William Shakespeare's Twelfh Night

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Recommended: Comedy in the play twelfth night

‘Twelfth Night’ or ‘What You Will’ falls into the subgenre of festive comedy. The character Feste attacks authoritative figures during the last days of the Christmas period. As Feste is seen as a mock mayor he often makes absurd declarations aimed at Orsino and Olivia who are surrounded by the emotion of love. However, as this play takes place in the festive period it lacks seriousness which also reflects the decisions that Orsino and Olivia make in the dénouement . But as love is a motivating force, for both Olivia and Orsino it causes them to carry out foolish acts which convey the many social messages that arise in the play. On the other hand, characters such as Malvolio, face difficult situations which causes him to take himself too seriously and therefore lead him to become a hypocrite despite the fact that he is ‘a kind of puritan’ .
Seeing as Malvolio the puritan is a killjoy figure it can be seen that Shakespeare is attacking the conservative. Furthermore, Shakespeare punishes Malvolio in such a way that he becomes dejected, but towards the end of the play in Act 4 Scene 2 the audience show sympathy towards him as Feste (disguised as Sir Topas) persuades him to believe that he is mad in which case he replies ‘Believe me, I am not. I tell thee true.’ As Malvolio says ‘Believe me’ it shows that he is certain that he hasn’t gone insane as ‘Believe’ shows that he has confidence in the truth. Furthermore because Malvolio is a Puritan, by him saying ‘I tell thee true’, the audience believe him as they know that in Puritanism lying is not accepted. Similarly, as Malvolio stopped Feste, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria from ‘make[ing] an-ale house of [his] lady’s house’ it shows that there are some elements of seriousness i...

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...any satirical statements on authoritative individuals such as Orsino and Olivia being made to seem foolish. They can be seen as being foolish because of the way the comic resolution has presented them and the choices they have made in who they marry. In the same way, Malvolio can also be seen as an attack on authority as Shakespeare is mocking the old world characters. Similarly, as Sir Toby and Maria are wedded Shakespeare is also attacking authoritative figures but by doing this Shakespeare shows that ‘Twelfth Night’ is lacking seriousness because throughout the play both comical characters are seen to be engaging in excess laughter. In addition Olivia and Orsino’s haste marriage to Sebastian and Viola indicates that this festive comedy has a lightweight ending which therefore shows that ‘Twelfth Night’ is a trivial comedy in which the authority is also attacked.

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