Essay on Characters of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

A Misummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare. In this play there are multiple themes however the most evident theme is love. Why is love an evident theme? It is an evident theme because the play commences with two Greek mythology characters─ the Duke of Athens, Theseus and Amazon queen Hippolita planning their marriage. However as Theseus plans his marriage he has to help Egeus persuade his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Unfortunately both the Duke and Egeus failed to persuade Hermia into marrying Demetrius so the fairies (another set of characters. The fairies in this play consisted of goddess of chastity and Queen of fairies, Titania and King of fairies Oberon and his assistance Robin Goodfellow) decide

My group and I chose to perform Act 3 scene 3 from Twelfth Night, a relatively short scene involving Antonio and Sebastian. We chose the scene because it would require us to “gender-bend” because we would be playing men. The scene provides insight into Antonio’s dark past. When they walk into town, Sebastian is excited and thrilled to simply be alive, but Antonio does not want to be seen in the town. Antonio used to be a pirate at one point in his life, and it seems that he is on many a hit-list, especially Orsino’s. Earlier, Sebastian had gotten in a shipwreck, and Antonio saved him from the raging depths of the sea. Ultimately, they wash up in Illyria. Finally, it shows a different side of both characters that may not necessarily be shown in the rest of the play.

    It is not unusual that the fool should be a prominent figure and make an important contribution in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that either escape reality or live a dream. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses.

In William Shakespeare's comedic play, Twelfth Night, a recurring theme is deception. The characters in the play used deception for a variety of purposes. Viola's use of deception involves her disguising herself as a man in order to obtain a job with the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. On the other hand, Maria, Olivia's servant, writes a letter to Malvolio in Olivia's handwriting to make Malvolio act foolishly because of his love for Olivia. While some use deception as a means of survival, others use deception to trick others and make them act foolishly.

William Shakespeare wrote plays that covered the breadth of human experience, which seem to have transcended the restraints of age because they contain universal themes. His body of his work is comprised of genres of plays, which varied from tragedies to comedies.

“Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” Based upon a few indirect details and various intuition, the ultra-strict, Sister Aloysius Beauvier believes that one of the priests, Father Flynn, at the St. Nicholas Catholic Church and School has been molesting a twelve-year-old boy named Donald Muller, the school 's only African American student. To help her, Sister Aloysius recruits a young and naive nun, Sister James, to assist her in monitoring the suspicious yet charismatic Father Flynn. She also addresses her concerns to Donald 's mother, who surprisingly is not horrified or even shocked by the allegations. She is more concerned about her son getting through high school and avoiding a beating from his dad instead of what her son is going through at school. Close to the ending of the play

The play Heartbreaker is a fictitious story done by Michael Golamco. It features two main characters, Vithy, who is a sixteen year old teenager and her elder sister Ra who is aged twenty two years. The play takes place in a solemn setting down in a small apartment bedroom. The room does not contain a lot of things; it is empty except for some few basic properties that make a bedroom. They events of the play take place at Long Beach in the California region. Michael Golamco has used the story in bringing out loneliness as a theme in the play and its consecutive results in the people affected by it.

In the past, mischievous boy, now the man, could not find his place in life and continues to roll along from one scam to another. Now, he is being chased by mobsters from whom he stole the money, and he is in mortal danger from which he had taken refuge in his mother's house. Louie knows his mother the "iron women," but realizes that her foreign callousness is a heightened sense of duty and the result of the hard struggle for survival. At the same time, Uncle Louie is a kind and good-natured with his nephews and gives them that direct communication that they are lacking and all the inhabitants of the "cold house." The boys are supporting him too, even Jay at the risk of life helps him to get away from his pursuers. But Bella is more impressive. 36-year-old women with the immediacy of a little girl and with desires of an adult woman. The conflict between her and mother reveals generational conflict in this play. In this case, a harsh mother ruthless control of a daughter’s personality suppressed and deprived Bella’s opportunity to grow up. The scene of their explanations is written at a very high emotional level. This fragment produced a deep impression that gives a very high grade of the play. But the final look “natural,” in which Bella is belated, but “becomes free.”

Trevor Nunn’s (1996) adaptation of Twelfth Night illustrates the complexity of Feste’s character and how important he is to the overall play. Ben Kingsley, the actor, presents Feste as sympathetic and gentle choric figure. It is Feste who allows the audience to see the films respect for the original play, and the existing issues within it. This includes the defencelessness of women, and the attractive, but dangerous, qualities of altering one’s true sexual identity. Interestingly, unlike the original script, Nunn opens his first scene with Feste observing Viola struggle to shore after the shipwreck she has experienced. In this context, Kingsley’s Feste is revealed for the first time. He is shown as a mysterious and isolated individual, who

Ismene is the strong minded character in the play as she says no to going with her sister

Celie is somewhat happy to marry Mr.__ because she can now remove her younger sister, Nettie, from Pa’s household. However, after Nettie lives in Mr.__’s household for a time without encouraging his sexual advances, Mr.__ kicks Nettie out. Though Nettie promises to write to her sister, Celie doesn’t hear from her. Celie’s life gets worse and worse, as she’s now separated from the only person in the world whom she loves and who loves her back.

“Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a

William Shakespeare was a very talented man known for his various works of literature. His works include poems, plays, and sonnets. His works are then broken down into tragedies, comedies, and histories. Shakespeare left this world centuries ago, but his writings continue to live throughout the world today. He has greatly impacted the world of literature and his existence will forever be remembered.

In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.