Malvolio from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Malvolio from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

In twelfth night, a comedy full of mistaken identities and love

triangles, a harmless trick is played on the Lady Olivia's steward

Malvolio by some of the other servants and occupants of the house, to

try and teach him a well deserved lesson, however the trick darkens

and becomes nastier as the play progresses, so to what extent does

Malvolio deserve our sympathy and does his arrogant character justify

to what Sir Toby and the others did to him?

Even before we meet Malvolio we can imagine the type of character he

is just by looking at his name, which for one sounds stiff and gives

us an image of a pompous being, also "Mal" is French for bad and a lot

of bad characteristics such as "Malicious", "Malign" and "Malevolent"

which means wishing evil on others, start with "Mal" so unlike "Feste"

whose name sounds like "festive" and gives us a pleasant first

impression of the jester, Malvolio's name gives us a bad image of him

before we even meet him and I think Shakespeare did this intentionally

to create a negative imagine in our minds of Malvolio.

When we first meet Malvolio in Act 1 scene 5 he certainly lives up to

his name, coming across as arrogant and sarcastic being. We don't warm

to him and feel an instant dislike towards him. When Feste tries to

cheer Olivia up, she turns to Malvolio and she asks, "What you think

of this fool Malvolio? Doth he not mend?" and he coldly replies, "Yes,

and shall do till the pangs of death shake him." This is a cruel and

envious dig at Feste, whom thinks is beneath him and also seems to be

jealous of Feste's easy and relaxing relationship with Olivia.

Malvolio also "marvels" that Olivia "takes a delight in such a barren

rascal." This is mocking both Feste and Olivia and we get the

impression that Malvolio is humourless "sick of self love". When he

goes to return the ring to Viola (Cesario) that Olivia had falsely