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Malvolio's character in twelfth night
Malvolio's character in twelfth night
Malvolio's character in twelfth night
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Feeling Sympathy for Malvolio Malvolio plays the role of Olivia’s self admiring butler. He takes advantage of his position in the house to abuse of those lower ranked in the house than him. These people are Sir Toby, Maria and Fabian, (Sir Andrew doesn’t work in the house). These people have got fed up of this and decide to get their own back throughout the play. The dispute is that may be they went too far. Malvolio is smart in appearance and well dressed. Apart from this, Malvolio is pompous, vane, arrogant and has a lack of forgiveness. Malvolio’s first entrance is in 1.5 l.2 and his first line of speech is in 67. If acted and spoken well it gives you a really strong idea of what Malvolio is like. Shakespeare makes you, straight away, make a stereo-type of Malvolio. The impression I got after his first line: ‘Yes, and shall do, till the pangs of death shake him;’ Was that he disliked Feste and that he was annoyed that Feste was getting attention from Olivia because Malvolio wanted Olivia all to himself because he is selfish. Then, 6 lines after he says: ‘I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal.’ 1.5 l.67 This line really shows that he thinks of Feste as a ‘barren rascal’ and that he is really arrogant the way he looks down on Feste. He also tries to get Olivia away from Feste when he says the line, and he is basically saying ‘I am amazed that you like being with such a worthless joker.’ As Malvolio loves Olivia, he wants her all to him self. This is a problem for Cesario because Malvolio sees him as competition because he is young and handsome. He shows this in 1.5 l.115, when he d... ... middle of paper ... ... Feste or Maria. She does not so Malvolio has a tantrum and shouts in 5.1 l.355 ‘I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.’ I think this is typical of Malvolio but I do sympathise with him because everyone is happy but Malvolio is alone and hurt. I think he does deserve to get his revenge and there should be a sequel where Malvolio comes back and gets his own back. In the end I think Malvolio is mean at times but at others he is just doing his job. Also, during the play, he does not do enough things wrong to Sir Toby to be put in a dark room and bound up. I felt no sympathy at all for Malvolio at the box tree scene but soon after that stage in the play my sympathy rose enormously for him, to such an extent that I wanted him to get a big bucket of sludge full of all the grief he endured and pour it over Sir Toby.
calls for Allie. This marks his breakdown. It is then, because of Allie, that he realizes that
When analyzing Romeo and Juliet it is clear that Benvolio is the best character to represent the difference between what is right and what is wrong. He is expressed through his actions,to keep the Montague and Capulet men at peace,while fighting.Especially,towards the end where the Capulets and Montagues were at a high stand point of disagreement with their kids being “star crossed lovers”(prologue.6) Even though,Shakespeare introduces and builds different characters to be like Benvolio,the choices and decisions Benvolio develops as a trustworthy and advice giving character. Therefore,Benvolio is the best character to express the difference between right and wrong.
She looks everywhere for her toy! She demands to know from her family who has taken her toy. She shouts at Ian and baby William; she throws a tantrum; all to no purpose. The toy remains lost. That night, Olivia hears an awful sound, her
One of the reasons that none of the characters seem to get along with Malvolio is because of his strict adherence to the rules. While to most this doesn’t seem like a bad trait to have, this is seen as an extraordinarily undesirable trait, for characters like Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria, who all have a blatant disregard for the rules. Nancy Lindheim agrees with this by saying, “Malvolio alone acts with a moral severity that angers most other members of the household and is inimical to comedy itself.” (Lindheim 700) In this quote she is stressing the fact that Malvolio tends to act morally while the other characters disregard their morality for a chance to have some fun. This is seen in act two scene thr...
Here I write in the closing days of my life. My life has been full of many wonderful experiences, and I thank God for that. However, the events of almost ten years ago are a black mark on my legacy, an event that will forever haunt my spirit, while it walks the Earth within my body and when I have ascended to heaven to be with the Lord. The unjust hangings of many of God 's people, including the honourable John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, was a regrettable moment in my life and all of New England.
Shakespeare cunningly gives the audience an early indication of Benvolio’s personality through his name. Benvolio translated literally means “good-will” or “well wisher” a role he consistently fills, although sometimes unsuccessfully throughout the play, striving to keep himself and others around him out of any conflict. In the very first scene of the play, Benvolio quickly establishes himself as the peacemaker as he tries to stop the fight between the Montague and Capulet servants by saying, “Part fools! Put up your swords, you know not what you do.”(I.i.64-65) Wanting peace he warns them to stop arguing before things evolve into a grave situation. In that statement, Shakespeare references the Gospel of Luke “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), using his skillful use of the written language to allude that Benvolio was taking on a Christ like peacemaker role in the play. Benvolio’s moral convictions do not change over the course of the play. His stance on peace is evident in all three scenes. In Act III, as Mercutio and Tybalt begin to fight, Benvolio once again attempts to be the voice of reason, “We talk here in the public haunt of mean: eithe...
suspicious of John. By the end of the play, she is a lot more open
Although Viola might be able to relate to Olivia's grief at first, her love for Orsino is so great that she cannot understand why Olivia would deny him. When Olivia expresses affectio...
Scorpius Malfoy is not his father or his grandfather. That is the first thing you need to know about him. If you're lucky, you'll get to learn more about him than that, but most people aren't that lucky. Scorpius is an intensely private person. Most people take one look at his aristocratic features, or simply hear his last name, and write him off as the son of a Death Eater, a snob, a blood purist, a this or a that, and never bother to dig deeper. To be fair, all of those things are true in part, but these judgmental masses usually fail to notice that there is much more to him than that. Scorpius is an introvert, his emotions extremely self-contained, exploding and fading so deep within him that they never show outwardly unless he wills them to. His words are rehearsed, analyzed for consequences, and double-checked for accuracy and sting before they ever leave his mouth. Everything about the way he interacts with the external world is controlled to allow him to come across a certain way. He is observant, is more likely to hang back and judge the air in a room or the tone in a conversation before he inserts himself into it with an unnerving perceptiveness and the unspoken implication that he knows more than he will actually say. He is every inch the politician, the master of noncommittal answers, of thinking one thing and doing another, of smiling in a room full of enemies as though he’s in a room full of friends. The language he speaks best is body language and he can tell from the slightest twitch of a muscle or movement of a hand whether all the people in a room truly get along with one another or if they are all simply putting on a farce. On the other hand, his body language always aims for ambiguous unless he has a set goal i...
Toby’s credit that he doesn’t want to stay down and that’s enough of an edge. Instinctively using the creative license of his absent father, he finds a tenuous way out--enough of a break to set him on a better path.” (Salavarria)
Malvolio was deceived by a counterfeit letter as written in the name of Lady Olivia due to his desire to have a higher status in the society. Avidity for wealth and power made this principled steward considered to be insane by others.
Malvolio’s dislikeable rigidity nature is shown immediately in his first entrance in the play, in his rude humiliation of Feste, “I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal … unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged” (McEachern, 2007). The disapproval towards his rigid humorless attitude immediately follows with Olivia reprimanding her steward’s habit for making a big deal out of everything, “O you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite” (McEachern, 2007). Malvolio further manifests his rigid and fun despising personality as he, depicted as a killjoy, spoils the revelry of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste late in the night “My masters, are you mad? Or what are you? Have you no wit, manner, nor honestly, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night” (McEachern, 2007). It is exactly this fun despising side, depicted as Malvolio’s “stubborn and uncourteous parts” that earns him the enmity of the revelers. As he thinks, with excellences, that it is his grounds of faith that look on him love him.” Because of Malvolio’s dispositio...
This leads Maria to formulate a plan using his pride as his downfall. Though Malvolio is a servant he is positive that he is meant for greatness. When Maria forges a love letter in Olivia’s hand Malvolio is only too happy to reactive it. He follows its directions and makes a fool of himself while trying to reach his ambitions for an improvement in social status. When Olivia rejects him he understands that he is not what he thinks he is. He is a servant and that is where he belongs. He finds his identity and though he is possibly unsatisfied he is accepting, and though he is upset with the people who prank him he has found himself and is now in his mind even higher above them. He even goes so far as to say he will make his revenge. It is also shown when they are trying to show him as insane. He clings to who he is and his mental powers. He is in control of himself now that he understands who, and what, he is.
Feste, however, never takes sides with any of the characters, and in this way, he becomes a kind of commentator for the play. He is able to examine the characters, revealing the bare truth about them and he unites the main and sub-plot in a similar way.
Seeing as Malvolio the puritan is a killjoy figure, Feste, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria constantly mock and terrorise him. And as they don’t take a liking to him, Malvolio goes through situations where he is ridiculed because of who he is, the status he has (being a steward in Olivia’s household), the background he is from and the fact that he is a person of ill will, suggested by his name (Italian for I wish you bad).