Twelfth Night Analysis

Dramatic irony is in speeches or a situation of drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play. For instance when Judge Danforth and Elizabeth Proctor were talking; Danforth: "We are given to understand that at one time you dismissed your servant, Abigail Williams...Why did you dismiss Abigail Williams?" Elizabeth:"She dissatisfied me; And my husband" (Act IV). This quotes shows dramatic irony when Elizabeth lies to protect Johns reputation, but what she does not know is that John himself has already confessed to adultery. Thus both of their reputations are damaged, John’s for adultery and Elizabeths for

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

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.

An example of dramatic irony is when Fortunato tells Montresor not to worry about his health and that “the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I will not die of a cough” (POE 238) Montresor then replies, “True–true.” When the reader reads this, they see that Fortunato is clueless of Montresor’s true plan is and while he tells Fortunato he will be all right. That he will not die, he is planning to kill him. This is dramatic because we as the reader feel a sense of sorrow because we know the truth about what will

Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. Willy thinks that

There are many examples of situational irony in Othello. One big example that went throughout the story was the triangle of Cassio, Othello, and Iago. Iago wanted Cassio dead, while Othello promoted Cassio to a higher position, and later in

-Dramatic Irony is when the words and actions of the characters in a work of literature are known to the audience or reader, but they are not known to certain characters in the story. The reader or audience has a greater knowledge of many of the characters themselves.

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

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy, and romantic love is the play’s main focus. Despite the fact that the play offers a happy ending, in which the various lovers find one another and achieve wedded bliss, Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or, rather, from the pangs of unrequited love. At one point, Orsino depicts love dolefully as an “appetite” that he wants to satisfy and cannot, at another point; he calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds”. Olivia more bluntly describes love as a

himself just to suit his outlook on the situation. For example, the play he twists Olivia's words around to make it seem like she likes his yellow cross-gartered tights when in reality she dislikes them. Sir Toby just considers himself and no one else, not even his companions. He ignores Maria's notification about drinking into the night, and he continues to push Sir Andrew and Olivia to court. Even though he believes that Sir Andrew doesn't have a chance. Olivia considers the all-inclusive community around her, yet she furthermore assumes that no man is meriting her brilliance. She assumes that she is "all that," and that no one can organize her. For Shakespeare to incorporate this sort of just a single was most likely to demonstrate that Malvolio who thinks excessively of himself isn't right about Olivia cherishing him.

Dramatic Irony is present several times in The Merchant of Venice, for example, in act four scene one when Bassanio remarks that he would give everything up for Antonio, including his wife, Portia disguised as Balthazar responds, “Your wife would give you little

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.

Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both

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

     Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, scene 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally male role of wooer in an attempt to win the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesario's beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his "scorn" (3.1.134) only reveals his hidden love. However, Olivia's mistaken interpretation of Cesario's manner is only the surface problem presented by her speech. The reality of Cesario's gender, the active role Olivia takes in pursuing him/her, and the duality of word meanings in this passage threaten to turn the