Twelfth Night: Character Analysis

As the handmaiden of Olivia, Maria is considered today to play a relatively minor role in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, but despite her minor role, Maria is the driving piece in the subplot to trick Malvolio by writing a letter in her lady’s script, and she is, at the end of the play, married to Olivia’s cousin Sir Toby. Maria is typically interpreted as being “feisty, witty, and outgoing” (Marshall 217), but some would argue that this is not her personality in Trevor Nunn’s rendition of Twelfth Night. Here I will discuss the differences between Twelfth Night as a play by Tim Carroll verses Twelfth Night as a movie by Trevor Nunn; between these two renditions, Maria is more true to character in Carroll’s rendition than Nunn’s because

Actually, all the parts are played by men. Tim Carrol’s production is meant to be an original production with the props and clothing appearing like that of the Elizabethan theatre (Stasio 101). This includes having viewers being circled around the stage with box seating on either side of the stage where viewers can also sit and watch (Benedict 25). This also means that all the lines were as close to what Shakespeare wrote as possible; the only additions being how the actors portrayed the characters and a character or two being present when not officially having a line. Some characters will also speak when they would not have during the original writing, but despite this, Carroll’s play is considered an original practice. The main deviation from what can be interpreted from reading the play is Maria’s apparent unhappiness to being married to Sir Toby. When reading the play, Maria seems to be trying to impress Sir Toby, and this is acted out by Paul Chahidi, but, Maria does not seem very excited when her marriage to Sir Toby is presented. She simply says “Yay…” in a rather melancholy fashion (Carroll). Maria is depicted as trying to be with Sir Toby. When Sir Toby kisses Maria, she looks very surprised and pleased, but the addition of her displeasure about marriage is simply another interpretation that can be supported by the lines of the