Critical Evaluation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

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Critical Evaluation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

The play I read is called “Twelfth Night”, and was written by William

Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is known for his brilliant

playwriting skills, “Twelfth Night” is no exception. “Twelfth Night”

was branded as a comedy when it was written in the 1600s, I am writing

this essay to see if “Twelfth Night” can still be classed as a comedy

in the twenty-first century, or if the humour is too old fashioned for

modern tastes.

The main theme of the play is mistaken identities. The three main

characters are Orsino, a Duke, Olivia, a countess, and Viola, a woman

who dresses as a man so she can be a servant to Orsino. During the

play Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian turns up and everyone thinks he

is Viola, as she is dressing as a man. Viola is in love with Orsino

but Orsino is in love with Olivia and Olivia is in love with Viola,

this creates a love triangle. Also in the play there are servants and

two knights who produce a lot of humour.

In conjunction to the love triangle there are three additional plot

lines in the play, they involve Malvolio, a servant, finding a love

letter, a duel between Viola and Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Olivia

proposing to Sebastian, as she thinks he is Viola. I will discuss

these to see if they have any humour among them.

Malvolio is a servant who thinks he is more superior than he actually

is. Before he finds the love letter he is day-dreaming about himself

being married to Olivia.

Malvolio says “There is example for’t: the lady of Strachy married the

yeomen of the wardrobe -.”

This would be funny because Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and

Fabien, a friend of theirs, are hiding in the bushes listening and

watching Malvolio. While he is day-dreaming he comes across the love

letter. This is a joke as it was written by Maria, a maid, Sir Toby

and Sir Andrew to get revenge on Malvolio as he is so big headed.

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