The Comedy in Twelfth Night is largely generated by Shakespeare's use of disguise and mistaken identity. How far do you agree?

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is one of the best known comedies and is often well cited for its use of disguise and mistaken identity as being the key factors in the play that cause humour and make the play into the comedy that it is. However there are many other factors and comedic effects that take place within the play and cause humour that do not directly tie to disguise and mistaken identity. These include the use of standard comedic plot lines, the use of visual humour, bare basic comedy and jokes alongside the use of comic servants. All of these play a part in the comedy and humour of Twelfth Night but how prominent they are is the factor I shall be examining.

The use of Viola (when disguised as Cesario) is a key point of humour throughout the play and is a constant reminder of the humour based off visual comedy and mistaken identity that Shakespeare intended to portray. A lot of the central plot within the play revolves around Viola and Cesario and the many events within the play that directly stem from these characters. In Act 1 Scene 4 we get our first glimpse of disguise within the play when we are introduced to Cesario. Here we learn that within a short space of time Viola has managed to become a favourite of Orsino and as Valentine notes “if the Duke continue these favours towards you, Cesario, you are likely to be much advanced”. This in itself is comedic if you relate it back to the fact that we were told Orsino would even bear the presence of another woman due to his love for Olivia yet with a simple disguise Viola has managed to not only gain entrance into his household and service but also managed to become one of Orsino's favourites which within itself is comic. Another key plot line that stems from Viola's use of disguise is the love triangle that starts to develop between her, Orsino and Olivia. All three characters make many remarks to this effect such as, Act 1 Scene 4 where Viola says “Whoe'er I woo, Myself would be his wife”. With this remark Viola is admitting that she has developed a love for Orsino and would marry him if she could and marks the beginning of the Triangle as a major plot line within the play. All of this adds to the humour as not only is it a ludicrous triangle but it is one where the solution would, on the face of it, be rather obvious however due to the disguise factor that is well ingrained into the story this is not the case. This humour in general is a very visual form of humour and is aimed directly at the Shakespearian audience, mostly using the play on the fact of only men play roles within play during the time of Shakespeare so the humour stemmed from it was a Man dressing as a Woman who was dressing as a Man, a theme common in many of Shakespeare's plays.

Shakespeare also uses the rile of mistaken identity within the play to create further humour, mostly in regard to scenes where Viola is mistaken for Sebastian and vice versa. In Act 4 Scene 1 we get a clear example of this when Sebastian turns up at Olivia's household and is mistaken by all those present for Cesario, this highlights the pure absurdity in the scene after Olivia, supposedly being head over heals in love with Cesario yet is unable to distinguish between the person she loves and her brother. It also goes further with the with Olivia being oblivious to the sudden change of heart from “Cesario” but also jumps straight to the proposal of marriage which is rather comic as Sebastian accepts the rather abrupt offer without a moments hesitation, all of which stems from mistaken identity. While this is not significant within the play itself, since they are meant to be sibling and look somewhat similar, but to the audience it was meant to appeal to use more as the people watching the play due to our outside knowledge on the situation which creates much dramatic irony. This is show furthermore in Act 5 Scene 1 where the assembled cast witness both Viola and Sebastian at the same time in the same place, this is the pinnacle of the theme of disguise and mistaken identity as even the two characters involved appear unable to tell the other apart from each other, for as Sebastian says “Do I stand there?”. This goes back and forth for a short time but it's only after in-depth questions about parenthood and family that Sebastian and Viola finally both put the piece together and figure out who they really are.

However Viola and Sebastian are not Shakespeare's only use of mistaken identity within the play. He spins a major part of the story through mistaken identity but this time in writing, when Maria writes the letter in Olivia's handwriting. In Act 2 Scene 3 Maria herself remarks “I can write very much like my lady... we can hardly makes distinction of our hands”, this is another twist upon the humour created by mistaken identity as now it is in writing that shall create funny scenarios and situations. This fact is proven in Act 2 Scene 5 when, upon finding the letter and examining the writing, Malvolio says “This is my lady's hand.” thus creating an entirely new plot line to emerge simply from Malvolio mistaking the writing for Olivia's. This new plot line spirals off to create an almost independent storyline that is only loosely tied to the main arch of the play and completely revolves around Malvolio's belief that the letter is truly from Olivia and this is rather humorous to the audience and the characters within the play as this small fact causes such a huge and noticeable change of character from Malvolio and gives him a new self-belief in what he feels as it has been confirmed within the letter, although to a vague extent. This leads to many scenes that the audience most likely will find amusing including another case of mistaken identity, when Feste disguises himself as Sir Topaz to trick Malvolio in Act 4 Scene 2. This is also a comic scene which ties in closely to the visual humour caused by the disguise as we, the audience watching the play, can obviously see the difference in characters and the physical resemblance they bear to each other which the characters within the play fail to do so. As we can physically see the performers within the play we can easily note the similarities and with an oversight of the general storyline we know the situation better than the characters themselves causing us to see the absurdity that underpins some of the key actions made within the play.

Now this is not to say that Shakespeare does not use other forms of humour and comedy conventions within Twelfth Night, he uses a great deal of them both. For example the comedy conventions of intertwined love is a plot point that is one of the key driving points within the play, most notably the love triangle that is formed between Viola/Cesario, Orsino and Olivia. Indeed most of the story happens as is because of this factor. Viola goes to work for Orsino because Olivia will “admit no kind of suit” (Act 1 Scene 2) and because of this she starts to fall in love with Orsino. Orsino, being madly in love with Olivia, tasks Viola/Cesario with going and delivering a message of his love to Olivia which sets in motion the final part of the Love Triangle by creating the circumstances for Olivia to fall in love with Viola/Cesario and also serves to bring Viola/Cesario closer to him, bolstering those feelings that exists between the two of them. Also used within the play is comic servants, this is another comedic convention that is used to a great extent within Twelfth Night surrounding Feste in particular. This is shown by his introduction to the story in Act 1 Scene 5 as he is instantly thrown into a small battle of wits between him and Olivia in which he promptly outwits Olivia and turns the entire situation on its head while spinning her words back unto her “The more food, Madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in Heaven.”. This shows us Feste's grasp of wit and humour as he is able to twist Olivia's wording and reasoning for her mourning back upon her and revealing the folly in her actions. This Convention is also displayed with Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and, to a lesser extent, Fabian. All of these characters are central to the sub-plot that is going on during the later half of the play surrounding Malvolio and the letter, supposedly from Olivia. This is regarded as a rather important plot line as it makes Malvolio a key source of humour within the play, such as when he appears before Olivia in yellow stockings, cross-gartered in Act 3 Scene 4 and the sheer change of character and personality that occurs because of this. Furthermore within Act 4 Scene 2, when Feste is disguised as Sir Topaz and is tormenting Malvolio, the play takes a rather dark turn with the treatment of Malvolio. Feste descends into personal insults and openly mocks and degrades Malvolio using his personality as a religious authority which leads many to say that this scene is not humorous at all but is undoubtedly harsh and cruel and it also plays a factor in the humour of the play as a whole. All of these things tie into Shakespeare's repeated use of visual humour and comedy which is undoubtedly a constant and underlying theme within this play.

In conclusion a large amount of the humour within Twelfth Night is created, directly and indirectly, by the use of disguise and mistaken identity. Many of the key moments and scenes within the play stem directly from Shakespeare's use of this such as the love triangle between Orsino, Viola/Cesario and Olivia which could not have formed without the use of disguised, Malvolio and the letter and Olivia's marriage to Sebastian, all of which are key moment within the structure and flow of the play. While it is not solely disguise and mistaken identity that create the humour within the play it does play the majority role and is the cause of a lot of the other events and comedic moments within the play as events simply wouldn't have happened without these factors. Therefore disguise and mistaken identity do the large amount of generating humour and comedy within Twelfth Night.

By Callum Littlemore

Word Count: 1783