The Role of Malvolio in Twelfth Night

The Role of Malvolio in Twelfth Night

The main storyline in Twelfth Night is love between Cesario, Orsino,

Olivia and later on in the play Sebastian. Malvolio’s part in the play

is a backdrop situation separate from the main story. He brings a

level of both humour and sympathy to the play. Malvolio is one of the

main sources of humour in Twelfth Night. In the later part of the

play a different side of him is exposed.

Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and his job is to manage Olivia’s house;

he is her chief servant. It’s a very responsible job that he takes

very seriously. He enjoys telling people what to do.

During the course of the play Malvolio can be seen in many different

lights. At the start of the play you have a strong distaste for him

because of his constant snooping and him being a killjoy. Later in

the play its funny to watch him fall for Maria’s trick and make a fool

of himself in front of the whole household. However, by the end you

want to feel sorry for him as the trick goes too far and give out the

impression that he is mad.

Malvolio represents the puritan lifestyle. He does not smile or

believe in having fun, which is why the trick is played on him in Act

2. This would be very funny to the audience and the characters in the

play as they all know what is going on.

Before he even stumbles upon the letter, he is day dreaming of being

head of Olivia’s house. ‘To be Count Malvolio’ is just one of the

things he says. He is dreaming of being married to Olivia, but the

impression we get from the first half of the scene is that he want to

marry her for the power and not so much because he loves her. He wants

to...

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...t we see of Malvolio in the play. throughout the play

you get mixed feelings for Malvolio. At the start it is funny to watch

him make a fool of himself but towards the end you start to feel sorry

for him because of all that he has been through over the play and the

amount of times he has been humiliated.

Malvolio is a strong character in the play. He plays an important part

in twelfth Night being the main source of comedy. He is often the

centre of attention in the play but not for good reasons. Initially he

maybe deserved the trick that was played on him. However when it turns

malicious we can see it is severely affecting him, and by the end of

the play is screaming he will have “revenge” on the lot of them.

Malvolio concludes the play on bad terms, being the only character to

end the play without a happy ending.