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.

Orsino's love, however, is a courtly love. He claims to be in love with Olivia but seems rather to be in love with the idea of love and the behavior of a lover. Orsino is a Petrachan lover who chooses an object that will not return his love. Because he is not ready for commitment, he courts Olivia in a formal way. By sending his messengers to her house instead of going himself, he does not have to speak to her directly. Early in the play, Viola realises that Orsino's love for Olivia is denied and that she would also reject all men for a period of seven years. Viola believes that Orsino might not be rejected if he visited Olivia himself and says to him: "I think not so, my lord," but Orsino, not wanting to see Olivia himself and wanting to keep up the role of the disappointed lover, insists that Cesario woo her.

Furthermore Feste advises Viola about Olivia's love for her on numerous occasions.  He is Olivia's servant, and thus it is his duty to help her out with problems that may arise.  Even though Viola, being a female, does not like Olivia, she still benefits from Feste's conversations.  His ingenious commentary and creative word combinations give Viola a real appreciation for the fool's art.  She realizes that his comments are not just random remarks, but skillful comments that require careful observation of the people he jest about.  Walker remarks, "As soon as his quicksilver wit

She feels pity for Olivia and herself with the statement "Poor lady, she were better love a dream" (2.2. 25)! Viola's use of deception causes a cross gender love triangle with which she can not deal.

Although Viola faced a lot of confusion and conflicts she was equipped to handle this because she was mostly causing it by cross dressing and lying about who she truly was. But, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andres, servants to Olivia, all decided to play practical jokes on Molvolio. By giving Molvolio a note and disguising it to look like Olivia’s hand writing, they caused Molvolio to make a fool of himself. The note left him directions to behave and dress a certain, this caused ignominious Molvolio to become confused. By being deceitful and conspiring, Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrews colors shined through. Not to mention, Molvolio’s true self became evident after misidentifying the letter. Molvolio became arrogant and was filled with self-importance, but when things became clear and Molvolio discovered the note was not written from Olivia he became embarrassed. He could not move forward, forgive and forget, so he left. This is how misidentification can cause conflicts and cause character’s true selves to shine

Viola’s characters in the film shows the most power as she repeatedly switches from female to male and represents herself different ways. The film shows that being a female you can’t join the men’s soccer team no matter how good you are, which takes away Viola’s power to be able to play soccer. As Viola disguises as her brother she struggles with the social and soccer life because she is always having to prove her manliness, in order to fit in and receive respect from the other males. When she finally proved how manly she was through a series of tough actions, she then gets accepted and makes first string for soccer.

With the modernization of any tale, certain plot threads have to be dropped, and others have to be changed. One such thread is Illyria: in Twelfth Night, Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, while Illyria is actually the name of the boarding school Viola attends in She’s the Man. Another difference is Cesario, Viola’s male identity in Shakespeare’s original work. Cesario is the name given to the restaurant Orsino and his cronies frequent in She’s the Man, while Viola takes the identity of Sebastian instead of creating a whole new one, as she is acting as a substitute while the real Sebastian is out of the country. However, she has her own personal agenda: to prove she is worthy of playing on a boys’ soccer team. This is also why she takes Sebastian’s identity and not a false name: she wouldn’t be able to attend Illyria since it would be a fake identity, so she had to assume a real one. In the movie’s Shakespearean source, Viola crafts a male identity to act as a servant and start a new life without Sebastian, who she thinks is lost at sea. Another notable difference is the elimination of characters and the combination of traits between others. One example of this is the character of Feste from Twelfth Night, who is portrayed as the fool who is actually the smartest man in the room. This character is

In William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, love as the cause of suffering is one of the most prominent theme of the story. Even though this play ends in love and wedded bliss, Shakespeare also shows us that love can also cause pain. The characters often view love as a curse, something that is thrust upon you and you cannot easily or willing escape. Examples include Malvolio’s love for Olivia, the love triangle between Olivia, Duke Orsino, and Viola as Cesario, and Antonio’s crush on Sebastian. There are countless occasions where unrequited love for another results in heartbreak and sorrow.

The masculine meets the feminine through a series of transformations since the beginning of the shipwreck of Viola. It is crucial to remember that female parts were traditionally played by male actors, therefore when Viola was cross-dressed and becomes the character Cesario, the actor would just need to quickly remove his costume. Feste says “four negatives makes two affirmatives” (5.1. 19). Not only does Viola amalgamate the two genders, she somewhat denies it as well and she pretends she is a man who has been castrated, which is Cesario. Viola’s original name is directly connected to her borrowed name which is Cesario. Even though Viola is symbolic for both males and females, she is neither a male or a female. However, she comes off as

was Olivia, a rich countess, ends up falling in love with her. Viola/Cesario did not

Aside from the fact that Cesario is falling for a man who is already infatuated, Olivia begins to reveal her true feelings as well. Establishing dramatic irony towards Cesario's disguise and feelings towards Olivia and Orsino add to the comedic effect while developing the plot and engaging the audience. Seeing how

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.

Despite knowing that Orsino “loves” Olivia, Viola almost immediately falls in love with Orsino. And because Viola is disguised as a man, she cannot show her true feelings for Orsino. After Orsino asks Viola to speak with Olivia and professes his love to her, Viola lets the reader know what she is truly feeling by saying “Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 40). This shows that even though she is willing to help Orsino pursue Olivia, Viola ultimately wants to marry Orsino. Viola’s love for Orsino is revealed again at the end of Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino is asking Viola to try harder in the quest for Olivia and he basically says that there is no love more noble or great as his, so she must love him. Viola then proceeds to say that maybe Olivia doesn’t love him; however, there is “someone” out there that does. She says:

A key interaction occurs between Orsino and Viola regarding the capacity of a woman's love. Orsino speaks to Viola (who is currently disguised as Cesario):

In the famous comedy Twelfth Night, Shakespeare dabbles with the phenomenon of love. This is seen through his various characters who are forced to deal with the aspects brought on by love. Characters like Cesario, who is Viola dressed as a boy. In the play the characters deal with their problems around love. The three major characters that love seems to impact more than the rest are Duke Orsino, Lady Olivia, and her servant Malvolio. Each of these characters is affected by love and each reacts differently when in love to out of love. Their reactions to love are based on their behavior, their speech, and their relations with other characters.