The Function of Disguise in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's play, Twelfth Night is based around disguise and
deception, both mental and physical. The deception leads to a lot of
misunderstanding and subsequently, a lot of humour.
The tale begins in Illyria with the Duke Orsino, who is suffering due
to his unrequited love for the Lady Olivia. The Lady is also suffering
from the recent loss of her brother and father, and currently wants
nothing to do with the equally mournful Duke.
A disguise is used for safety when a young character named Viola
becomes shipwrecked in Illyria. She has been warned of the dangers of
being alone in Illyria and so disguises herself as Cesario, a male
eunuch and goes to work for the Duke Orsino, whom she has heard well
off.
The Duke accepts her service, under the impression that she is a he,
and wishes Cesario to attempt to woo the Lady Olivia, thinking she
will be taken in by his youthful looks. However, Viola has fallen in
love with the Duke Orsino,
'I'll do my best To woo your lady (Aside) Yet, a barful strife!
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife'.
Unfortunately for Viola, the Lady Olivia is not interested in The
Duke,
'Your lord does know my mind, I cannot love him'
and even worse for Viola, the Lady Olivia has taken a liking to her!
'I cannot love him; let him send no more - Unless perchance you come
to me again to tell me how he takes it'.
Viola now sees her disguise as something negative. She is in love with
the Duke but cannot tell him so outright but is reduced to dropping
hints, and she must now face the affections of another woman on
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...o be clever, in order to say things that would amuse
their hosts
FESTE:Good madonna, why mourn'st thou?
OLIVIA:Good Fool, for my brother's death.
FESTE:I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA:I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
FESTE: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul, being
in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
The irony of the situation is that Feste, as you can see from this
verse, is quite an intellect; in fools clothes, while Marvolio is a
fool in the clothes of an intellect. This shows that clothes do not
always show what type of person you are.
The main plot in Twelfth Night is disguise. It was used to create the
love triangle between Viola, Orsino and Olivia. The play uses disguise
and deception to great comic effect, making it a truly exceptional
piece.
The central theme of the play is romance. The characters all experience love, in one way or another, whether it be unrequited or shared between more than one person. The plot is intricately woven, sometimes confusingly so, between twists and turns throughout the multiple acts, but it never strays too far from the subject of adoration. Despite the hardships, misperception and deceit the characters experience, six individuals are brought together in the name of holy matrimony in three distinct nuptials. Sebastian, the twin brother of Viola who was lost at sea after a shipwreck, and Lady Olivia are the first to marry, but things are not as they seem.
Andrew is funny, it is not intentional. His faults include a lack of wit, a
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In 'Twelfth Night' Olivia's trusted steward Malvolio, like Sir Andrew, is the 'butt of comedy'. His very name suggests 'ill-will', which echoes his role in the play. Malvolio is an egotistical, "overweening rogue", who is a straight laced, puritanical, social climbing rebuker of others for their anti-social and often sinful behaviour, or as he put it, "misdemeanours". Malvolio's character is summarised excellently by Maria in Act II Scene III: The devil a puritan that he is, or anything, constantly, but a time-pleaser, an affectioned ass that cons state without book and utters it by great swarths; the best persuaded of himself, so crammed, as he thinks with excellencies, that if is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him.
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.
The confusion that Sebastian creates when he returns would not occur. without Viola's disguise, in the middle of the room. Sir Andrew believes that the woman of his desires. Olivia, is spending too much time with Cesario, and challenges him to a duel. As he put it, Olivia was doing "more favors to the Count's servingman than ever.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment, Shakespeare mocks himself and his plays as much as he does the young lovers and the mechanicals onstage. This genius playwright who is capable of writing serious dramas such as Hamlet and Julius Caesar is still able to laugh at himself just as he does at his characters. With the help of Bottom, Oberon, and Puck, Shakespeare shows us that theatre, and even life itself, are illusions that one should remember to laugh at.
As prescient and insightful as this evaluation may seem after considering the outcome of Twelfth Night’s romantic pairings, it reads as a very shallow perspective rather than any sort of wisdom – to the Duke, love is never permanent, lasting, or constant (just like the nature of the tides, it always changes). Duke Orsino has no concern whatsoever for Olivia’s feelings of grief after the loss of her brother – she is merely an object of his desires at the moment, and as his eventual courtship with Viola proves, he is extremely fickle in his affections. (Even before Viola’s disguise became apparent, Orsino showed some signs of attraction to the male Cesario – this raises a few questions about exactly how far his romantic indecisiveness
Viola, as Cesario, manages to win the favour of Orsino He truly believes that she is a he. Orsino, still convinced of my majesty, believes that he can win the love of a woman, via a proxy. By having Viola merely read the words he has prepared, he thinks that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him. But while Orsino had his head in the clouds about his love, Viola is attempting to conceal from him, her love for him.
When the Count urges her, Viola agrees to try persuading Olivia of his love for her, but it is evident that she has feelings for Orsino herself when she says: "I'll do my best to woo your lady: [Aside] yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife." This shows her devotion to him as she wants him to be happy, even if it is not with her. Viola's love is selfless and her feelings for Orsino are so strong that she will not leave when Olivia's servants tell her to. She is more determined than Orsino's previous messengers: "Make me a willow cabin at your gate and call upon my soul within the house, write loyal cantons of contemned love and sing them loud even in the dead of night...."
The clown contributes towards the humourous entertainment of this play through his numerous puns and jokes. He is a source of laughter, not because we are humoured by his "foolery"; for he proves to be no fool at all; but rather because he amuses us with his brilliant wit. Having mastered the art of jesting, Feste is sensitive of his profession, always aware of the circumstances he is in and the appropriateness of this folly.
The Elizabethan Era is considered to be golden age in English poetry, music, and literature. William Shakespeare uses the theater as a place to display the latest styles in clothing, poetry and music. Clothing plays an important part in Shakespeare’s plays. Clothing helped the audience understand the character and components of clothing are mentioned literally and metaphorically in several of his plays, often used as a plot device, and used in appearance versus reality.
...one of the antics at the start play to woo Olivia succeed for Orsino and Viola’s initial plan in the beginning does not blossom. This line concludes the part of Feste’s song in which he is giving a synopsis of the play. The last two stanzas are addressed to the audience and Feste thanks them.
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...
would have to dress and be as a man. She was known as Cesario. Orsino,