...Twelfth Night is a magnificent comedy written by famous writer William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night or What you will was probably written for performance on the Twelfth Night i.e. the last night of the Christmas holiday ,January 6th in the year 1601.it is also likely that it was first presented before queen Elizabeth I in a great hall of her palace of Whitchali ,just outside London. the play would suit such an occasion since it’s a delightful ,lighthearted comedy ,full of love and laughter ,and with only a cloud or two to pass across the happy sunshine. But what about the social background of the play? For many centuries Christian communities have celebrated the feast of Epiphany-the time when the infant Jesus was first presented to the Magi (wise men) twelve days after his birth on Christmas day .in Shakespeare’s time; this whole period from 25th December to 6th January was given over to ‘Yuletide revels’-a time of feasting and celebration which probably dates back to Roman Satumalin. During this extended partying, it was traditional to play tricks on people, and it was understood that, for a while the usual master-servant relationship were turned on their heads. Twelfth Night was a period of carnival in which typically: a. People might give away to bodily pleasures of all kinds (drinking too much, indulging in sex, over eating and many more). b. Language itself seemed to run riot (with jokes, nonsense and wit). c. The traditional hierarchies (the lord and lady ‘at the top’...
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...Twelfth Night Coursework Introduction Q. ‘Comedy, like all drama depends on conflicts, in particular between weak and strong characters’. Explore how far you agree that Shakespeare uses conflict to create comedy in twelfth night? Shakespeare’s use of conflict to create comedy for the reader is very effective, as he makes the arguments themselves be based on misunderstandings and manipulation, providing humour for the reader because they are not really caused by any actual wrong doing by any of the characters. This shows that the characters that have been manipulated in this way, such as Sir Andrew, when Sir Toby gets him to fight Viola/Cesario, are weak characters, because as with Sir Andrew, he has allowed Sir Toby to cloud his judgment and cause him to believe that he has a good reason to fight Viola. In this situation, there is more humour because we learn that Sir Andrew dresses very well and has a respectful position, he seems at first like he should be a stronger man, but Sir Toby’s easy manipulation of him shows the reader that Sir Andrew is in fact more like an unsure, naïve child. Because of this we get the impression that Sir Andrew is one of the weaker characters, but we know that Viola is a stronger character, because although she is afraid to fight Sir Andrew when he challenges her, she tries her best, and stands up to fight despite being innocent and being a woman. This could be humorous for the reader too, because we see how Sir Andrew is afraid to fight Viola...
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...not be well accepted during his time. One of these major themes in Twelfth Night happens to be the question of sexual identity throughout the play. From the beginning until the end of the play, Shakespeare shows how the idea of sexual identity can be questionable and how it affects the main characters throughout the play. As the play Twelfth Night begins, the reader gets a first glance at how Shakespeare suggests the idea of cross dressing through Viola, who poses as Cesario in order to work for Orsino. “For such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent,” here Viola tells the Captain her plans and asks him to keep quiet. Wearing her brother’s clothing, she disguises herself to be a man because she fancied Orsino and to get closer to him. In this scene Shakespeare raises the question of Viola’s sexuality because of her cross dressing. Even though the idea of cross dressing seems to be over stepping social acceptance bounds, it is also ironic considering that theatre at the time always contained cross dressing if a play consisted of female parts. Viola’s relationship with Orsino progresses rapidly in a matter of a few days which helps to understand how Viola is proceeding in her plan for Orsino when she said , “I’ll serve the duke;” ultimately drawing her to the conclusion that it will show Orsino, “that will allow me very worth his service,” meaning she’s worthy to serve him. When Viola is sent to “address thy gait unto her”, referring to Olivia, to convince...
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...“He is the wisest character in the play”. How far do you agree with this interpretation of Feste in Twelfth Night? This essay will explore the notion that Feste is the wisest character in the play. The definition of wise is “having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment: a wise precaution.” Feste is the epitome of irony, I think a modern day audience would the audience may believe a ‘fool’ to be purely someone to make you laugh and be an idiot. However Feste is very much the opposite; he fits the definition of wise, he speaks profoundly, questions high class characters such as Olivia and almost undermines her with his wit. He is very melancholic, especially about love whereas everybody else is almost controlled by it and the audience may see him to be wise because he avoids love to stay happy. Feste is a ‘licenced fool’ in “Twelfth Night” and this means that he is allowed to judge people whereas others would be punished for doing so therefore this gives him some power as he is allowed to speak the truth. Olivia, in Act 1, Scene 5, says “there is no slander in an allowed fool.” This suggests to me that Olivia doesn’t see him as a fool or a jester, she sees him as someone who will speak the truth because he is ‘allowed’ to judge people not to be cruel but to offer advice and this suggests that Olivia sees Feste as being wise otherwise she would not come to him to ask for his help or listen to what he says. Alan S. Downer of ‘College English’ says that ''Feste is...
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...satire of the way in which men woo women his sincerity is reflected in a different relationship in Twelfth Night, that of Orsino and Viola. Although Orsino has not known that his ‘man’ Cesario is really a woman, the relationship they have is much more sincere and based on truth and friendship, which means that when he realises the truth of the situation he asks her to marry him. Both the love depicted in Sonnet 130 and the relationship of Orsino and Viola would surely have the approval of the narrator of Christina Walsh’s A Woman to Her Lover, who wants “"co-equal love"” based on truth, rather than any kind of idealisation that makes the woman into an “"angel"” or a “"doll"”. His real love and real interest is his own poetry, and the name he is making for himself. This (much more modern) poem rather reflects Orsino’s own character in Twelfth Night: he is more interested in listening to music and Feste’s sad songs than going to make Olivia marry him. Viola partly wins Olivia’s heart by saying what she would do if she were Orsino, the first thing being to come and make camp outside Olivia’s house. This speech draws the reaction from Olivia: “"you might do much"”. Typically in Shakespeare's comedies, the transforming and redemptive power of genuine (selfless) love is contrasted with the stagnant nature of self-seeking love. This contrast is vividly dramatized in "Twelfth Night," as the plot is entirely driven by the search for love. False love is reduced to absurdity in order...
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...This is no different in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. Twelfth night was written around 1601-1602 and officially published in 1623. The first performance of the Twelfth Night is believed to occurred on February 2 1602. The Twelfth night is a romantic comedy for the ages, It revolves around a love triangle. But saying love triangle doesn’t even do it justice, essentially all the characters are in love with each other. it’s a story that I think could hold up in a modern day version. The story is about a girl name Viola who was in a shipwreck with her brother Sebastian, Viola is rescued by a captain and his ship. On the ship she is informed about a duke name Orsino, she learns that he is single and this intrigues Viola so she wishes to meet him and eventually marry him. So when she arrives she feels that in order to meet Orsino and get close to him she has to develop a disguise. So viola cuts her hair and becomes a young teenage boy name Cesario. Violas plan to marry the duke has one problem in it. The duke is madly deeply in love with lady Olivia. Lady Olivia is a pretty Nobel women, that every one has feelings for. The duke wishes to marry Olivia, but Olivia hates the idea and has denied the duke numerous times. And also chasing and competing for Lady Olivia’s heart is her steward Malvolio. Malvolio is a devoted steward and will do anything for Olivia but secretly loves her. And What makes this weird is that when Olivia meets Viola dressed up as Cesario she starts to fall...
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...The last act of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is where the play brings all the subplots together and the play comes to a “resolution”, a typical convention in Shakespearian comedies usually signified by a wedding, in this case there are two marriages, one between Viola and Orsino and one between Olivia and Sebastien. One of the comedic aspects of the final act of the play is the ever present theme of false appearances and how that creates confusion and ambiguity amongst the characters but the audience as well. In the last scene, it is used by Shakespeare to bring the characters the together and it is very ironic that the source of confusion in the first place is the very thing that ends the confusion in the play. The false appearance of Cesario causes confusion once again as it introduces the theme of homosexuality in the final scene. Viola expresses her love for Orsino through Cesario saying that “more by all mores than e’er I shall love wife” despite the fact that no one knows that Cesario is in fact a women. The fact that Orsino does not deny this love, shows that he has similar feelings, especially because he says that he Cesario is someone that he tenders “dearly”. This is comedic because it shows the reversal of feelings that Orsino has in a very short space of time. Throughout the play he has been infatuated with the concept of a relationship with Olivia, yet now that he is rejected yet again, he turns to his more homosexual side and accepts Cesario’s love for him. This...
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...The Twelfth Night, Or What You Will is a reflection of how Shakespeare felt and his state of mind after the death of his son, Hamnet. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night has characters that are in mourning similar to Shakespeare’s mourning, the characters were inspired by his grief, and this means he is the acceptance stage of grief. Twelfth Night is a comedy about Viola, who pretends to be a man to survive in the new land she has shipwrecked upon. She is sent by the Duke Orsino, whom she has fallen for, to plead his love to Olivia, who is deep in mourning. Olivia falls for Viola, AKA: Cesario. This creates an awkward love triangle, especially when Viola’s brother, Sebastian turns out to be alive and is mistaken for Cesario. Malvolio, Olivia’s steward, is tricked by Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby, and her maid, Maria. Everything is eventually sorted out, and the twin siblings reunite happily. Sebastian...
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...adaptation of Twelfth Night is faithful to Shakespeare’s play, there are differences that slightly alter the audience’s perception of the story. Nunn chooses to downplay some aspects of the play while playing up others. The relationships between the characters seems to be the emphasis of the story. He adds in new material to supplement the plot while emphasizing minute points to make a bigger impact on modern audiences. The prologue is entirely new to the story. In Shakespeare’s play, the action starts with Orsino’s dilemma with Olivia and then moves on to the aftermath of the shipwreck. Nunn’s film begins with a prologue to showcase the close relationship between Viola and Sebastian. There is an emphasis on how close these two characters are, making it a point to say that they are alone in the world together. This sets up the emotional reunion between Viola and Sebastian at the end. Their reunion is the most emotional scene in the play and including a prologue in which it is explained how close the twins are helps to create an even more powerful scene....
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...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...
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...Pick two characters in ‘Twelfth Night’ and analyse their role and what they might represent from what you have read so far. Use the text and any research you have done to help explain your opinions. Despite not being a main character, Feste has a significant role in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It can be argued he is less of a character and more of a function as he takes on a choric, commentary role rather than a participatory one throughout the play. Feste’s position as an ‘allowed fool’ gives him the ability to speak his own inscrutable form of wisdom, and therefore allows him to point out truths that other characters don’t want to hear. He tells Olivia that her brother’s soul is in heaven and therefore beyond mourning, thereby urging her...
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...English Essay Task Characters often play a crucial role in constructing meaning in plays; How have characters been developed in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night? Shakespeare is world-renowned for his aptitude in writing plays, for a wide range of audiences, and one of these plays is Twelfth Night. In this play, Shakespeare takes particular care in the development of his characters in order to construct the meanings and messages embedded in Twelfth Night. Through the development of some key, central characters within the play, namely Olivia and Malvolio, Shakespeare showcases the chaos and hardship instigated by their pride, and is then able to reinforce the importance of order and adhering to the set, established, hierarchy of Elizabethan times. Shakespeare first portrays the character of Olivia as vain, superficially judgemental, and indulging in her own self-pity, neglecting her duties as the lady of the house. A secondary character, Malvolio, is depicted by Shakespeare to be overambitious and full of his own self-importance – attempting to overstep his position. Shakespeare manifests different forms of pride in different characters in order to show that whatever the facet of pride the character might possess, in the end, their fatal flaw will still result in chaos and misfortune, thereby emphasising the need of adhering to and attending to the duties of their positions so that order can be maintained. Through Olivia’s language and interactions with other characters, Shakespeare...
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...another seven years—and she refuses to marry anyone until then. Orsino, obsessed with the woman who keeps refusing him, wants only to lie around on beds of flowers, listening to sweet music and dreaming of Olivia. Summary: Act I, scene ii Meanwhile, on the Illyrian sea coast, a young noblewoman named Viola speaks with the captain whose crew has just rescued her from a shipwreck. Although Viola was found and rescued, her brother, Sebastian, seems to have vanished in the storm. The captain tells Viola that Sebastian may still be alive. He says that he saw Sebastian trying to keep afloat by tying himself to a broken mast. But Viola does not know whether or not it is worth holding onto hope. In the meantime, however, she needs to find a way to support herself in this strange land. The ship’s captain tells Viola all about Duke Orsino, who rules Illyria. Viola remarks that she has heard of this duke and mentions that he used to be a bachelor. The captain says that Orsino still is a bachelor, but then goes on to tell Viola about the Lady Olivia, whom the duke is courting. Again, we hear the tale of how Lady Olivia’s brother died, leading her to cut herself off from the world. Viola expresses a wish...
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...surface of the play, providing great comedy and risking tragedy.’ To what degree are the central characters in some way mad, or verging on madness? In Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ the madness being referred to in the title could describe mayhem, silliness, uproar and risky behaviour. No one is truly insane; however a number of characters are accused of being mad and certainly psychologically unstable, and a current of insanity or zaniness runs through the action of the play. Throughout ‘Twelfth Night’, madness could be perceived to be bubbling under the surface. We see this from the opening line ‘If music be the food of love, play on. ’ Orsino is perhaps showing some of the symptoms of madness such as obsession. Immediately the audience is alerted to the potential madness to follow; the line acts as a means for Shakespeare to foreshadow future madness. It seems there is obvious psychological instability here. Shakespeare introduces the idea of love-sickness and makes us aware that love will be the basis for the majority of madness within the play. It is clear that Shakespeare wanted to demonstrate the potential madness has to lead characters into great sadness or despair, shown in various forms such as obsessive behaviour, excess and addiction, madness of love, grief and inflexible belief. Madness in ‘Twelfth Night’ is multi-dimensional. It creates seemingly conflicting consequences it succeeds in creating comedy and threatening tragedy. Probably the most obvious scene involving...
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...Twelfth Night has several amusing love plots that many characters are caught up in. Shakespeare wrote this comedy’s love plots while not truly taking gender into consideration. A male can feel love for a male and a female can feel love for a female in this play without the characters realizing how outlandish it may be. The most conspicuous example of this is between Sebastian and Antonio. These two seem to be more than just friends and their love for each other truly offers, “what you will.” Antonio and Sebastian have somewhat of an odd relationship with each other. Antonio is infatuated by Sebastian from the beginning. He always wants Sebastian by his side and he is constantly worried about his safety. There is proof in the text that may...
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