4 Shakespearean Comedy: Twelfth Night

Ms. Maria Rajan Thaliath

 Storyboard

Section 1– Historical and Biographical information

Section 2– Source and Summary of Twelfth Night

Section 3– Twelfth Night as a Shakespearean Comedy

Section 4– Characterization

Section 5– Themes

Section 6– Conclusion

Section One: Shakespeare and Comedy in Elizabethan England

William Shakespeare (b.1564- d.1616) wrote between 1590 and 1613, an age that enjoyed political, social and economic ease compared to the years that preceded and would succeed it. As such, the volume of literay output during this time was very large. He has to his credit thirty seven plays and 154 sonnets. His plays are often categorised for convenience as Tragedies, Comedies and Historical plays. A fourth class is sometimes identified to include plays that exhibit the traits of tragedies upto a certain point and then go on to a felicitous rather than a tragic resolution. These are the Tragi-comedies or the Romance plays of the final period of his career. Some of the noteworthy Shakespearean comedies are- A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595), Much Ado about Nothing (1598), As You Like It (1600) and Twelfth Night (1601). These show a maturity in the bard’s style, lacking in his early comedies like The Comedy of Errors (1593), Love’s Labour’s Lost (1594) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1595). Being a Renaissance man, Shakespeare must have been well- acquainted with the Latin Comedies of Plautus and Terence. Several of his plays, therefore, borrow the plots and structure of these plays.

Shakespeare’s comedies bestow a sense of well being upon the audience. They have powerful women characters, much like Queen Elizabeth herself. The main action revolves around love. The lovers usually have to overcome several obstacles before they can be united. The play usually ends in one or more marriage(s). Often themes like illusion, deception, disguise and madness are used as foils to the main theme of love. Shakespeare’s comedies have a light humorous tone, though his mature comedies have a more philosophical aspect to them. The dialogues are clever and witty and characterized by puns- clearly intended to please the audience. The use of stock characters like the drunken knight and the fool- traditions carried over from the medieval times were still prevalent. Yet even these characters, in his hands, become more rounded and less puppet-like than their predecessors. Though his plots are not original, Shakespeare incorporated contemporary political and social elements into his plays which made them the success they were.

The other notable comic dramatists of the period were Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton and John Marston. Unlike Shakespeare who mainly concentrated on Romantic Comedies, these playwrights developed the tradition of the Comedy of Humours and City Comedy. The former made use of one peculiar character trait for each specific character,  while the latter represented London city life in a satirical manner to achieve their comic effects. Every Man in His Humour (1598) and The Alchemist (1610) by Jonson belong to the first category, while Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599) and Chapman, Marston and Jonson’s Eastward Hoe! (1605) belong to the second.

If the early critics of Shakespeare’s comedies drew upon the gaiety of his plays, many new perspectives have been added by scholars since the twentieth century. Themes like sexuality, gender roles and identity crisis of the characters have been analysed to give his plays a more meaningful and complex aspect. Apart from this, his plays have been studied in the light of genre, language, history, politics and performance. C. L. Barber in Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and its Relation to Social Custom (1959) looks at the saturnalian patterns in the comedies and relates it to the Elizabethan holiday rituals and customs. Northrop Frye’s A Natural Perspective: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy and Romance (1965), seeks to connect Shakespearean comedy with the popular, the conventional and the mythic. In it he goes on to argue how comic endings are themselves a human fantasy of wish-fulfilment- “The  drive toward a festive conclusion, then, is the creation of a new reality out of something impossible but desirable.” In Shakespeare and the Traditions of Comedy (1974) Leo Salingar argues that “by the end of the comedy marriage appears as the resolution of the broader tensions, as the type or focus of harmony in society as a whole”. Terry Eagleton in his work William Shakespeare: Rereading Literature (1986) comments on how the bard’s “belief in social stability” is undermined by the “flamboyant punning, troping and riddling” in his language.

Section Two: Twelfth Night; or What You Will– Sources and Summary

The first record of Twelfth Night; or What You Will is from John Manningham’s diary entry dated February 1602. Literary evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote the play between 1600 and 1601, shortly before or after he wrote Hamlet. Twelfth Night was published much later as part of the First Folio in 1623. The story of the play seems to have been, atleast partly, borrowed from an Italian play, Gl’ingannati (The Deceived) written in 1531. An English story entitled “Apollonius and Silla”, written by Barnabe Riche in 1581, also narrates the tale of a shipwreck, a pair of twins, and a woman disguised as a man. It is assumed that Gl’ingannati was the inspiration for Barnabe Riche’s story and that it is from either one or both of these that Shakespeare created the plot involving Viola, Sebastian, Duke Orsino and Olivia. However, no satisfactory sources have been discovered for the sub-plot involving Sir Toby, Maria, Malvolio et al. This part is considered to be Shakespere’s own ingenious improvisation.

The title of the play seems to be a reference to the twelve days long festivities after Christmas that ended on January sixth. Traditionally, right from the medieval times, this was a season when general mayhem ruled with social and sexual mores being subverted. There are several arguments as to the choice of this title. One, perhaps the first performance of this play coincided with the twelfth day after Christmas. Two, given the nature of the play, it would have been an appropriate setting. In fact, a song sung by Sir Toby, one of the characters comes very close to a popular Christmas carol. Interestingly, this is one of the few Shakespearean plays to have a subtitle (“What you Will”). It would suggest that the playwright wanted his play to be taken in its proper spirit- a lighthearted comedy that could be interpreted anyway one wills. Some believe Shakespeare could have been mocking the custom of providing subtitles to works, by giving one that was useless and added no additional information about the play.

Like his other comedies, Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy. Viola, a noblewoman is washed ashore at Illyria, having apparently lost her only brother, Sebastian at sea. Making enquiries, she learns that Illyria is being ruled by Duke Orsino. According to rumours the Duke has been striving in vain for the love of Olivia, the daughter of a deceased count. Olivia refuses to countenance the Duke’s advances, citing her brother’s recent death as the reason. She has vowed to confine herself to her mourning weeds and to renounce the company of men for a period of seven years. Viola decides to pledge herself in service to Olivia. However, on being informed that the countess will take no one into her service, Viola decides to offer her services to the Duke instead. She dresses up as a man and presents herself as ‘Cesario’ at the Duke’s court. Young Cesario soon finds favour in the eyes of the lovesick Duke, who delegates him the delicate task of wooing Lady Olivia on his behalf. Matters are complicated by the fact that Viola herself, has now begun to fall in love with the Duke. The persistent Cesario is admitted into the presence of Olivia, who is soon captivated by the handsome, well-spoken messenger of the Duke.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch, a wayward lover of revelry and wine has brought into the house, a foolish, rich knight Sir Andrew Aguecheek, with promises of Olivia’s hand in marriage. Sir Toby is, in reality, duping the knight of his money. Feste, the fool employed by Olivia contributes generously to the general horseplay with his songs and witty banter. Malvolio, the rather stern and self-righteous Puritanical steward of the household frowns upon the merry- making of the lot and constantly chides them to maintain order. In retaliation, Sir Toby and Maria, Olivia’s maid hatch a plot to humiliate the presumptuous Malvolio. Maria writes a letter in the hand of her mistress, suggesting that Olivia is in love with Malvolio. The ambitious steward on receiving the letter thanks his good fortune and decides to act as per the instructions of the letter to win the love of his mistress. Smiling, cross-gartered and dressed in yellow stockings, he approaches Olivia. The lady of the house, now saddened by Cesario’s repudiation of her love, does not know what to make of Malvolio’s “strange” behaviour and has him transferred into the custody of her uncle and other servants, who have a laugh at his expense. Viola’s brother, Sebastian who had till now been thought to be drowned, reaches Illyria. Antonio, the sea-captain who saved him, further aids Sebastian by lending him his purse. Though the captain wants to join him ashore, an old quarrel with Duke Orsino prevents him from doing so. Sir Andrew, in the meantime, upset at Olivia’s evident interest in the Duke’s messenger wants to leave, but encouraged by Sir Toby, decides to challenge Cesario to a duel. Unfortunately for him, it is Sebastian whom he strikes. The latter is so incensed that he strikes back at Sir Andrew as well as Sir Toby. Olivia restores order and mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, convinces the dazed Sebastian to secretly marry her. They then part.

Antonio after waiting for his friend’s return, follows him ashore against his better judgement and is captured by the Duke’s men. Matters come to a head when the Duke with his train visits Olivia. Olivia confesses her marriage to Cesario, which he vehemently denies. Antonio, taking Cesario for Sebastian, asks him to return his purse, which Cesario denies having taken. The Duke is angered by Cesario’s seeming ingratitude and is on the verge of dismissing him, when Sebastian returns. At long last, everything is cleared up with Viola revealing her real identity. Duke Orsino, convinced of Viola’s loyalty decides to marry her. Sir Toby marries Maria for her help in teaching Malvolio a lesson. Malvolio is freed by Olivia when she realizes that he had been tricked by her uncle and maid. The play ends with a song by Feste.

Section Three: Twelfth Night, Shakespearean Comedies- structure and conventions

Twelfth Night like the Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence has a five act structure. The typical five act comedy consists of an exposition (an opening that sets forth the main conflict in the play), complication (series of events that increases the conflict), the climax (the turning point of the play), denouement (the unravelling of the confusion) and finally, the resolution (wherein matters are cleared up and the characters are happily united). These plays move from confusion to harmony and usually end in the marriage(s) of the main characters. A similar treatment is observed in plays like As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In Twelfth Night, just as in his other comedies, the comedy arises from two aspects- situation and character. Comedy of situation is that wherein an individual becomes the subject of the joke through circumstances beyond his/ her control. Sebastian being mistaken for Cesario would be an instance of this.

Deception arising out of mistaken identity is a crucial element in several comedies like The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice. This, in turn, can be the result of a ‘natural resemblance’ between the individuals or of disguise. In The Comedy of Errors, for example, we have two pairs of twins who get separated right after birth and the inadvertent confusion that follows when one pair ends up in the same city as the other. In the other plays, the chaos is a direct consequence of the disguise adopted by one of the characters- usually the heroine (Viola, Rosalind, Portia) of the play. One would think that this character is free of all deception and that she being in disguise, has an upper hand over the rest. Yet even this surmise is negated. Viola is left in an uncomfortable position as the object of Lady Olivia’s love. When ‘Cesario’ is forced into a duel with Sir Andrew through the machinations of Sir Toby and Fabian (another servant in Olivia’s household), she is saved only by the timely intervention of Antonio.

Comedy of character arises when the individual becomes the victim of a delusion or whim, partly because of his own inherent nature. For example, Malvolio was already dreaming of an alliance with his mistress when the others play the joke upon him. His fate is, in a sense, sealed through his overreaching ambition. Such a character is often termed the comic individual of the play.

Even the most comic of Shakespearean plots has a serious undercurrent to it. In Twelfth Night, Malvolio is the comic individual who becomes the butt of all jokes. By Shakespeare’s own admission Malvolio is a Puritan of sorts, who does not indulge in the frivolities of life. He is a stern disciplinarian and speaks out against drunkenness and merry-making. The other characters despise him for being a spoil-sport and kill-joy. They devise an ingenious ploy to humiliate him by making him believe that his mistress is in love with him. But, the joke doesn’t end there. Malvolio is imprisoned in a “dark room” and almost made to doubt his sanity. Not only do they mock him constantly but they also have Feste, the fool dress up as Sir Topas, the Curate in order to vex the helpless steward further. When Malvolio complains of the darkness of his cell, the Curate rejects it saying that the bay windows are as “transparent as barricadoes” and that the darkness he perceives is only that of his own mind. It is drummed into Malvolio that he is mad and/or evil, that he has brought this punishment upon himself and that the only way of saving himself is by praying for the Lord’s mercy. Even at the end when matters are cleared up, Olivia offers a luke-warm commiseration for what Malvolio had to undergo but no real justice.

Critics are divided over this treatment of him. While some feel that Malvolio was justly penalized for his self-righteousness and ambition, others condemn it on humanitarian grounds. Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth century critic, in “Notes on Twelfth Night, or What You Will” (1765) says- “The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule merely by his pride.” Whereas a little lesser than a century later, Charles Lamb in his book, On Some of the Old Actors (1823), forces us to look at Malvolio with sympathy- “..his pride, or his gravity, (call it which you will) is inherent, and native to the man, not mock or affected, which latter only are the fit objects to excite laughter.” At any rate, the fact that the Elizabethan audience loved this play is suggestive of the then prevalent attitude towards Puritans.

Shakespeare’s originality lay in fusing forms and themes. Though he borrowed heavily from Latin and Greek sources he made alterations to suit the temperament of his audience. Few of his plays, for instance, abide by the Three Unities (Unity of Action, Place and Time) of the classical Greek theatre. The use of sub-plots enhances the confusion and thus heightens the comic effect. Twelfth Night would have been a mere shadow of itself without the secondary plot of Sir Toby, Maria, Sir Andrew, Fabian and Malvolio. ‘Staging’ is another device used, which gives us an impression of a play within a play. Viola’s act as Cesario, the Duke’s posturing as a lovelorn man, the deception practised upon Malvolio, Feste’s caricature of Sir Topas and his song at the end (“we’ll strive to please you everyday”) increases the theatricality and hence the illusory quality of the play. David Bevington in his essay, “Last Scene of All: Retirement from the Theatre” (2002) says that Twelfth Night, like many of Shakespeare’s plays, “takes pains to remind us that we are in the theatre”.

An interesting fact is that most of Shakespeare’s plays are set in far off lands. Twelfth Night is no exception. It is set in Illyria, which is geographically situated along the Northern coast of modern Albania. Other Shakespearean comedies are set in Italy (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice), Bohemia (The Winter’s Tale), Greece (The Comedy of Errors, A  Midsummer Night’s Dream) and so on, despite the fact that characters (like Sir Toby) are many a time typically English. The Renaissance was a time when travel and exploration got a new impetus. During the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries explorers like Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan made their historic voyages. As a result several new territories were added to the European maps and trade relations were established with these newly discovered and conquered territories. In the play, Maria describes Malvolio’s face wreathed into smiles as having “more lines than is in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies” (III.ii). During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the English treasury benefited from  the trading activities of people like Sir Francis Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir John Davis, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Walter Raleigh. With the establishment of the slave trade (1560s), new commodities (tobacco, spices etc.) and new people started making their way into England. Writers of the period made good use of the exoticism associated with these lands. These were also depicted as centres of fabulous wealth. Sir Toby’s reference to Maria as his “metal of India” (II.v), by which he means gold, is to be understood in this context.

Section Four: Characterization – The Cross-dressed Heroine, the Fool and the rest

Despite having had two women as monarchs and for all its Renaissance humanism, sixteenth century England was largely patriarchal in its values. Cross-dressing in real life would have been seen as a serious offence punishable by legal, moral and religious codes. A woman’s role was confined to the four walls of her house, tending to her husband and family. Her greatest virtues were deemed to be piety, obedience, chastity, silence and patience. Interestingly, in 1620 a pamphlet entitled Hic Mulier (This Manlike Woman) was published, which condemned transvestitism among women and equated it to sexual promiscuity. Thus, it was only in fiction and carnivalesque celebrations that such ‘subversions’ would have been tolerated. Shakespeare’s cross- dressed heroines, in some respects, demonstrate a strength of will and boldness in their actions that would have been quite radical in that age. They are dynamic, resourceful and active- qualities deemed to be ‘masculine’ and yet, they are not so masculine so as to earn public censure. Perhaps, it can be argued that Shakespeare modeled some of their traits on those of his Queen.

Women in male guise served another, practical purpose. In Elizabethan England women actors were prohibited. Until the Restoration in 1660, young boys used to act the roles of women characters. The ‘Cesario’ of our play would then, have been a boy acting as a female in male guise. This made sense as little effort would be required for the boys to look their part and the actors would be more comfortable donning their roles, and robes, as well.

In the play, Viola is the daughter of a nobleman. Her speech and manners are those of a sophisticated, educated woman. On reaching Illyria she doesn’t wait for fate to rule her. On realizing that it would be impossible for her to meet Lady Olivia, she immediately makes up her mind to serve the Duke. She takes the aid of a sea-captain to dress up as a man. Viola is quick in her decisions and intelligent enough to realize that a man’s garb will offer her the protection that her brother would have been able to give her, had he been with her. Thus Viola constructs her ‘masculinity’ as a shield and asks the captain to present her to Orsino as a ‘eunuch’. She uses the word ‘eunuch’ instead of ‘man’ perhaps because her disguise negates the traditional concept of gender itself. R. W. Maslen in the critical essay “Twelfth Night, Gender, and Comedy” (2006) writes- “In this comedy, women are mistaken for men, men mistaken for women disguised as men, and definitions of manhood and womanhood themselves called into question.” In ‘Cesario’ we  have neither a whole woman nor a man. Through disguise Viola has the freedom of expression,  not usually granted to a woman. She can now speak of her love to Orsino, though he is unaware of the full import of her words. Despite this freedom of speech and movement, her physical frailty still goes against her. Thus, Cesario is reluctant to fight a duel because Viola cannot. Viola empathizes with Olivia because she knows what unrequited love feels like and yet she can find no way of untangling the problem, without revealing her secret. As Anna Jameson demonstrates in her essay titled “Viola” (1833)- “her disguise does not sit so easily upon her; her heart does not beat freely under it”. In many ways then, Viola’s male guise serves only to heighten her helplessness and ergo her ‘femininity’. She is among the very few Shakespearean heroines to remain in disguise until the end of the play. Ultimately, she is only too happy to accept male authority by accepting Orsino as her husband.

The fool, jester or clown was a character commonly used by playwrights of the period. He was a direct descendant of the Satan or Vice of the earlier Morality plays. Shakespeare fashioned his fools so that they would, through their mischievous banter and ostensible madness, bring out the foolishness of the world. To be a fool was to be quick witted, intelligent and philosophical but garbed in the cloak of mirth and seeming nonsense. As Viola remarks to herself about Feste, “This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; And to do that well craves a kind of wit. ” (III.i). Thus, Feste (the name resembles the Italian word for ‘holiday’) can read the moods of his masters as easily as he can break into songs. He can make even the cross Olivia, in mourning, smile by his ready wit.

Clown. Good madonna, why mournest thou?

Olivia. Good fool, for my brother’s death.

Clown. I think his soul is in hell, madonna.

Olivia. I know his soul is in heaven, fool.

Clown. The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul being in heaven. — Take away the fool, gentlemen. (I.v)

Feste describes the three stages of drunkenness as foolishness, madness and drowning. He puts Sir Toby, rightly, in the second phase. He mercilessly pokes fun at the weak intellect of Sir Andrew. In his art, he is very talented for he can as readily sing the mellifluous love song that enthralls Orsino as the clamorous catch that brings Malvolio running from his bed in wrath. In fact all his songs can be interpreted to have deeper meanings to them. For instance, in the song “Come away, come away death”, ‘death’ could be a pun referring to demise as well as sexual orgasm. Clear- headed as he is, Feste remains almost aloof from the general mayhem. He helps Sir Toby and Maria in their ploy to teach Malvolio a lesson primarily because he nurtures a grudge against the steward who had belittled his profession earlier on. Yet, it is he who takes measures to end the  joke by providing Malvolio light, pen, paper and ink for his letter to Olivia. Feste alone seems to be at home at all times donning several roles. He can act as Sir Topas, the Curate and still play the fool. He takes good care of his finances by demanding pay from those whom he deems it safe. He is predictably unpredictable in his ways. Yet, despite his merry disposition he knows the world well. He knows that the wise will suffer for their wisdom and that one does not gain much in  return by caring for another. In “Feste the Jester” (1916), A. C. Bradley, the well-known critic of Shakespearean tragedy, argues that Feste outranks all the other characters in terms of mental superiority. Harold Bloom’s introduction to Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: William Shakespeare: Comedies (2009) hails him as “the most admirable of Shakespeare’s clowns” and the “only sane character” within the play.

The other characters in Twelfth Night are the lovesick, egoistical Duke, who seems, at times, more in love with the concept of love than with Olivia; Olivia, who swears to keep herself away from men for seven years in remembrance of her dead brother but unveils herself quite readily for Cesario; Sebastian, the lost twin and the one who is instrumental in clearing up all the problems; the merry-making duo of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew- the one lacking in temperance and the other  in wit; Maria, the clever and mischievous maid; Malvolio, the severe steward; Antonio, a captian and a loyal friend to Sebastian and Fabian, a servant who supports the knights and Maria in all their schemes.

Section Five: Themes- The Illusion of Love, Courtship and Marriage

As already mentioned, in Shakespeare’s times the man had the upper hand when it came to love, courtship and marriage. The woman, the submissive vessel, had to abide by the decisions made by her father or brother. Yet, in Twelfth Night these gender roles seem to be re-written, in some respects. Olivia’s wooing of Cesario would be one such instance. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew of his niece that she has sworn not to marry anyone above her in station, age or wit. He is, ofcourse, not a very reliable source, but if his words are true then Olivia seems to be as determined as any man to marry the one of her choice. This could account for her reluctance to accept the Duke, who is accounted by all to be a good man. Financially independent, she is relatively free to pursue her ends as both her father and brother have died and her uncle is her dependent.

It does not take Olivia very long to discard her mourning weeds to pursue Cesario, which shows that this was only a pretext to keep Orsino at bay. Interestingly it is not Cesario’s ‘masculinity’ that is appealing to Olivia. She finds his “beautiful scorn” and and “angry lips” (epithets more suited for a girl than a man) attractive . She tells him that she woos him against her reason and inspite of his pride. In a clear case of role reversal, the reluctant ‘man’ is being courted by the woman. Ofcourse, Olivia does not know that she is wooing a woman, but her interest in the rather effeminate Cesario could have homoerotic implications.

The Duke, on the other hand, is a typical lover of his times. He will woo his lady until she accepts him. He cannot take no for an answer. In this, he strikes us as being terribly egoistical. He is deliberately melancholic in the pursuit of the ideal love (Olivia) that he does not have hopes of attaining. In several instances, it would appear that his love for Olivia itself, is only secondary to his role as a lover. Maslen’s essay tells us how the Duke’s view of women is both “generalized” and “inconsistent”. In his conversation with Cesario, Orsino begins by arguing that men are more prone to “giddy and unfirm” fancies than women and ends by stating that no woman could love him with the same vigour as his love for Olivia, which is “as hungry as the sea” (II.iv). Nevertheless at the end of the play he is quite willing to transfer his attentions to Viola and even to accept Olivia, his once “true passion” as his sister.

The friendship between Orsino and Cesario reinforces the concept of same sex love. Valerie Traub’s essay “The Homoerotics of Shakespearean Comedy” (1992) presents the duke as a man torn between his heterosexual desire for Olivia and his homoerotic fondness for Cesario. When the Duke sends him on the mission to court Olivia, he tells the young messenger that his (Cesario’s) lips are as “smooth” and “rubious” as Diana’s and that his countenance and voice are apt for the task. There is an almost loverlike aspect to Orsino’s appraisal of Cesario’s beauty. Similarly, in the last scene when Cesario proclaims that he is willing to die “jocund, apt and willingly….a thousand deaths” to satisfy Orsino, it is an avowal of his love for his master. However, as in Feste’s song, “death” can be read in its sexual connotation, which would then imply that Cesario is willing to sleep with his master. The fact that it is Viola, a woman, who utters these words lends a certain ‘legitimacy’ to the sentiment. Orsino eventually proposes to Viola for her “service done [to] him/ So much against the mettle of…[her]…sex” (V.v). Quite apparently he seems delighted with her ‘masculine’ traits. Maslen writes- “…it’s her ability not to be the ideal passive woman he has so far imagined for himself that most delights him about her. In token of this delight, he continues to call her “Cesario” long after he has learned her identity…thus preserving our sense of their relationship as a love affair between men as well as between man  and woman.” And yet, as Traub points out, Orsino defers accepting Viola as his betrothed until she adopts her “maiden weeds”, which establishes his homophobic tendencies.

As Cesario, Viola cannot woo the Duke, but she does give hints as to which way her love lies, so that at the end of the play, when her identity is revealed, the Duke is in no doubt of her meaning. Why Viola loves the Duke is another interesting but inexplicable problem. By Sebastian’s account, Viola is beautiful. In terms of her speech, manners and intellect, she is an accomplished woman who finds it easy to win people over- even those belonging to a class above herself. She is able to ingratiate herself with the Duke as well as with Olivia. It is quite singular that a woman of her worth is not able to see through the posturing and egotism of Orsino. To insinuate that her love for him stems from a desire to better her position, would be too harsh. But, it can be safely assumed that she too is a victim of sentimentality and that at some level, she is moved to love him because of his unrequited love for Olivia.

The love triangle that is formed is complete because Orsino loves Olivia, who loves ‘Cesario’ and Viola, dressed as Cesario loves Orsino. It is a Gordian knot, until the appearance of Sebastian. Like the Deus ex machina of the Greek plays all the problems are now resolved. Olivia cannot have the lover of her preference as that turns out to be a woman. She gets the next best thing- a man who is an almost replica of her Cesario. The Duke is suddenly left without an ideal and his only hope of finding love is to settle for the woman who loves him. This he does with surprisingly good grace. Thus, everything is settled happily. The men (Orsino and Sebastian) have done little in pursuing love, are chosen by their respective partners and have only to consent to the union.

There is one other marriage that is often overlooked in the scheme of things- Maria’s marriage to Sir Toby. This is a rather unconventional union for two reasons- the transcendence of class barriers and the fact that there seems to be no question of love. Sir Toby, though Olivia’s dependent, is her kinsman and a knight. That he should marry a maid in the employment of his niece is remarkable. The reason for marrying her is not that he has fallen in love with her, but that she has helped him in carrying out his revenge against Malvolio. Maria’s acquiescence to the match is easier to fathom as she would be bettering her station by getting married to the drunken Knight.

These instances within the play point out that the concepts of gender, love, courtship and marriage have been inverted. Women court men, marriage is the reward for playing a prank well and love seems illusory at best- a sort of incurable madness. Viewed thus, this play seems to be a satirical take on the then prevalent notions of love, courtship and marriage. The subtitle of the play – What you Will – seems very apt in this context.

Section six: Conclusion

Twelfth Night is a classic example of a Shakespearean Comedy. These plays trace their movement from a central conflict to its resolution through obstacles, complications, reversals and discoveries. As such Shakespeare’s comedies are different from the earlier forms of comedy which were more episodic in nature (like the mystery cycles of the medieval period). Along with a plot line laden with twists and turns, the characters are more fleshed out and alive. In his comedies, the heroines tend to play more decisive and prominent roles than the males. Across his seventeen comedies, quite a few of his women characters dress themselves up in male guise and a good part of these plays deals with the gender and identity issues that follow. However, at the end of the play each of the main characters are united with their respective mates and a moral and social order is restored.

Though the central plot of Twelfth Night revolves around love, when closely analysed, it reveals itself almost as a treatise against love. Through all the madness and deception, love itself seems to be just a folly or an illusion. The melancholic lover, the Duke is forced to relinquish his ideal, one-sided love and marry the woman who loves him, Viola. Olivia gets married to Sebastian, who is only a replica of her ‘real’ love interest, Cesario. Sebastian is enchanted by the charms of Olivia and lets himself be ruled by her. Malvolio is deceived into thinking that his mistress is in love with him and consequently makes a fool of himself. Sir Toby weds Maria for the fine jest she plays on Malvolio. Viola’s love, the source of which is questionable, seems at any rate constant. That she should woo another lady, with all earnestness, on behalf of Orsino, is proof enough of this. Thus, this light hearted and humorous play subverts ideas of gender and love.

On the whole, Twelfth Night has fared well with its critics. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, thought it a “silly play”, and yet could not help watching it three times in the 1660s. More than a century later, Samuel Johnson described it as “elegant and easy” and its more comical scenes “exquisitely humorous”, although he found Olivia’s marriage to be incredible. The nineteenth century, the Romantic age of English Literature, saw the idolization of Shakespeare, which G. B. Shaw would later dub as ‘Bardolatory’. William Hazlitt in his essay “Twelfth Night: or, What You Will” (1817) thought it “full of sweetness and pleasantry” and “too good-natured for comedy”, having “little satire, and no spleen”. The poet, Arthur Symons in an introduction to the play (1894) similarly remarked that a “golden mean, a sweet moderation reigns throughout” it.

In the twentieth and twenty first centuries the play has been dissected and studied from diverse angles. Morris P. Tilley in his essay titled “The Organic Unity of Twelfth Night” (1914) argues that this drama “is a philosophical defence of a moderate indulgence in pleasure”. J. B. Priestley’s “The Illyrians” (1925) is a commentary on the comic characters. He explains how Malvolio “stands outside the real comic tradition”. Harold Bloom in an introduction to the play in 1987 observes that “instability of identity is the essence of Twelfth Night” and that except for Feste, none of the others are capable of learning anything. Lisa Marciano presents the elements of dark comedy (“The Serious Comedy of Twelfth Night: Dark Didacticism in Illyria”, 2003), Valerie Traub and W. Maslen emphasize on gender roles and David Bevington focuses on staging within the play.

Twelfth Night was one of the earliest plays to be performed after the Restoration when the theatres were opened. In the seventeenth and early half of eighteenth century, only loose adaptations of the play were staged, as the trend had by then shifted towards sentimental comedy. The original text was revived in a Drury Lane production in 1741. Throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries, it has been a popular choice for many on-stage productions. Movie adaptations like Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996) and She’s the Man (2006) have also met with moderate success. The latter is set in a high-school and all the characters are teenagers. It goes to show that Shakespeare’s plays are universal and irrespective of time and place they continue to appeal.

Reference

• Gurr, Andrew. Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London.Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Wells, Stanley W. & Stanton, Sarah.The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage.Cambridge University Press. 2002.
• Leggatt, Alexander. Introduction To English Renaissance Comedy. Manchester University Press. 1999.
• Amussen, Susan. An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England. Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Dusinberre, Juliet. Shakespeare and the Nature of Women. London: Macmillan. 1975.
• Denton, Jaques Snider. “The System of Shakespeare’s Dramas”. St. Louis: G. T. Jones and Company, 1877. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2009. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/elementsofcomedy.html>.