The Importance of Carnivalesque in Twelfth Night

It is a chaotic and unruly tradition wherein people exercise their freedom to indulge in the desires of the flesh. This can be in forms of alcoholism (which was abundant in the late 1840s), food, loud parties, and noise in general. All self-control and sobriety are forgotten in traditional carnivals; it is supreme madness. It is the perfect alibi for Montresor because everyone would be in the carnival. It would be so chaotic that no one would know where everyone else is.

    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.

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.

norms of the time period dictate that Feste should fear Olivia and regard himself as the lesser.

The cause of the underlying despondency is the way in which Illyrian society works in reverse to social norms. This reversal is linked closely with the festivities of Twelfth Night. The central idea of Twelfth Night was derived from the old notion behind Saturnalia: a brief social revolution or period of "misrule" in which power, dignity, or impunity is reversed upon those ordinarily in a subordinate position so that masters become servants and servants become masters. A mock figure known as the "Carnival King" or "Boy-Bishop" was elected to head the festivities; a figure echoed in Twelfth Night both by Sir Toby Belch, who becomes a kind of "carnival king" upholding the feasting, revelry and license of the festival period, and by Feste who impersonates a clergyman in his attempts to "re-educate" Malvolio into his "right" mind. When challenged about his drinking by Maria; “Ay but you must confine yourself within the limits of order,” Sir Toby retorts, “Confine! I 'll confine myself no finer than I am." In the true style of Saturnalia, Sir Toby overturns all norms.

Thus, most references are from the limited amount of available secondary literature and some push the boundary of the late medieval time period because studies relating the carnivalesque to social tensions are rare. This essay aims to be selective and handle a difficult topic in an interesting way, leading to the conclusion that indeed peasant activities in the carnivalesque certainly do reveal social tensions within their late medieval European experiences.

During the play Cyrano de Bergerac there are often very deep and depressing moments and to pick the audience up Edmund Rostand used humor. This is seen in all of the acts throughout the play and is one of the main uses of humor in the play. This is not the only use of humor in this play it is also used by Cyrano to hide his insecurities. Throughout the play, Cyrano makes fun of his own nose to make it seem like he is comfortable with it and so others can not make fun of it. Humor definitely plays an important role in Cyrano de Bergerac and through this essay, I will be examining the role of Humor in the play in depth.

An early interaction between the wealthy noble Olivia and her hired fool mocks the hierarchal stereotypes and provides an example of Shakespeare's ironic commentary on the social class distinction. In this scene, Olivia, mourning her brother's death, is angry with Feste, her fool, for his unexcused absence. Feste responds to this anger with wit and proceeds to disprove the stereotypes surrounding his title. As a fool, Feste is expected to embody his title and possess little wit. However, as he and Olivia continue to argue, he uses his wit to flip this cliche, proving her to be the true fool. Olivia exits this scene in higher spirits, due to Feste’s comedy, rather than Feste exiting in a body bag, as most would have expected. Shakespeare uses Feste’s humor and diction in this scene to develop not only the characters but provides more insight on the social class distinctions present in the play.

In Twelfth Night, the fools are the ones that control the comedy and humor in the play. They assist in the make believe game and fool around with characters who "evade reality or rather realize a dream". In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses. They create the confusion through humor and it all works out in the end to make William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a comical play of his time and today. In Twelfth Night, the clown and the fools are the ones who combine humor and wit to make the comedy work, just like in many comical plays in today’s society. Modern audiences would laugh from the foolery caused by these characters while the comic truth is unwinding to build up this comedy.

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

The play Twelfth Night encapsulates what it meant to be a man and women throughout

In 'Twelfth Night’, gender and sexuality in many ways add to the play’s themes of madness. 'Twelfth Night ' is a reflection of renaissance thought and culture, the renaissance was a transitional period from the medieval to the radical Elizabethan era. The culture of the time was a contradictory one, as from one aspect it was influenced by the patriarchal medieval time, where women were under the rule of men and seen as needing the protection of men, however, from another perspective, the culture was a changing one as women were starting to receive education and many humanists believed that women should be given more rights. The play reflects these attitudes and often challenges the social hierarchy and establishes ideas on gender roles, sexuality and cross-dressing. These factors indeed undermine the expectations of male and female behaviour, and in turn further the play 's theme of madness which has a comedic effect on the audience due to the shock humour it provides.

The carnivalesque can be understood as having arisen in response to a society which, as described by literary critic Jon Cook, was “ostensibly attached to hierarchy and its manifold religious and social rituals” (Cook 190). It appears as a revolution against these confining structures, working to reassert freedom. It works toward this end by both negating the values of

The Carnival setting in the play gives the characters a freedom, particularly sexual freedom, they would not otherwise possess. When asked by her governess what she will do at Carnival, Hellena replies, ‘That which all the World does, as I am told, be as mad as the rest, and take all innocent Freedom.’ (Owens, 1996: 268) In the play, the madness and freedom of Carnival is produced by the masquerading element of the festival. As Belville points out about the masks he and Willmore are wearing, ‘Whatever Extravagances we commit in these Faces, our own may not be oblig’d to answer ‘em.’ (Owens, 1996: 275) This kind of environment is especially dangerous for a licentious character like Willmore. In fact, Willmore’s sexual desire threatens to become violent almost immediately after he comes ashore at Naples. A woman dressed like a courtesan shuns Willmore’s advances and Willmore quickly becomes aggressive, his sexual desire restrained only by the more honorable Belville who beseeches him to ‘use no Violence here.’ The masquerade setting in