Twelfth Night Essay

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

Feste is also able to delude the other characters in the play using his wit or a disguise. Feste develops many different traits throughout the play, such as valiance, brilliance, and deceit, resultantly his thoughts can never be predicted. First off, Feste is a fool and his job is to act wild in order to amuse his mistress, Olivia.

Literature, is certainly the most influential playwright of the English Renaissance. Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon in rural northern England, he was the son of a middle class glove maker. Competing against such illustrious company as Christopher Marlowe and Ben Johnson, Shakespeare quickly became one of the most popular playwrights in the city of London, and a favourite of the monarch, the powerful Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare wrote thirty-eight plays. "Twelfth Night" was written near the middle of Shakespeare' career, around 1601, and most critics consider it as one of his greatest comedies.

Although he does not make any profound remarks, he seems to be the wisest person of all the characters in the comedy. Viola remarks this by saying, "This fellow's wise enough to play the fool"(III.i.61). Since Feste is a licensed fool, his main role in Twelfth Night is to speak the truth. This is where the humor lies, his truthfulness. In one example he proves Olivia to be a true fool by asking her what she was mourning about. The point Feste tried to make was that Olivia was mourning for a person whose soul is in heaven.

   In most Shakespearean romantic comedies, there is a character that plays the part of a truth-teller.  And in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night it is no different. Feste, a clown, through his mixed up words and songs enlightens the other characters whilst playing the role of the truth-teller.  Through aiding the Duke with his patience, helping Viola with her love problems, and having a major role in Malvolio's downfall, Feste holds one of the primary parts of the play.

Twelfth Night was thought to be written in 1600-1. The play – known for adhering to a genre of romantic comedy by utilising pathos combined with humour – is listed under comedies in the First Folio of 1623 with another of Shakespeare’s works As You Like It. Twelfth Night adheres to Frye’s theory to some extent. The old world, one of repression, is conveyed through the puritanical beliefs of Malvolio; the green world is conveyed through the theories of disguise and confusion; and a new world is established through the restoration of order and the marriages in Act 5. However, the continuous adherence to the old world through Malvolio and a lack of clear structure when transgressing the worlds limits the extent of Frye’s theory. The flexible structure is perhaps more indicative of Berger’s ‘second’ world theory. My aim is to explore the limitations of the green world within the play Twelfth Night.

The most interesting character of “Twelfth Night” is Feste. He has such a double character that shows at different times of the play. His first ‘character’ or ‘personality’ is his wise and humorous one:

A feminist approach is an analysis of the nature of gender inequality. For example, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be analyzed from this standpoint to reveal the application and absence of gender stereotypes. In particular, Hermia, Helena, and Titania chase love and claim independence while simultaneously being oppressed by male dominance. Although, analyzed from a feminist approach, Helena, Hermia, and Titania portray biological inequality, they also illustrate gender stereotype defiance. Using feminist analysis, it is evident that Helena, Hermia, and Titania are subjected to gender stereotypes.

William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream utilizes the technique of multiple characters playing leading roles. The fairy character Puck stands out as a dominant and leading role in the play. Puck is the best fit for the role of the protagonist because he is mischievous and therefore, has the ability to change the outcome of the play through his schemes and actions. As the protagonist, Puck is responsible for creating the major conflict that occurs between the four lovers throughout the play. This is important because the play focuses on the lives and relationships of the lovers. In addition, because of Puck’s interaction with these characters, his actions throughout the play, alters the final outcome. Finally, Puck’s

Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents an assortment of characters whose difficulties with their lover’s present itself in many situation of the play through these unique relationships. In Act 3 Puck is reporting to Oberon about Titania and Bottom when Demetrius and Hermia enter the scene Puck states “This the woman but not this the man” (3.2.44). Puck’s quote holds a simple but repeated metaphor of the play itself and its reoccurring themes on the mystery love presents. Puck’s motives throughout the play don’t ever seem to get clearer aside from knowing that he services Oberon, and makes one mistakes to shake up the entire story before choosing to cause his own mischief. Through the entire story the fairy Puck plays one of the main antagonists, even from the beginning he is responsible for a lot of problems but later solutions. Shakespeare cast Oberon and Puck as character to create a living metaphor for the mystery behind conflict and resolution experienced in relationships.

Generally, the relationship between the sun and the moon is a metaphorical construct of the male and female gender. However, in William Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the author develops the traditional representation of a gendered sun and moon further, in order to symbolize the two celestial bodies, now, as masculine and feminine oppositions. More specifically, Shakespeare expands on the traditional idea of the sun and moon as a gender concept by identifying both as a union, and the relationships that solidify these bonds, in which he delineates the opposition of romance to the opposition of the sun and moon; in its destructive and regenerative aspect, the moon accompanies the resolution of the conflicts, that is, the infidelity between lovers, and shed its light over a return to individual and social order.

In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, the characters are involved in a plot complete with trickery, disguise, and love. Each character is defined not by his or her gender or true identity, but by the role they are forced to take because of the complicated situation that arises. Unlike their gender, the speech the characters give an insight to their true personalities. In the Twelfth Night, the character Duke Orsino uses flowery and over-dramatic language, long poetic sentence structure, and melodramatic metaphors to display his overemotional romantic nature despite the different emotions in his various speeches.

Atkins attributes most importantly that speech shapes a character hence the reason why Shakespeare invested ample time in the language of his characters for there were hardly sound effects and props used in Elizabethan society as opposed to society today. This is what makes the characters indirectly the play itself so appealing. The way one speaks, the setting they reside affects the audience’s judgement on them. Every shakesperian comedy is entitled to the conventional fool, in this case, Fest introduced at the end of the first act and at other intervals as the play unravels. Shakespeare ingenuity is seen through this formation as Alan S. Downer describes, Feste whole art and function depend upon talents as a “notable corrupter of words” and through these words he reveals that he is in fact, very wise in nature. Such wit, such logical one may say in vast opposition to the lyrical dreamlike aura of Illyria. His wit moreso gives rise to the inevitable truth that is likely to be avoided concealed in Illyria most often dealing with self expression. On his first appearane with Maris in act one scene 5, Fest demonstrated not only that he is

In William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, it is ironic how many times the fool is said to be dishonest, when, in fact, his role proves entirely opposite. Though sometimes the characters do not realize his hidden messages, the reader can instantly comprehend Feste's figurative language, which is evident in every scene in which the fool appears. Whether he is singing to Orsino, arguing with Malvolio, or playing around with Viola, Feste always manages to sneak in a few symbolic foretokens before his exit. His keen eye and fast wit help him to actively partake in the portrayal of the story, however, the fool is merely present to express that which cannot be fully expressed through the

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, almost every character spends a large portion of the play pretending to be something they’re not. A major part of life is learning to listen to the advice of others and be comfortable in your own skin. A literal definition of “Carpe Diem” means seize the day. To seize the day means to make the most of the day and not take everything too seriously. Many characters in this play take note of that philosophy and welcome the embarrassments and lessons that life has to offer. However, few characters in this play refuse to see the silver lining and instead wallow in their own self-pity.