing (1968), Music Is (1977), the Elvis Presley jukebox musical All Shook Up (2005), and the Duke Ellington jukebox musical Play On! (1997). The first film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was as early as 1910. This predated the advent of talking pictures by nearly two decades, and was only a short film. You can watch the film here .

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night”

I always thought that the sub-plot of 12th Night, involving the very cruel treatment of Malvolio was too strong for a romantic comedy. However I did see a production in which Malvolio greets the revelation of the plot against him with a genuine burst of laughter and his line ‘I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you” was softened from something that sounded much more like a promise to get his own back – possibly with another joke than a threat.

Analysis Pages

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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.

Twelfth Night

By william shakespeare, twelfth night study guide.

Twelfth Night is one of the most commonly performed Shakesperean comedies, and was also successful during Shakespeare's lifetime. The first surviving account of the play's performance comes from a diary entry written early in 1602, talking about the play and its basic plot. The play is believed to have been written in 1601, not long after Hamlet was completed. Despite the play's initial success, it was rarely performed in the late 17th century; this unpopularity continued until the mid-18th century, when in was revived and was moderately popular until the 19th century, when the play began to fare better.

A successful production of the play from the early 19th century added a great number of songs and funny scenes lifted from other Shakespeare works; even the betrothal masque from The Tempest , which seems like it would be entirely out of place in a play like Twelfth Night , was included. The play was first performed in New York in 1804; and, in 1865, the first known production of the play with one actress performing the roles of Sebastian and Viola was staged. Of course, this development required some alteration of the text; but the experiment was later copied by Jean Anouilh, who adapted the play for French audiences.

Until the early 20th century, the play was staged in a roundly Victorian style. Sometimes, elaborate outdoor sets were constructed for the play, with the advantage of being very pretty, but with the disadvantage of all the action having to take place in that one setting. The darker, more melancholy aspects of the play were ignored in favor of broad humor and the comic set-pieces within the work; not until the 20th century did productions emphasize the tragic and bittersweet aspects of the play, and show great progress regarding insights into the characters' minds.

Although the title of the play is Twelfth Night , it is not certain that this title means that the play takes place on the "Twelfth Night" itself, or the twelfth day after Christmas. There are references within the play to Christmas, as Sir Toby drunkenly attempts something that sounds like the "Twelve Days of Christmas" song. Thematically, there are links to this period of time, which was a time of feasting and revelry; the reveling, pranks, and merriment within the play resemble activities that are characteristic of Twelfth Night , which was the culmination of the Christmas season, and a time of much festivity. Some directors of the play have taken the title quite literally, paying close attention to the Elizabethan rituals related to Twelfth Night ; others have disregarded it entirely, and set the play in the sunny Mediterranean, where the historical "Illyria" is located.

The journal entry that records a performance of the piece in 1602 also compares the play to The Comedy of Errors and an Italian play named Gl'Inganni. Several 16th century Italian plays with this name survive, and all of them with the same basic plot as Twelfth Night : a woman disguises herself as a page and woos a woman for her master, whom she loves, but the woman falls in love with her, and accidentally marries her twin brother. The story was also included in two English works of prose, one written by Barnaby Riche in 1581, and the other by Emanuel Forde in 1598.

In one of the Italian versions of the play, the heroine assumes the name "Cesare" when she is in disguise, which might have been the origin of Viola's chosen name of Cesario. There is one crucial difference in the plots of the Italian versions; and that is that the heroine chooses to serve a lover who had rejected her, so the risk of recognition runs even greater. It is Riche's treatment of the tale, however, that comes closer than the Italian versions to what Shakespeare portrays in Twelfth Night , in terms of the specific situations and reactions of the characters as they interact throughout the story. However, Riche's version is not as innocent in the way the mix-up of the twins is dealt with; the Viola character reveals her gender by removing her clothes in front of the Olivia figure, and the Olivia of his work, rather than marrying Viola's twin, becomes pregnant by him and becomes involved in another confusing situation. However, Forde's portrayal of the relationship between Orsino (called Pollipus) and Viola (Violetta) is closest to Shakespeare's, in the tenderness and devotion that develops between the two characters before Violetta drops her disguise and is revealed as a woman.

It is almost certain that Shakespeare took elements of plot and character from the Italian Gl'Inganni and from Riche's and Forde's subsequent reworking of this somewhat-known story; however, Shakespeare was able to borrow elements of his previously written comedies of mistaken identity, such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Comedy of Errors. In Two Gentlemen, Julia follows her love Proteus, disguised as his page, and when he falls in love with another woman, she does the wooing on his behalf. The woman she woos does not fall in love with her, however, as Olivia does with Viola. The Comedy of Errors is also a source for Twelfth Night because of the use of twins and mistaken identity in the plot; though the major difference is that the twins in Twelfth Night are a boy and a girl and therefore not completely identical, though their resemblance is used as a device in the plot. However, The Comedy of Errors is a more lighthearted work, that is more comedic in nature; Twelfth Night , though it is a comedy, delves more deeply into the grief of the twins, and into the emotional predicaments inherent in its plot.

The text of the play first appeared in the First Folio of Shakespeare's work, published in 1623. Unlike with The Tempest, there are few apparent discrepancies from what must have been Shakespeare's original text and what is published; the text does not appear to be a transcript from a performance, as the Folio text of The Tempest most likely was. There is some evidence that the text was amended by Shakespeare himself after his first performance; Viola supposedly had a song in an early version, that was cut and replaced with her story about an imaginary sister, that has bigger emotional impact. Also, the discrepancy in Orsino's title, between Count and Duke, appears to have been amended after a first performance, and Fabian 's sudden substitution for Feste appears to have been done rather crudely, sometime after 1602, so that Feste could act more like an ironic commentator than merely a funny accomplice. The text of the play that has survived, however, appears to be very close to Shakespeare's original vision, and an accurate reflection of the original text, plus later additions and revisions.

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Twelfth Night Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Twelfth Night is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Question In Twelfth Night, which event is part of the resolution? Responses Malvolio receives a love letter. Malvolio receives a love letter. Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked. Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked. Viola, disguised as Cesario, meets O

Sir Toby and Maria are married.

Discuss Viola's use of her disguise in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

After the shipwreck, Viola resolves to make the best of her situation and be taken into Orsino's service. As a young eunuch named Cesario, she will be safe from male attentions. Viola is quickly taken into Orsino's confidence, and he tells her all...

How do valentines entrance and message affects the plot?

Orsino's servant Valentine, whom Orsino sent to give his affections to Olivia, returns; Valentine was not allowed to speak directly to Olivia, but Olivia sent a message, via her handmaiden, that Olivia will continue to mourn her dead brother, and...

Study Guide for Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night Summary
Twelfth Night Video
Character List

Essays for Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Twelfth Night.

The Role of the Fool: Feste's Significance
The Fool as a Playwright in Twelfth Night
It is Theater
To Believe, or Not To Believe
The Function of Plot Divisions in Twelfth Night and in Doctor Faustus

Lesson Plan for Twelfth Night

About the Author
Study Objectives
Common Core Standards
Introduction to Twelfth Night
Relationship to Other Books
Bringing in Technology
Notes to the Teacher
Related Links
Twelfth Night Bibliography

E-Text of Twelfth Night

The Twelfth Night e-text contains the full text of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

List of Characters

Wikipedia Entries for Twelfth Night

Introduction

Twelfth Night

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A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Act Summaries & Analyses

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Love and Suffering

Twelfth Night ’s central theme is love, including romantic, platonic, and familial love. Many of the characters in the play express their love for others, from Viola and Sebastian’s love as siblings to the romantic love triangle between Cesario, Orsino , and Olivia , to Antonio’s love for Sebastian . By the end of the play, many of the central characters are happily in love. Despite this, for much of the play, love is viewed as a cause of suffering, as characters are distraught and wracked with emotion over their unrequited loves. Orsino, for instance, describes his desires for Olivia as “fell and cruel hounds” (I.1.23), and later describes Olivia as “sovereign cruelty” (II.4.89). Viola describes her unrequited love for Orsino as distinctly melancholy, saying that she “pined in thought, / And with a green and yellow melancholy/ […] sat like Patience on a monument, / Smiling at grief” (II.5.124-127).

Antonio’s love for Sebastian also brings him suffering, as it inspires his decision to accompany Sebastian in Illyria despite his trouble with Count Orsino. “For [Sebastian’s] sake/ Did I expose myself, pure for his love, / Into the danger of this adverse town,” Antonio tells Orsino (V.1. 80-82). He also suffers when he believes that Sebastian has betrayed him—though it is Cesario, and not Sebastian, who claims not to recognize him. The familial love between Sebastian and Viola, too, is cause for unhappiness until the end, as each sibling believes the other to be dead and mourns their loss. Olivia is also mourning the loss of her own brother, whom she initially had planned to spend seven years mourning at the start of the play.

Gender and Sexual Identity

Throughout Twelfth Night , gender and sexuality are sites of fluidity, play, and performance. Essential to remember is that in Shakespeare’s time, all of the plays performers would have been male because women and girls were not allowed to act on stage until 1660 (Ziegler, Georgianna. “The First English Actresses.” Shakespeare & Beyond, 19 Jan. 2019, https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2019/01/22/the-first-english-actresses/.) Viola, then, would have been a male actor pretending to be a woman (Viola) pretending to be a man (Cesario) who then reveals that she is actually a woman. The staging, like the text, depends on the idea that gender can be communicated through performance rather than innate identity, and Viola’s successful disguise as the male Cesario shows how perception of gender depends largely on presentation rather than nature.

Orsino’s declaration that women are incapable of deep love is a statement that telegraphs a view of male superiority, but as the play shows, Viola’s love—for both Orsino and Sebastian—belies this view. She pushes against Orsino’s suggestion that women are not capable of loving as deeply as men, claiming that their hearts “lack retention” (II.4.106). “We men may say more, swear more, but indeed / Our shows are more than will,” Cesario says, saying that unlike women, who love truly and deeply, men “prove / Much in our vows but little in our love” (II.5.128-130). Similarly, Olivia mourns her brother but also runs her household, showing a strength and independence that is unquestioned by the other characters. Her autonomy is never undermined. These characterizations of powerful women stand in contrast to some parts of the text. After Viola reveals herself, Orsino comments on how, as Cesario, she has done “so much against the mettle of your sex” (V.1.339). Even Viola seems to emphasize women’s weakness compared with men, saying in a monologue that her and Olivia’s unrequited loves can be blamed on their “frailty” and naturally weaker disposition as women (II.2.31).

While the end of the play puts together only heterosexual couples, Shakespeare also implies a sexual fluidity. Some characters’ sexual orientations are left vague; Antonio’s love for Sebastian , for instance, has a homoerotic subtext. Orsino’s deep affection for and immediate bonding with Cesario also demonstrates a strong attraction, and though Orsino embraces Viola as a woman, he does not renounce Cesario. Rather, he suggests that Cesario is still in the picture, especially while Viola is still wearing his clothes.

Deception, Disguise, and Trickery

Disguise and deception are rampant throughout Twelfth Night , with the play’s central deception, of course, being Viola’s disguise as Cesario. Sir Toby and his friends deceive others frequently throughout the play through acts of trickery, from Maria’s letter to Malvolio and Toby’s lies to get Cesario and Andrew to fight with each other, to the Fool disguising himself as Toby when he talks to Malvolio in a dark room. Olivia also carries out several deceptive acts when she first meets Cesario: she conceals her identity when Cesario first enters by disguising herself with a veil, and then pretends Cesario has left a ring with her in order to get their attention and implore Cesario to come back. Sebastian , too, hid his true identity from Antonio while they were on the ship together—for unknown reasons, he told Antonio that his name was Roderigo.

Much of this deception plays into the play’s spirit of revelry and fun, though Sir Toby and his friends do face some consequences for their actions. Toby eventually wants to stop the prank on Malvolio because he’s already in trouble with Olivia, and his plan to get Andrew and Toby to duel ends poorly with Sebastian actually hurting them in a fight. After finding out Maria and Toby have tricked him with the fake letter, Malvolio exits vowing revenge “on the whole pack of you” (V.1.401), showing that not all of the play’s deceptions were happily resolved.

Class and Social Ambition

Discussions of social class and its importance are woven throughout Twelfth Night , as the play centers on both the upper and lower classes with its depiction of Olivia and Orsino , who are nobility, and the working-class people, like Maria and Feste , who serve in their courts. Viola and Sebastian are also of a higher class, and Olivia and Orsino remark on Cesario’s social standing, seeming to view it as part of why they so favor him. Olivia immediately asks Cesario what his parentage is, and he responds “Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. / I am a gentleman,” Cesario responds (I.5.282-283). After Viola reveals herself and Sebastian tells Olivia she is married “both to a maid and man,” Orsino assures Olivia by emphasizing Sebastian’s high class, telling her, “Be not amazed; right noble is his blood” (V.1. 276).

While many of the characters are already of the upper class, including Sir Toby and Andrew (despite their uncouth ways), Shakespeare explores social mobility and the lower class most clearly through Malvolio , Olivia’s lower-class steward. Malvolio attempts to act more upper-class than he is and very obviously wants to raise his station in life, as shown when Sir Toby and his crew spy on Malvolio imagining himself as the head of Olivia’s household. Maria’s letter preys upon this ambition, telling him that he can “achieve greatness” and should behave strangely in order to “inure thyself to what thou art like to be” (II.5.149-152).

It is notable that Malvolio’s attempt to be what he is not is met with scorn, derision, and cruelty. The prank against him is comic, yet there is a real darkness to his treatment when he is bound and imprisoned in a darkened room. This stands in stark contrast to the gender play and sexual fluidity in the play. Viola, for example, also pretends to be something she is not—yet she is never punished for it. The play, then, suggests that gender and sexuality are acceptable areas of exploration, performance, and play, but class is a more rigid and intransigent system.

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Twelfth Night

Introduction.

The play “Twelfth Night” was composed by William Shakespeare in either 1600 or 1601. It was first performed on February 2nd, 1602. It is a romantic comedy based on five acts. The plot of this play revolves around resolving many hurdles to get true love. It has many elements: love, mistaken identity, illusion, disguises, madness and gender crossing. It also has a sub-plot.

Twelfth Night Summary

Furthermore, Olivia openly declares her love for Cesario when she again meets her to convey Orisino’s message. Sir Andrew also tries to win Olivia’s love and challenges Cesario for a fight to impress her. But Cesario refuses to fight.

Afterwards, it is discovered that Maria and Sir Toby Belch have been married secretly. All the couples celebrate at the end of the play except Malvolio, who is set free when one of the servants named Fabian, confesses about the cruel prank.

Themes in Twelfth Night

Uncertainty of gender, love as a cause of pain, class struggle.

Class struggle and social standing is a prominent theme of this play. It is explored by the following characters: Malvolio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sebastian and Maria.

Twelfth Night Characters Analysis

Viola/cesario:.

Viola is the heroine of the play. She is greatly charming and attractive. She does not have any serious fault and has a strong decisive power. Among all the characters, Viola’s love seems to be the truest and purest one. She loves Orisino with all her heart and tries to win his love.

In the end of the play, she reveals her true identity as a woman named Viola, finds her twin brother, Sebastian and gets married to her love, Orisino.

Lady Olivia:

Olivia is a rich, beautiful Illyrian Countess who plans to mourn her young brother’s recent death. She says that she will not marry for next seven years. Duke Orisino and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are her suitors but she rejects both of them because of mourning. When she meets Cesario (Viola disguised as a boy), she immediately falls in love with her.

Sir Toby Belch:

Sir andrew aguecheek:.

Maria is a maid in Olivia’s household. He is a clever woman and arranges a cruel prank for the head servant, Malvolio.

The Sea Captain :

Literary analysis of twelfth night, more from william shakespeare.

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

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)

THEMES: LOVE, LOSS, IDENTITY AND THE SEA.

Twelfth Night may not be one of Shakespeare’s most familiar plays, and it may not seem at first glance that a story about a Countess in mourning, a lovesick Duke, and a cross-dressing woman recently separated from her twin by shipwreck, has much to say to a modern audience. But remarkably this play contains numerous themes and ideas that speak to our own conditions in the twenty-first century.

Twelfth Night might seem an odd name for a play, but this title invokes the ending of the Christmas revels on the 6th of January. The end of Christmas is full of contradictory emotions: we are still indulging in cakes and ale, but are very aware that the festive season will come to an end the following day, and might feel a bit sad about having to go back to a life of routine and work. This atmosphere of revelry or festivity and simultaneous melancholy or sadness characterises the tone of Shakespeare’s play. Within such an atmosphere we can identify important questions raised by Shakespeare, such as how we respond to or recover from loss. How stable is identity- are we who we think we are? Are our identities much more fluid or changeable than we imagine? How do we define love, and what is the best way to express it to the person we adore? Also, given that the action of the play is brought about by a shipwreck, what is the significance of the sea and imagery related to the sea? The sea was considered a dangerous force in Shakespeare’s time. It was unpredictable, frightening and unknowable. The ocean’s destructive forces could wash away identities, prompt new beginnings and frustrate human endeavour. The themes of love and loss are actually tied very closely to the image of a ship and the people within it being tossed around on a volatile ocean.

The loss of a brother or sister, the loss of a friend, a lover, or even the loss of oneself are events we all have to relate to one time or another in our lives. The Countess Olivia is in mourning for the death of her brother. She expresses her grief openly and through external signs: sadness, seclusion, and by wearing black mourning clothes and a veil. Orsino feels he has lost the one he loves, even though he has never really had her. His feelings for Olivia generate pain and suffering, but as we will see, it is a pain and suffering he seems to enjoy. In his exploration of loss in this play, Shakespeare poses the question of what happens when we experience intense emotions based on the illusion of loss. For example, Viola believes her brother is dead, which causes deep feelings of sadness. Even though Sebastian is alive, Viola’s feelings are real; her pain and melancholy are meaningful because she experiences the emotions associated with loss. As a young, unmarried, and upper-class woman, Viola knows she would be vulnerable in a strange country, so she decides to disguise herself as a boy. In doing this she manages to disguise the fact that she is a woman from an upper class background, which enables her to join Duke Orsino’s household as his servant. As a victim of a storm at sea, we could identify her as a kind of migrant or refugee, washed up on the shore of a country that is dauntingly unfamiliar. How is she received? To what lengths does she have to go to protect herself? How does she retain her own identity and stay true to herself under such circumstances? These are questions that, sadly, too many people are facing in our own moment. Shakespeare understood that, deep down, perhaps we all fear this particular kind of loss the most: the loss of self. However, to look at it another way, we might argue that Viola, even disguised as Cesario, manages to be herself more comfortably and freely than perhaps she ever could as a daughter of an upper-class household.

Central to Viola’s experience though is her increasing love for the Duke, who is in love not only with the Countess Olivia, but also with the very idea of love itself. In Shakespeare’s time, the condition of lovesickness was often commented upon as a kind of disease with very recognizable symptoms and external signs. For example, a lovesick person might be slightly disheveled in their appearance, or be extremely melancholy (a pleasurable type of sadness); they might sigh, weep and groan aloud frequently; they are temperamental, moody; they might suffer with insomnia or be unable to eat; they would get pale and sometimes look a bit sickly. Love is experienced, according to the Elizabethan books on the subject, as a kind of suffering. This play provides a glimpse into this pathology of love. The Duke seems to be a good example of this kind of lover. Are we to take him seriously, roll our eyes at his soppy poetry, or are we meant to find him funny? Shakespeare’s original audiences might have responded to him in all of these ways. But the underlying message is that love can make us fools, and the Duke’s expressions of love should remind us how we can all be made fools by love. We witness throughout the play how different people cope with or express their feelings of love. Orsino is a lovesick melancholic who seems to relish in Oliva’s constant, painful rejection of him. Complicatedly, Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola in disguise), but she is extremely bold and direct towards Cesario with her feelings; while Viola bears her secret love for Orsino patiently as a burden she must carry.

Just before the beginning of the action in Twelfth Night, there is a storm at sea. While we don’t witness this storm, the effects of it are felt throughout the play. Storms in Shakespeare often symbolise the emotions at the heart of the play. For example, if love is like a storm at sea, Shakespeare’s characters feel tossed around upon the emotions that attend love: happiness, anxiety, excitement, sadness, grief. The most sincere expression of love in the entire play might be Viola’s, when as Cesario she reveals that contrary to Orsino’s opinion, women do feel love, sincerely and deeply. She reveals her own affections for Orsino as a woman in love, although disguised as a boy, pretending she is referring to her father’s daughter who

…never told her love, But let concealment like a worm i’th’bud Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought, And with a green and yellow melancholy She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief. (2.4.110-115)

Here Viola suggests that love is like a canker or worm that feeds on a fresh flower, and potentially destroys its youthful bloom. The woman who suffers in silence is like a statue who sits patiently for eternity, and whose feelings never falter or change. The play’s preoccupation with love also concerns love between friends – Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch, for example; love between a servant and master; love between a niece and an uncle; and love between brother and sister. Thus, Twelfth Night is a play that all of us can relate to in some way. Each storyline might bear some resemblance to an experience we have had or are about to have. In many ways, when we begin to explore this play, we realise that we are exploring our own lives and the feelings we have about love, friendship, loss, identity, and even the mixed emotions we experience at the end of a joyous occasion, like the Christmas revels or a live performance in the Globe Theatre.

Dr Farah Karim-Cooper Head of Higher Education & Research, Shakespeare’s Globe

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Analysis of Themes in Twelfth Night-CSEC English B

“Twelfth Night” explores several interrelated themes, blending comedy with elements of romance and reflection.

Here is an analysis of some key themes in the play, supported by evidence from the text:

Love and Desire:

Evidence: The theme of love is central to the play. Orsino’s unrequited love for Olivia, Olivia’s mourning turning into love for Cesario (Viola in disguise), and Viola’s hidden love for Orsino create a web of romantic entanglements. Viola, as Cesario, says, “I’ll do my best to woo your lady. Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.”

Mistaken Identity:

Evidence: The entire plot is driven by mistaken identity, particularly Viola’s disguise as Cesario. This leads to confusion and comic situations, such as Olivia falling in love with Viola, thinking she is a man. Viola (Cesario) states, “I am all the daughters of my father’s house, and all the brothers too.”

Gender and Disguise:

Evidence: Viola’s cross-dressing as Cesario raises questions about gender roles and identity. The audience witnesses the challenges and humour that arise from Viola’s disguise. Viola remarks, “I am the man. If it be so, as ’tis, poor lady, she were better love a dream.”

Folly and Deception:

Evidence: The subplot involving Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrew deceiving Malvolio underscores the theme of folly and deception. Malvolio’s self-deception, believing in Olivia’s love for him, adds a darker and more satirical tone to the play. Sir Toby comments, “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

Madness and Sanity:

Evidence: Malvolio’s mistreatment and his subsequent confinement in a dark room explore the thin line between madness and sanity. His delusions and the treatment he receives raise questions about the nature of sanity. Malvolio declares, “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”

Social Class and Hierarchy:

Evidence: The play delves into issues of social class, particularly through Malvolio’s character. His aspirations to rise above his social status and the subsequent mockery by Sir Toby and others highlight class dynamics. Maria states, “I know I am but humour, and a snap that way will ne’er be clean.”

Revelry and Festivity:

Evidence: The play is set during the festive period of Twelfth Night, and themes of revelry and celebration permeate the narrative. Feste’s role as a fool and the overall atmosphere of festivity contribute to the play’s comedic tone. Feste sings, “Present mirth hath present laughter. What’s to come is still unsure.”

True Identity and Self-Discovery:

Evidence: The play concludes with the revelation of Viola and Sebastian’s true identities, resolving the confusion caused by their resemblance. This theme underscores the idea that self-discovery and the acknowledgement of one’s true identity lead to resolution. Viola says, “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.”

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare masterfully weaves these themes together, creating a play that explores both the comedic and more serious aspects of human nature and society.

Twelfth Night

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Theme Analysis . Read our .

During the Renaissance, melancholy was believed to be a sickness rather like modern depression, resulting from an imbalance in the fluids making up the human body. Melancholy was thought to arise from love: primarily narcissistic self-love or unrequited romantic love. Several characters in Twelfth Night suffer from some version of love-melancholy. Orsino exhibits many symptoms of the disease (including lethargy, inactivity, and interest in music and poetry). Dressed up as Cesario , Viola describes herself as dying of melancholy, because she is unable to act on her love for Orsino. Olivia also describes Malvolio as melancholy and blames it on his narcissism.

Through its emphasis on melancholy, Twelfth Night reveals the painfulness of love. At the same time, just as the play satirizes the way in which its more excessive characters act in proclaiming their love, it also satirizes some instances of melancholy and mourning that are exaggerated or insincere. For instance, while Viola seems to experience profound pain at her inability to be with Orsino, Orsino is cured of the intense lovesickness he experienced for Olivia as soon as he learns that Viola is available.

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Twelfth Night Themes
In connection with the themes of deception, disguise, and performance, Twelfth Night raises questions about the nature of gender and sexual identity. That Viola has disguised herself as a man, and that her disguise fools Olivia into falling in love with her, is genuinely funny. On a more serious note, however, Viola's transformation into Cesario, and Olivia's impossible love for him/her, also ...
Twelfth Night
Explore the different themes within William Shakespeare's comedic play, Twelfth Night.Themes are central to understanding Twelfth Night as a play and identifying Shakespeare's social and political commentary.. Identity. Most of the characters in Twelfth Night are in a state of identity confusion.Thematically, Shakespeare sets up the plays to actions to reinforce that identity will always be ...
Twelfth Night Study Guide
What a drag! Twelfth Night is sometimes called a "transvestite comedy" for the obvious reason that its central character is a young woman, Viola, who disguises herself as a pageboy, Cesario. In Shakespeare's time, Viola's part, like all the parts in Twelfth Night, would have been played by a man, because women were not allowed to act.So, originally, "Cesario" would probably have been a boy ...
Twelfth Night Themes
Gender Fluidity. One of the central themes of Twelfth Night is gender, specifically the unstable and uncertain nature of gender in the world of the play. Through all of the play's cross-dressing or disguised characters, Twelfth Night explores how gender is itself largely performative in nature.This theme is especially significant in the broader context of early modern English theater, where ...
A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Nevertheless, let's try to analyse some of Twelfth Night 's most salient themes and features. Plot summary of Twelfth Night. Act 1. The play opens with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino, pining away with love for Olivia, a countess whose father died a year ago and whose brother has recently died. Olivia has vowed to shut herself away from society ...
Twelfth Night Themes
Discussion of themes and motifs in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of Twelfth Night so you can excel on your essay or test.
Themes in Twelfth Night
The theme of performance and disguise resurfaces here to show that love based on looks is folly: looks can be deceiving. 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.
Twelfth Night Study Guide
Twelfth Night is one of the most commonly performed Shakesperean comedies, and was also successful during Shakespeare's lifetime. The first surviving account of the play's performance comes from a diary entry written early in 1602, talking about the play and its basic plot. The play is believed to have been written in 1601, not long after ...
Twelfth Night Themes
Twelfth Night's central theme is love, including romantic, platonic, and familial love.Many of the characters in the play express their love for others, from Viola and Sebastian's love as siblings to the romantic love triangle between Cesario, Orsino, and Olivia, to Antonio's love for Sebastian.By the end of the play, many of the central characters are happily in love.
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Summary, Themes ...
Class Struggle. Class struggle and social standing is a prominent theme of this play. It is explored by the following characters: Malvolio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sebastian and Maria. Malvolio, a steward, desires to marry Olivia and become the Count. It shows his struggle to be a part of noble class.
Twelfth Night Sample Essay Outlines
A. The title Twelfth Night indicates a holiday and day of ¬revelry. 1. Tradition places a "lord of misrule" in charge of the fun in this play. 2. The holiday includes eating, drinking, and ...
Analysis of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Categories: Drama Criticism, Literature. 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 ...
Love, loss, identity, and the sea
Twelfth Night may not be one of Shakespeare's most familiar plays, and it may not seem at first glance that a story about a Countess in mourning, a lovesick Duke, and a cross-dressing woman recently separated from her twin by shipwreck, has much to say to a modern audience. But remarkably this play contains numerous themes and ideas that speak to our own conditions in the twenty-first century.
Twelfth Night: Themes
Twelfth Night follows conventions of Shakespearean comedy as the dialogue makes use of double entendre and puns of a sexual nature: Crass jokes made by Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Sir Toby Belch, and Maria further mock the extreme romantic ideals of the Duke and the Countess. Patriarchal structures in Renaissance England.
Desire and Love Theme in Twelfth Night
Desire and Love Quotes in Twelfth Night. Below you will find the important quotes in Twelfth Night related to the theme of Desire and Love. Act 1, scene 1 Quotes. If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. Related Characters: Orsino (speaker)
Twelfth Night Critical Essays
Twelfth Night develops its theme on two levels. The main plot, written mostly in blank verse, shows the nobility in pursuit of love. The subplot features lower characters, who speak in prose and ...
Analysis of Themes in Twelfth Night-CSEC English B
21st January 2024 csecengl. "Twelfth Night" explores several interrelated themes, blending comedy with elements of romance and reflection. Here is an analysis of some key themes in the play, supported by evidence from the text: Love and Desire: Evidence: The theme of love is central to the play. Orsino's unrequited love for Olivia, Olivia ...
Melancholy Theme in Twelfth Night
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twelfth Night, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. During the Renaissance, melancholy was believed to be a sickness rather like modern depression, resulting from an imbalance in the fluids making up the human body. Melancholy was thought to arise from love: primarily ...

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