Essay about Mistaken Identity for Twelfth Night

Andy Fickman updated Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to explore the key idea of hidden identity through his characterisation of Viola from She’s The Man. In She’s The Man, an example of hidden identity in relation to Viola is Viola purporting to be a guy (Sebastian) to play soccer. While Viola is playing soccer as Sebastian she got hit in the crotch and says,“Oh. Right. OWW! OH, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! IT BURNS!”. This quotes has used dramatic irony by letting the audience know that Viola is a female mimicking Sebastian’s appearance. Viola’s has no reaction to getting hit in the crotch but realises she is trying to portray Sebastian so she fakes that she feels the pain. This shows the use of hidden identity through Viola pretending to be Sebastian.

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

Viola is disconcerted at being confused with Sebastian in Twelfth Night's final acts, but this confusion is not one plotted by men. She and Beatrice remain two of Shakespeare's few undeceived women.

When Antonio is dragged to the Orsino’s court by his guards, he claims that Viola (whom he thinks is Sebastian) is the cause of all his troubles. Antonio tells the duke his entire story about how he met Sebastian and Sebastian's supposed betrayal of Antonio:

Another example of deception is when Maria, Olivia's servant writes a letter to Malvolio, Olivia's head servant and Maria's coworker. Maria deceives Malvolio by writing in Olivia's handwriting. In the letter she says that Olivia loves men in yellow stockings. "Remember who commended thy yellow stockings, and wished to see thee ever cross-gartered" (2.5. 143-145). Maria knows that Malvolio will follow this ridiculous deed because of this love for his lady Olivia. Sir Toby Belch says, "He shall think by the letters that thou wilt drop that they come from my niece, and that she's in love with him" (2.3. 154-156). Maria places the letter in her garden where Malvolio will definitely find it. Thinking Olivia will fall in love with him because of his clothing, Malvolio dress up in yellow stockings and goes to see Olivia. When Olivia sees Malvolio and the way he is acting, she isolates him for fear that he is insane.

Although Viola faced a lot of confusion and conflicts she was equipped to handle this because she was mostly causing it by cross dressing and lying about who she truly was. But, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andres, servants to Olivia, all decided to play practical jokes on Molvolio. By giving Molvolio a note and disguising it to look like Olivia’s hand writing, they caused Molvolio to make a fool of himself. The note left him directions to behave and dress a certain, this caused ignominious Molvolio to become confused. By being deceitful and conspiring, Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrews colors shined through. Not to mention, Molvolio’s true self became evident after misidentifying the letter. Molvolio became arrogant and was filled with self-importance, but when things became clear and Molvolio discovered the note was not written from Olivia he became embarrassed. He could not move forward, forgive and forget, so he left. This is how misidentification can cause conflicts and cause character’s true selves to shine

Viola is the main character in both works, who disguises herself as a male to fit into an area where men typically dominate. Duke Orsino is the main romantic interest to Viola in Twelfth Night and She’s the Man; a man who is hopelessly in love with Lady Olivia, who pays no attention to him because she is infatuated with Viola’s male identity. Next to the characters, the plot in both works are nearly identical: the female lead, Viola, wishes to conquer gender inequalities and pretends to be a male, only to gain the affections of a fairly popular woman, Olivia. Meanwhile, Viola harbors feelings for the male lead, Orsino, who desires the heart of Olivia. Both stories end with Viola and Sebastian ending up in the same place with the rest of the characters, bring a disturbing but satisfying conclusion to all the disorder. This confusing love triangle is what fuels the film and its Shakespearean source, and runs as the theme in both stories. With a female protagonist interested in a male lead, who in turn is interested in a female side character that is interested in the gender-bent identity of the protagonist, only confusion and chaos is to ensue. It is this confusion that spreads through all of the characters outside of Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, and propels the actions of many characters in both Twelfth Night and She’s the

Malvolio is a social climber, he feels that if Olivia would love him his status would be higher. But because of

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

This is odd because Sebastian and Viola are different in many ways. In Act three scene one Cesario disguised as Viola encounters a conversation with Feste and she is very pleasant like with him. When Sebastian encounters a conversation with Feste in Act four, scene one Sebastian is very bothered with Feste and doesn’t give him the same treatment. This is where people start to have doubts about Cesario. Viola knows that Cesario is being mistaken for Sebastian. This is due to the fact that Viola is the only one that knows she has been disguising herself as a man and the other characters in the play do not. They believe that Cesario is actually a young man. As I stated before the mistaken identities don’t come into the play unti Viola disguised as Cesario and Sebastian start to come into contact with the same situations as each other.

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

To agree with the statement, disguise and deception is used widely by Shakespeare. Throughout the play we only see Viola in her disguise as ‘Cesario’. From Act 1, Scene 2, we see her planning on using the disguise of a man to serve Orsino. The interactions between her and the other characters show dramatic irony as they do not realise who Cesario actually is, however the audience does. Orsino, at the start of Act 2, scene 4 says “Now good morrow, friends; Now, good Cesario.” Orsino does not know the actual person he is talking to when he praises Cesario, just the same when he says Cesario is “semblative a woman’s part”, saying that Cesario looks like a woman. For Shakespeare’s audience there was a heightened level of irony because at that

Comedy, in the Elizabethan era, often included themes of wit, mistaken identity, love, and tragedy, all tied up with a happy ending. These themes are prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a comical play that explores the pangs of unrequited love and the confusion of gender. Love is a powerful emotion that causes suffering, happiness, and disorder throughout the play. The play also demonstrates the blurred lines of gender identity, which ties into the modern day debate on sexuality and gender identity. The main characters in the play, Viola, Olivia, and Orsino are connected by a love triangle, each person pursuing an unrequited love. Suffering from love and the fluidity of gender are the prevalent themes explored throughout the play and intertwined with Viola, Olivia, and Orsino.

Meanwhile Olivia's drunkard uncle, Sir Toby; his pawn in the story Sir Andrew Aguecheek, are trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia with Sir Andrew. When Sir Toby takes offense at Malvolio's, the houses Stewart, constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved, telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and in hopes of becoming noble he, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that

Another example is the way in which Olivia adopts the pretence of mourning and the puritanical Malvolio is tricked into the role of Olivia's suitor and becomes a smiling courtier.