Summary Of Twelfth Night

This rejection of love is doubled between Olivia and Orsino. The duke sends messengers to Olivia to declare his love to her and refuses to give up. She has clearly grown tired of this, and when Viola (Cesario) first arrives, she tells her steward to say she is “sick, or not at home” (1.5.104). To complicate matters more, both of the ladies suffer from unrequited love. As described previously, Olivia is denied love from Viola. Similarly, Viola herself is denied love from Orsino. In these ways, the parallels between Olivia and Viola’s relationships highlight that being rejected of love and rejecting love are both universal occurrences in the lives of human beings.

She’s the Man is a modern adaptation and interpretation of The Twelfth Night but the

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.

* Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 1-104 (Shaming of Hero), Lines 105-247 (Plan by Friar Francis) and rest of the scene (Beatrice and Benedick)

With her new role within the court, Viola begins to extend an immediate influence among those within the kingdom. Merely 3 days into being appointed to Duke Orsino, Viola has “become no stranger” to the court and is entrusted with the esteemed honor of being responsible for convincing Olivia to marry the Duke (1.4.1-17). According to the Duke, Viola, in the form of Cesario, holds the key to him winning over the heart of Olivia, for “she will attend it better in thy youth” (1.4.26). Viola as a woman in a man’s body holds knowledge that goes beyond the norms of common man. By establishing a strong relationship with the Duke, she is able to relate to the efforts of the duke than any other “grave aspect” (1.4.27).

In scene 1, we are also given an idea of the character traits of both

The Duke’s tenderness towards Cesario highlights a revolutionary angle, while keeping to the confines of societal norms. Viola harbors romantic feelings for the Duke, evident when she sighs, “Yet a barful strife; / Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (1.4.40-41) after the Duke orders her to woo Olivia. Her wishes are not granted immediately, as their relationship is proven to be tumultuous; thrown into disarray as a result of Viola’s disguise as Cesario, and the Duke’s infatuation with Olivia. However, as the events of the play unfold, it is clear that the Duke is suppressing his true romantic feelings towards Cesario. From the moment they meet, the Duke cultivates a fondness towards Viola, while she’s presented as a man.

She is forced to adopt a male persona after her “ship did split” (1.2.8) and she is stranded in a foreign land called Illyria. Slights says, “[Viola] disguise[s herself] as a page, youthfully blending feminine grace and masculine ambition” (329). Because of her disguise, Viola, now Cesario, is able to work for the Duke Orsino. Williams describes Viola's disguise as the “central deception of the play” (193). As Viola gets closer to the Duke through being his page, she falls in love with him.

At first glance, twins may seem identical, but many would argue that they behave differently with uniquely hardwired brains. In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, two main characters Viola-Cesario and Sebastian are lost in a shipwreck, but later reunite with each other and along their journey, confuse many other characters while mixing one another up. Viola-Cesario and Sebastian are twins who look very similar in appearance, but nevertheless they are actually two opposite characters with different attitudes and characteristics which shape their unique behavior. For instance, Sebastian and Viola-Cesario behave differently from each other since Sebastian is an aggressive person and Viola-Cesario is a peaceful person. However, considering

The story takes place in Illyria, a real place warped into fiction. Main character Viola is a young aristocrat, and the protagonist of the play. Viola’s realistic, and ingenious and realizes the danger of being a woman alone in a strange land, impersonates a man, renaming herself Cesario, and goes to work for Duke Orsino, after she finds herself alone after a shipwreck. Her personalities all around charming, and obtains Orsino’s trust within three days through her wit, charm, loyalty, knowledge in music, and conversational skills. She’s also loyal, following Orsino’s orders to win over Lady Olivia for him as Viola is in love with Orsino. Next, Olivia: a prosperous, alluring, and virtuous Illyrian woman. She refuses to return affection towards neither Orsino nor Sir Andrew, insisting it’s due to her brother’s death and the mourning she feels.

The very first word following the dramatis personae in the text of William Shakespeare 's comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, is Music. The first thing that playgoers hear at the beginning is music. This music is being played for a duke, a powerful lord residing over the setting of all the characters. He is surrounded by other lords and his attendant, Curio. The duke, Orsino, cannot help but comment:

Our group proposed, presented, and directing the stage performance for the Twelfth Night. In the beginning of the semester I had no clue of what to expect from this course, and reading the syllabus made Shakespeare’s Plays seem complex. I am somewhat familiar with William Shakespeare’s plays stemming from a Shakespeare course that I had taken at Harold Washington (City College of Chicago). My professor (Hader) informed the class that if we were looking to go on to a four-year university as an English major that we will have to take another course, and it will be taught from a different perspective or angle—quite frightening. As a person who had not connected or have read anything that the playwright had ever written, I was afraid that I

At the beginning of the play he thought he had lost his sister, but by

(Molière skillfully uses chopsticks to pick up a small egg roll from his appetizer and drops it as he opens his eyes real big. His pupils dilate and Molière cracks a small smile as he realizes exactly what topic he wants to discuss next.)

At the beginning of the play, Duke Senior is unrightfully banished from his throne by his power-hungry brother, Duke Frederick. After the dismissal of her father, Rosalind displays her first strength, that of a humble spirit. Certainly, it cannot be easy without the presence of a loved one, let alone, to reside with an uncle who just cheated her father out of his rightful place at the throne. Despite these hardships, Rosalind did not portray any signs of hate nor sadness, but instead, turned outward towards her cousin, Celia, Duke Frederick’s daughter, to support her. When Celia questions why Rosalind decided to stay, Rosalind replies selflessly, “...I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours” (1.2.15). Rather than fleeing with her father into the Forest of Arden, Rosalind decides to stay with her best friend, and accepts her decision, regardless of her own despair over her father’s recent misfortune.