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Discuss the theme of mistaken identity in Shakespeare's Twelfth night
The role of Malvolio in Twelfth Night
Analysis twelfth night shakespearean comedy
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The main theme of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is identity. Identity causes very much confusion and pain in the play and when true identity is found happiness reigns. Identity is a very important part of the play a character who struggles most with identity is Malvolio. Malvolio is the steward of Olivia and struggles greatly with identity throughout the play. His great egotism and ambition lead him to fall victim to a prank which leads him to question his identity. In the end he finds his place and is led back to where he started. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night the main theme of identity is portrayed quite well in the character Malvolio as he struggles with finding his position in the world. Malvolio struggles with his identity throughout the 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. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night the main theme of identity is portrayed quite well in the character Malvolio as he struggles with finding his position in the world. Malvolio is sure he is destined for greatness and he strives to meet his ambitions rather hastily. After he realizes he has been played for a fool he understands who he is and what he should make of himself. His ambitions are not met, but he is able to stay true to himself after the prank and Olivia’s rejection. Though he
In the play, Olivia has a steward, Malvolio, unpopular with servants, mean, authoritarian, control freak. Malvolio is tricked into believing he is loved by Olivia. Malvolio behaves as if she is in love with him and he is eventually locked up for madness. After reading and reviewing the play, Malvolio’s epiphany moments stood out the most for me. Malvolio, the puritanical, was the head servant in Lady Olivia’s household. Although Malvolio is very efficient, he also very self-righteous, and frowns upon most of the things such as drinking, singing, and fun. He fantasies about marrying his mistress and living higher than his social class.
...s garters. While Malvolio is reading the letter in the gardens, Maria, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch are all eavesdropping and laughing at how he’s falling for it. After that Malvolio goes to see Olivia, and gets locked in the jail for acting crazy.
His inflated ego has lead him to misinterpret Lady Olivia’s feelings for him-or rather, her lack of feelings. Although he already has the notion that he should end up with the Lady, he is fooled by Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrew, believing Olivia feels the same for him. The tricksters deliberately write a letter indirectly addressed to Malvolio, divulging “Olivia’s” hidden love for the steward. Without giving much thought to the credibility of this discovered letter, Malvolio follows its enclosed instructions, unwittingly earning the real Lady Olivia’s disfavor (2.5.91-195). “This and his continuous disapproval of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew's drinking, earn him their hatred and he quickly becomes their pawn in a complex romantic ruse” (Review at Absolute
... a practical joke. Malvolio's delusions seem harmless enough and the reason he may appear as a 'killjoy' is because it is his job to keep. order and run errands for Olivia. At the end of the play, Malvolio finds himself excluded from the general feeling of joy and celebration amongst the other characters.
Twelfth Night” or “What You Will” is one of Shakespeare’s many comedic plays. This essay will attempt to critically analyse a passage in Act 1, Scene 5 of “Twelfth Night.” The passage centres on a conversation primarily between Feste and Olivia about the mourning of her brother. This conversation adds comicality to the play, which contributes to the shape of it as a whole. The passage also briefly involves the character, Malvolio, who contributes to an underlining truth in the play. This essay will explain the meaning of the passage, attempt to unpack the language uses and determine the ideas behind the language. It will then try to justify why and how those ideas in the passage contribute to the play as a whole.
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 William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio is considered an outcast by almost everyone in the play. He doesn’t act the same way that any of the other characters act, in that he doesn’t participate in any of their activities, he enforces rules that the others could care less about, and he is just overall a socially awkward guy. Malvolio not only claims to adhere to the rules of the household himself, but uses his relations with Olivia to try and help make the others follow the rules as well. This upsets certain characters more than others. For instance Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria find his behavior particularly detestable. But Malvolio’s strict coherence to the rules allows him to have a rather high position in Olivia’s household. While Malvolio may be considered a social outcast to most of the characters in the play, Olivia considers Malvolio to be a very trusted steward of her household. For these reasons Malvolio is not only a social outcast, but an outcast that Shakespeare uses to keep people interested in his play.
In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio is considered an outcast by everyone else in the play except Olivia. He doesn’t act the same way that any of the other characters act, and he seems to be a real stickler for the rules, which upsets certain characters more than others. But it is this strict coherence to the rules that allows Malvolio to have such a high position in Olivia’s household. While Malvolio may be considered an outcast to most of the characters in the play, Olivia shows concern for Malvolio and his well-being.
In Twelfth Night the relationships are anything but romantic. Shakespeare writes from the male point of view which implies an un-easy split between love and physical charm. In Twelfth night the romance is falsely produced by selfish desire. Duke Orsino and Viola stand out from the other relationships. By questioning the relationships between the other couples, Shakespeare highlights the true love between Viola and Orsino and the fake relationship of Malvolio and Olivia which is truly based on Malvolio’s desire of a higher status , despite his status and his personality , Malvolio tries to impress Olivia by dressing up in ridiculous clothes , which does far from his aim , and repulses Olivia.
In Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”, Malvolio is a minor character, a household steward, who is portrayed as extremely hostile to merry-making and the festive spirit of the play, his behaviour regarding other characters is seen as being intolerant and evokes antipathy from the audience. However, the most significant aspect of this character’s presentation in the play is Malvolio’s immersion into a sweet illusion of becoming “Count Malvolio”. His pursuit of power and authority, which is a dream, provides a basis for his grim fate as the sub-plot emerges, his gulling, and his own self-delusion, that proceed his downfall. In “Twelfth Night”, Malvolio plays an important role in the household as the countess Olivia’s steward.
In the comedy Twelfth Night written by William Shakespeare many of the characters experience emotional pain. The pain that a character name Olivia experiences is the death of her brother, causing her to mourn. Malvolio who is Olivia's steward is involved with emotional pain caused by humiliation, which occurs more than once in this play. Lastly, a great deal of characters battle with the feeling of unrequited love. Even though Shakespeare wrote this as a comedy, there was still a mass amount of emotional pain throughout.
The song represents the theme of death, as many things in the play come to an end, such as Orsino and Olivia’s search for a lover or Maria’s prank on Malvolio. Maria, Sir Toby Belch and Feste’s game comes to an end when Olivia realizes that Malvolio is not insane and Malvolio’s happy and fantasized world of higher class and relationship with Olivia is destroyed when he realizes that everyone has played a cruel trick on him. In addition, the couple’s relationship at the end is also something to question and consider, since Viola never changes back into a girl and Olivia and Sebastian barely know each other, yet they are married. He explains how he is the most faithful person, yet he has been “slain by a cruel maid” (2.4.54).
A trick that is played on Malvolio is what ultimately leads to his consequences in the end. Prior to the fooling of the steward at the hands of Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, he is essentially misleading himself without realization. He strolls through the gardens, caught in delusional reveries about life as the husband of Olivia, fundamentally dreaming up fantasies in his mind that are unrealistic. Because of this, when Malvolio primarily notices the letter, sealed with Olivia’s official stamp and addressed carefully by the steady hand of Maria, he instantaneously believes this to be straight from the hands of his unrequited love. Malvolio is too caught up in his own musings that he leads himself straight into their cruel trick, which is principally what triggers the tipping point in his downfall.
The author uses convincing dialogue to illustrate Sir Andrew, and Malvolio as witty characters. With the same great expertise, he transforms those characters and exposes their foolishness to the viewers. Sir Andrew is one of the many thoughtless brains in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In the beginning of the play, he was recognized for speaking “three or four languages word for word without book” but later on, Shakespeare unleashes Sir Andrew’s gullible nature (I.iii.24). For instance, when Sir Toby was going back and forth between Cesario and Sir Andrew, delivering false threats, Sir Andrew became extremely frightened and said “pox on ‘t! I’ll not meddle with him” (III. Iv.252). Malvolio impresses the audience with his presentable and well-mannered etiquette. He is described as the naive goody two shoes. However, the audience was able to view his gullible side, when he received a prank love letter, and transformed himself into an air-headed fool dressed up in yellow stockings. Despite his sharp and smart looks in the beginning, he turned out to be a complete chump. Even thoug...
In Twelfth Night Malvolio is a steward of Mistress Olivia and he continuously implies to his Mistress his blind love. Malvolio serves Olivia and looks over her errands and affairs. Malvolio is regarded as uptight and to have the “sickness of self-love” (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night 1.5.86) by the other servants of Olivia’s household. In a plight to cure Malvolio of his sickness Sir Toby, Maria, and Fabian create a plan to trick him into believing their mistress is infatuated by him. Maria, who is Olivia’s lady in waiting, writes a letter to Malvolio addressing him to wear yellow stockings, cross-gartered, to be rude to the other servants, and to smile excessively around Olivia. Malvolio falls for the trap and begins to go around her household in the ridiculous get up. After having a conversation with Lady Olivia she remarks Malvolio as disdainful for she “commended thy yellow stockings (…) and wish to see thee cross-gartered” (Shakespeare, Twelfth Night 3.4.48-49). This quote refers to Malvolio going around the house in his strange out fit and that Olivia truly condemns his outrageous clothing. Furthermore, Malvolio wearing the odd clothes shows that he loves Olivia and is a subtle hint of it. Secondly Malvolio shows his affectionate feelings by thrusting h...