The Punishment of Malvolio Essay

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.

“Twelfth Night” presents many characters who can be regarded as foolish, whether it be through their illogical declarations of love, idiotic nature or characteristic drunkenness indicative of the festival from which it is based on. However, none more so than the “puritan” Malvolio, who deludes himself completely throughout the play presenting him as the “real fool”.

In Act I Scene I we are introduced to the play’s antagonist, Tybalt. Perpetrator of the play’s violence and fuel to the conflict, Tybalt is constantly drawn to violence and uses family honour as his reasoning. His malevolence is shown from the onset of the play: “What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death.” Initial impressions of Tybalt include that his character is domineering and antagonistic, vindictive and unscrupulous. The topic of violence and death is the theme of his first few lines. Rather, the word “death” is syntactically placed at the end of the sentence, resonating and leaving a lingering impression. With regards to the context of the original play, status and power are explored within

In the play “Twelfth Night”, Malvolio is a steward for Lady Olivia. He’s very in love with her and only she has to deal with it. On the other hand, Olivia is plainly not in love with him; she is in love with Cesario. He tries everything to try and win her love but he also has a negative attitude towards others. Malvolio’s behavior is unacceptable and other people shouldn’t have to deal with it.

The relevance and significance of the revenge tragedy is in the way it explores human nature and forces audiences to evaluate ideologies such as revenge and justice. The concept of revenge is accompanied by moral conflict and Shakespeare demonstrates that by acting immorally society is likely to be riddled with corruption. Hamlet seeks to avenge the death of his father but struggles with the ramifications of seeking righteous revenge through an immoral act. The imposition of revenge instills the existential questioning on Hamlet as it contradicts his with his social expectation. His

One of the strengths of good theater is its ability to mirror the problems and conditions shaping its time. In The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare reflects two important aspects of Elizabethan society: the corrupting influence of prosperity and the increasingly vengeful nature of Venetian justice. To address the former issue, Shakespeare downplays the importance of wealth by associating its involvement in romance with superficial and insubstantial advantages. He characterizes prosperity as a deceiving agent, citing its ability to introduce shallowness into a relationship. Shakespeare reasons that genuine romance depends on sacrifice and emotion, not wealth. The problem with justice is equally striking. In the play, justice is

Egotism has the ability to cloud one’s moral judgement and can therefore affect not only the individual, but an entire community as well. William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night introduces how deceit and trickery can cause a person to be so concerned with themselves, that they become oblivious to the consequences that can arise from their actions. Malvolio, a trusted and loyal servant to the Lady Olivia, falls victim to the jokes of others in the household due to his serious approach to life and opinion that there is no time for fun. Because of the jokes and mockery, he becomes preoccupied with winning the affection of Olivia and begins to hold himself in the highest esteem, making him unaware of the conflicts around him. Malvolio’s self-absorption

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

Malvolio is brought in by Fabian to see that the love of his life, Olivia, is with a new man. The men think their jokes are all fun and games until the final scene when Malvolio confronts Olivia about the letter. Olivia who is unaware of the jokes being played, responds with, “Have I, Malvolio? No!... this is not my writing… ‘Tis Maria’s hand” (5.1. 318. 333-344). Malvolio doesn’t know how to react to the news of his crush being taken away and that the letter was phoney. This doesn’t seem to get much attention from the surrounding crowd because immediately after they start talking about other matters. The only thing Malvolio can say is, “I’ll be reveng’d on the whole pack of you!” (5.1.365). The “jokes” played on Malvolio were taken to another level when they created Olivia’s false love for him. Was it this or was it that Malvolio was so blind from the love that he couldn’t see anything? Either way Malvolio’s love for Olivia concluded with him being humiliated in front of the whole cast of

There is no denying that Shakespeare is a definitive playwright. He has presented us with classic works that have set the precedent for drama and the theatre. Among Shakespeare’s more notable plays are his tragedies. In the tragedy his protagonists are often given flaws in their character and hence, are suitably named tragic heroes. The downfall of these protagonists is often a result of their own character flaws and unfortunately, they suffer a doomed and unhappy ending. While the tragic hero is flawed they must also be honorable and worthy of the audience’s understanding and sympathy. On a quest for righteousness the tragic hero often goes through immense suffering which is why the audience can feel bad for him. For the most

Texts become valued over time when they explore challenging and enduring themes relevant to humanity. To a significant extent, William Shakespeare’s 1604 tragic play Othello retains its value over time through its effective encapsulation of transcendent themes that explore the individual experience. Within the passage set for study , Shakespeare examines aspects of the human nature namely immense jealousy and the arts of deception, delineating the dichotomy of good and evil that erodes the personal psyche. This sequence of thematic concerns in Othello is not only a testament to the Elizabethan audience’s interests but epitomize enduring ideas that also resonate with the today’s modern audience.

Shakespeare presents Malvolio (meaning “ill-will”) in a way that makes the characters dislike him and feel entitled to subject him to horrific and embarrassing tricks. Perhaps it is a form of release for the characters’ and audience members; Angela Carter states, ‘Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.’ In a way this is true since it is Shakespeare’s design to create comedy in Malvolio’s misfortune. This type of treatment in the real world would not be funny as it is taken too far; at first they only make fun of him but then they start to humiliate and torture him - even in context of Twelfth Night being a comedy. The audience is aware of the tragedy that Malvolio goes through but whether they choose to go on a moral recess or not is up to them. Some

Twelfth Night is a novel that revolves around morals. Some characters have superior morals than others. A personality focuses on a multitude attributes, an imperative part is their morals. Morals separate people from good and bad, in the novel they were a highlighted part of each character’s personality. Four of these personality types are phlegmatic, melancholic, choleric, and sanguine. Throughout the book these men reflected these various humors. The men who fell into these personality types are Malvolio represented the melancholic personality, in contrast, Sir Toby Belch portrayed under the sanguine personality, and similar to Malvolio, Duke Orsino acted upon the choleric personality.

Critics of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, such as L. G. Salingar in his essay “The Design of Twelfth Night,” constantly dwell upon its inconsistency of happiness. Indeed, Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy of joy that brings audience laughter and applause. Yet, under the atmosphere of mirth and liberty suggested by Twelfth Night, a Saturnalian Carnival where pleasure rules, we are constantly reminded of misery, hatred, and depression. Over the course of different character’s pursuit in “what [they] will”, we witness their conflict, laugh at their madness, sense the darkness in their society, and ultimately cast doubt on whether this immoderate pleasure will sustain. Through his use of multiple foils, Shakespeare guides his audience to unfold the limits of festivity.

“Hamlet”, much like many other Shakespearean tragedies, redefines the boundaries of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet is hammered by the formidable task of deciding what course he should take in regards to avenging his father. This play can undoubtedly be described as one lacking a definitive answer to all the problems displayed, rightly placed on Hamlet for his indecisiveness. Moreover, it can accurately be characterized as a form of entertainment centered around revenge. The most obvious reason for this labeling is the proposition of the ghost of Hamlet’s late father ordering him to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 1.5.25), which was the essential component that sent Hamlet spiraling towards a miserable, wretched existence. He spent weeks trying to decide what route would rectify his unique situation in a way that would avenge his father, as well as resolve his personal heartache. Additionally, it is argued that “Hamlet”, written during the Elizabethan era where political, historical, and comedic substance became the cornerstone of entertainment, is a revenge tragedy solely because of the fact that Hamlet’s killing of Polonius was accidental, and instead directed toward the King - the man who single handedly destroyed his life. This event marks the commencement of Hamlet’s revenge, the incident that eventually led to his own demise. “Hamlet” qualifies as a revenge tragedy because of the undeniable vengeance finally extracted on the late king's