Literary Analysis of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night Essay

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. The play centers on the lead female role and protagonist, Viola, who

In Twelfth Night, Malvolio's uptight personality is not well liked by Maria and Sir Toby, making him their target for a cruel prank. For entertainment, Maria and Sir Toby work together to come up with a plan with the foul intent to embarrass and make a bad impression of Malvolio, but it also resulted with his unjust confinement, all things that shouldn't be used for the purpose of amusement. Firstly, Maria devises a cruel plan which will just as much entertain herself as it will embarrass Malvolio. She said to Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian, "observe [Malvolio], for the love of mockery; for I know this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him" (Shakespeare II, v, 15-17). Malvolio follows what is written in the letter he thought was written by Olivia and proceeds to make a fool of himself by dressing in yellow stockings and cross-gartering.

Malvolio is introduced to us in Act1Sc5, presented as pompous and assertive, first impressions of him depict a man desperate for superiority. This is shown when he calls Feste “a barren rascal” even though Feste is of the same social standing as Malvolio. The fact that our first introduction to Malvolio involves him mocking another character using degrading language immediately

For instance, when he finds the love letter that is supposedly written by Olivia, confessing her love for him, and telling him to smile, wear yellow stockings and go cross-gartered, he says, “I will smile, I will do every thing that thou wilt have me.” (2, 5, 165-6). He thinks the letter is from countess Olivia, who he is in love with, and believes that the greatness of being her husband is about to be given to him. Before finding the letter, he wanders around in Olivia’s garden and dreams about himself “To be Count Malvolio!” (2, 5, 32). He imagines how the other characters of the play would serve him, which again shows that Malvolio thinks he stands above everyone. In addition, when Malvolio is hailed by Olivia, he arrives smiling, wearing yellow stockings and cross-gartered, which makes Olivia think he has gone insane: “Why, this is very midsummer madness.” (3, 4, 51). Consequently, in this part of the play Malvolio’s inside does not match his outside. Throughout the play he is a grave character, that detests other persons having fun, so his actions of smiling and wearing strange dress make him look like a madman, which is why he gets locked up in Olivia’s basement. Towards the end, he returns to his initial manner, and declares that he will “be reveng’d on the whole pack of you!”, referring to the characters that tricked him into believing that the letter was

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.

In spite of the promise of three weddings to be celebrated, the play concludes on a sour note when Feste, the clown, depicts life as grim, "for the rain it raineth every day" (Act V Scene i). They play’s primary central theme is that of the comic relationships between men and women. Furthermore, it illustrates the traditional, societal notions of “interdependence, and the newly emerging attitudes towards individual choice and personal desire, or as the play puts it, ‘will’” (Malcolmson 163). Although Twelfth Night is a story of love and courtship, nevertheless, it is also a “comedy of gender,” because of its ability to override the traditional Elizabethan notions of the female role through the characters of Viola and Olivia.

It is said that Queen Elizabeth I’s controversial reign at the time informed the play’s content. She, in fact, used to like to invite theater companies to her palaces[2] and saw a performance of the play at Christmastime while on a campaign in Ireland[3]. In her medieval England, people met the idea of a female monarch with hostility[4], because there had never been one until[5] . The challenge to tradition that was Queen Elizabeth I’s reign most likely to lead the discussion of gender roles in Twelfth Night.

Other characters in the play strongly dislike Malvolio. When Olivia isn’t around he thinks and acts like he’s the king and that Olivia is his lady. Malvolio had stated, “ My lady bade me tell you, that… she’s nothing allied to your disorder” about Sir Toby (W.S 23). Even when he comes into the scene with other characters, he decides to say, “Besides, she uses me with a more exalted respect than any one else that follows her”(W.S 30).With that he’s saying that Olivia treats him like a king and puts him over top of everyone. The only reason why Olivia had to deal with him is because he is her steward. A reason why I think she only puts up with Malvolio is that he will do anything the she commands. For when Cesario was outside she had said to Malvolio “ Go you, Malvolio: if it be a suit from the count, iam sick, or not at home; what you

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.

Social class distinction remains a common theme throughout Shakespeare's plays. Shakespearean era society possessed a structured hierarchy of social class, based largely on wealth and nobility. This system influenced social interactions among the population and often guided marriage arrangements. Shakespeare’s commentary on social class, in his comedy Twelfth Night, exposes the divide humorously, by displaying ironic interactions between varying social classes. Twelfth Night places a variety of characters from different social classes in close quarters, causing inevitable conflict among classes.

Malvolio’s lack of self-criticism or self-awareness makes him vulnerable to Maria's plan to ridicule him.

Malvolio is considered the antagonist of the play and he experiences vain love. Malvolio is the head servant for Olivia and is also the messenger for her. He enjoys interrupting and criticizing others for their behavior or actions. His careless and rude demeanor led to being despised by the other characters such as Maria. Maria schemes a brilliant plan to bamboozle Malvolio. She forges a note impostering Olivia and leaves it for Malvolio to discover. The note intrigues him and makes him want to impress Olivia.

in fun, so when at the end the joke is revealed he has the response of

Maria and the conspirators decide to mislead Malvolio into thinking that Olivia is in love with him. Maria decides to lead him on by writing a letter, but means to be from Olivia. This love letter is meant to instruct Malvolio to do actions that Olivia despises. Maria is able to mislead Malvolio because she has the same print and seal as Olivia. Shakespeare is able to trick the characters and create many portrayals of them.

According to Chris, Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’ touches on sensitive concepts within the society (1). Similar to the majority of his literary works, Twelfth Night captures the concept of love and how individuals use love through marriage to achieve power or a higher social status. Throughout the play, there is an apparent struggle for social status by the key characters. Lindheim asserts that there are some characters in the play, such as Antonio who would do everything within their means in order to achieve their sexual desires (2). For example, in a more traditional society or contemporary setting, Antonio could never hope of