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Analyse a play Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
Analyse a play Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
Analyse a play Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
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Understanding Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night “Above my fortunes, yet my state as well: I am a gentleman” (1.5.00). The Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s this phrase said to Olivia from Viola make readers concerned and what to know more about Shakespeare’s way in developing identity and other themes in his characters. In understanding Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, one must explore the several themes that construct the play. Many take in elements of what a tragedy was like during Shakespeare’s time, while others played on the political commentary. Identity is one of the major themes explored because it’s one of the many confusing elements in the play, such as Viola playing as Cesario in order to find her brother. Exploring the themes of gender identity, love and self, danger of love and death readers will have a better understanding of the play. …show more content…
The beginning of Act 1 is where the readers learn that Viola and her brother had been separated by the shipwreck. Viola fears that her brother could be dead, so in order to change how Viola thinks she decides to go look for her brother in hopes of finding him. Yet, it’s not that easy Viola must take on a manly disguise so she can become a part of Orsino’s court. The disguise gets Viola (Cesario) the position and eventually Orsinio becomes fond of Cesario. The reasoning for gender bending in the Twelfth Night is that during Shakespeare’s time women didn’t have much of an influence in the world of men. Men would play the roles of women instead of women playing the roles which led some people to wonder about the sexuality of the characters and even Shakespeare himself. The gender bending of Viola is confusing because readers are unsure if Viola connects with being the women disguise a man. It’s definite that Viola played her role as Cesario well, not getting caught until the very
The play Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare is a 1601 comedy that has proven to be the source of experimentation in gender casting in the early twenty-first century due to its portrayal of gender in love and identity. The play centrally revolves around the love triangle between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. However, Olivia and Orsino both believe Viola is a boy named Cesario. Ironically, only male actors were on the stage in Shakespeare’s time. This means that Olivia, Viola, and other female characters were played by young boys who still had voices at higher pitches than older males.
People are not always who they appear to be. Whether it’s that fierce tattooed muscle man or that sweet elderly lady smiling from a few seats away, what is perceived is not always what is true. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night portrays many a character whose identities do not align with their inner character. Olivia’s polite ladylike demeanour, Sir Toby’s guise of nobility, and Feste’s job as a fool all demonstrate how social identities don’t always align with inner character. Olivia’s public status shows her as a caring and high-class lady, a persona that contrasts to her inner self as a bold and tenacious woman.
“Who’s there?” the sentinels in Hamlet demanded. They have seen a ghost wandering around in the shape of the late king of Denmark, but they can’t be sure if it really is the ghost of the late Hamlet, since devils are known to assume different shapes in order to stir up troubles. This reflects one of the identity dilemmas in Hamlet: the discrepancy between the inward and the outward dimensions of identity, or according to Claudius, the “exterior” and the “inward” that comprise a man (Ham. 2.2.6). Hamlet thus explores the problematic relationship between these two dimensions of identity. I Henry IV, likewise, explores the problematic dynamic between them, for example, with the eponymous king vowing to meet the outward demand of being “mighty
When it is time for me to fill out any form that asks me to check my ethnicity I become confused. My confusion comes from the difficulty of not finding my ethnicity on one of the boxes and the assumption of others who sees me differently. The assumption of me being either from India or Bangladesh becomes an astonishing revelation when I say that I am not from either country. I identify myself as Guyanese Indian. I was born in Guyana by native Guyanese parents. However, my grandparents and great grandparents originated from Kolkata India. They were slaves who worked on sugar plantations in India and then transported to European colonies to continue their work.
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
Identity, the idea of being who or what a person or thing is. From the time we are born, we are given identities that we can’t change. As soon as we exit the womb and enter the world we are cleaned up and given either a blue or pink hat and matching blanket. The colors blue and pink are identified by gender, so if one births a baby girl she will be identified with the pink hat and vice versa. Then we get a gender based name and when the baby goes home, everything they receive is based on what gender the baby is and it seems like there is no in between. As a baby one can’t help nor does one care about the way people identify them. As one gets older, we test the lines of identity.
Like many of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night revolves around the central theme of love by focusing on the interactions between characters. Two characters, Orsino and Olivia, are self-indulgent people too busy living in the melodrama of their emotions to relate to those around them. They become inconsiderate of the feelings of others. Orsino is so lovesick that he can think of nothing but Olivia while Olivia is so fixed upon grieving for her brother that nothing else matters to her. It is only when Viola, as Cesario, becomes part of their lives that they change.
It is also one of the themes in Twelfth Night that the play revolves around as Shakespeare makes it out to be by presenting the character of ‘Caesario’. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare presents the obvious deception of the play that is Viola. Viola’s role in the play is purely based on the ideas of disguise and deception. She initially deceives everyone by disguising herself as a man, ‘Cesario’, in order to serve Orsino. We can see this from the quote, “For such disguise as haply shall become: The form of my intent”.
Twelfth Night consists of a large number of love triangles, however many characters are too indulged in love that they are blind to the untrue, and the weakness of their relationship, they are deceived by themselves and many people around them ( ex. Malvolio is tricked by Sir Andrew, Feste ,Sir Toby and Maria),but there are certain incidents where the love is true and two characters feel very strongly about one another. In the play, Viola and Orsino have the most significant relationship. The way they interact with each other causes the complexity on which the play is all about, their relationship turns from strangers to friends then lovers .In the First Act Viola is not honest with Orsino because she disguises herself as a male servant named Cesario in order to get closer to the duke. Orsino. Orsino quickly trusts Cesario and sends him to Olivia to declare Orsinos Love for her, the girl he most dearly loves. This quick bond is the fast example of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Viola thinks her brother (Sebastian) is dead (after they’re deadly boat crash, where they get separated) when actually he is alive and thinks she is dead, Viola always seems to have a part missing from her which shows her bond with Sebastian is strong, and a part of her but in a brotherly/sisterly way rather than a proper relationship like viola and orsino, At the end of the play they meet and both fall in love , Viola with Orsino and Sebastian with Olivia.
One of the biggest themes in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet is Hamlet’s identity, and his search to find it. Hamlet’s downfall and death can be traced back to his lack of knowledge of himself, and his lack of action. The world seems to be crashing down around Hamlet due to the death of his father, his mother’s marriage to his Uncle, and his persistent search for revenge for his father’s death would be enough for anyone to go mad. To those around Hamlet this is exactly what seems to be happening however; to the reader it is said that Hamlet is only putting on an act. Although to be said only an act Hamlet really does seem to be going mad; the pressure of revenging his father’s death seems to be too much for Hamlet.
Despite many cases of disguise in the play, the one that sparks the most trouble, and is of most importance to the plot, is Viola pretending to be a man named Cesario. Her decision to pretend she is a man when she is left stranded on the foreign land of Illyria truly shows how men were the dominate gender at the time. It proves that if Viola wanted to succeed in anyway on Illyria, she had to be a man. Once Viola establ...
Viola/Ceasario's disguise hides most of her past: the shipwreck, her lost brother, and the fact that she is a woman. Her identity now as a man, is to move on in life and get a job. Her love for Orsino is hidden with her original identity, as though she works for him as his servant. She is a very strong character in the play. "I prithee (and I’ll pay thee bounteously)/ Conceal me what I am, and be my aid/ For such disguise as haply shall become/ The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke." (1.2.52-55). After the shipwreck and the loss of her brother, Viola decides to move on using a disguise as her shield. Viola’s secret love for Orsino is different than the way Olivia loves Ceasario. Olivia is in lo...
Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both misunderstanding and marriage in the final scenes of the play. Alongside the main plot of Twelfth Night is an almost equally prominent subplot involving Malvolio, a servant of Olivia, who falls in love with her and who falls prey to a prank planned by the other members of the household who despise his abhorrence of fun. In the article “The Design of Twelfth Night” by L.G. Salingar, Salingar examines the plot and structure of the play and addresses the significance of the subplot. The purpose of this essay is to examine both evidence from the play and articles from other authors, with a focus on Salingar, who have written on the subject in order to determine the purpose of the subplot. In his article, Salingar comes to the conclusion that the purpose of the subplot is to provide a comic mirror of the main plot while amplifying the main themes of delusion, misrule and festivity. Salingar presents a solid argument, however he has neglected another lesser but significant element of the sub-plot which illustrate...
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...
“Perhaps it’s impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be” (Card). This quote from Ender’s Game gives the reader the impression that identity is just something they can wear and that they will become the identity that the impersonate. A definition of identity from the Oxford English Dictionary states, “The fact of being who or what a person or thing is” (Identity). This old definition entails that a person’s identity is just who they are. It is also heard that people say anybody can be anything they want to be. These two ideas put together create a definition of identity that means a person’s identity can be whatever they choose it to be. However, a person's true identity cannot simply be worn as a mask, so this definition cannot be true and must be changed. A person's true