Twelfth Night Fool

The most foolish of people manage to be fooled, not only by others, but themselves as well; and Malvolio gets ahead of himself and unwisely chases after impossible ambitions, establishing himself as one of the most foolish characters in the play. Upon receiving Maria’s letter, Malvolio reads closely to what he believes is his mistress’ words of love, and when reading the name of his lady’s loved one, he sees a cryptic series of letters, and instantly questions “If I could make that/ resemble something in me”, before realizing its similarities to his own name (II.v.123-124). Malvolio reads a series of letters, seemingly standing for the name of Olivia’s target of romantic interest, and he tries to find his own name hidden in the letters immediately. Without thinking it through, Malvolio leaps at an opportunity, instantly seduced by the idea of success in society and living his days out as a count at Olivia’s side, happily wedded. Blinded by ambition and almost desperate for his mistress’ heart, Malvolio makes a fool of himself once again, and unlike other characters, he becomes inconsiderate of his place in society, becoming arrogant at the excuse. By the same token, he is convinced that the letter is true, and that Olivia “drives [Malvolio] to these habits of her liking…” and Malvolio swears that he “will be strange, stout,/in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with/the swiftness of putting on” for her (II.v.173-176). By following every

General confusion arises due to the deceptive actions of several characters in the play. A notable act of deception in the play is seen when Maria and Sir Toby play a trick on the head servant, Malvolio. They are successful in misleading him to act strangely, which convinces everyone that he has gone mad. In the hopes of wooing his master Olivia, Malvolio starts behaving strangely. He begins to wear yellow stockings and smiles excessively; behaviours that are all uncharacteristic of his usual prude and stern self.

“There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.” -Aristotle. Olivia’s clown, Feste has a very intriguing role in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Throughout the play, Feste is a bold and valiant character who continually makes daring comments towards everybody, including his mistress. The clown’s job is to be silly and crazy but in reality, Feste has the most wisdom and intelligence of all characters.

In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio is considered an outcast by almost everyone in the play. He doesn’t act the same way that any of the other characters act, in that he doesn’t participate in any of their activities, he enforces rules that the others could care less about, and he is just overall a socially awkward guy. Malvolio not only claims to adhere to the rules of the household himself, but uses his relations with Olivia to try and help make the others follow the rules as well. This upsets certain characters more than others. For instance Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria find his behavior particularly detestable. But Malvolio’s strict coherence to the rules allows him to have a rather high position in Olivia’s household.

Malvolio is mislead at one point of the play by Maria and Sir Toby. They write him a fake letter that is supposedly from Olivia saying how much she loves him. He only believes the letter because he loves her so much and will believe and do whatever it takes to be with her. This is his down fall with what appears to be a good situation for him, but is actually people playing tricks on him. He acts how he really feels in front of Olivia to only turn her off, and because of his own pride causes him to act foolish.

Malvolio is behaving very strangely as he is usually very grave and wears all black. However, in this seen he is so awoken by the idea that Olivia may grant him an advancement in social class that he behaves like an utter fool, forgetting all his dignity, decency and good order. His appearance in ‘yellow and cross-gartered stockings’ is utterly inappropriate especially as Olivia hates the colour yellow. This makes

In the play Twelfth Night there is another case of a Shakespearean fool. Feste is the fool and jester of this play. In the play Twelfth Night Shakespeare uses comedy and plot structure to show Feste’s role as the fool. In Shakespeare’s plays a fool is usually a clever peasant who makes jokes and outdoes other people who are of a higher social class.

Only disguised as a fool can Feste insult his master and not face any consequences. In addition, Feste continues to make those of higher social status look foolish when he physically disguises himself as a pastor and visits the supposedly possessed Malvolio. He further pursues Maria and Toby's cruel prank by using his comical comments to abuse the victimized Malvolio. Disguised as St Topaz the pastor, Feste calls Malvolio a lunatic, Satan and uses his wittiness and intelligence to make a fool of Malvolio. Unaware that he is talking to a fool, Malvolio pleads for help, only adding humor to the prank.

Because of his rude and bossy actions Maria, Toby, Feste, Andrew, and Fabian made an evil plan. They planned to trick him and make a fool out of the steward. By making him think Olivia loves him and that he is a madman, they would sure get their revenge. Maria first wrote a letter to Malvolio playing as Olivia. The letter is a love poem to Malvolio, claiming she loves him but wishes to keep it a secret.

While characters like Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and the Clown are always very happy, Malvolio acts as a reality check, and emits a rather somber attitude. “OLIVIA What think you of this fool, Malvolio? Doth he not mend? MALVOLIO Yes, and shall do till the pangs of death shake him. Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool.” - Act 1, Scene 5. This quote proves that Malvolio provides a stark contrast to the light-hearted mood all of the other characters convey, as it shows how he takes all of the jokes the Clown makes too seriously, and quickly would twist the banter into a topic related to the death of another character. In this play, Shakespeare made the character of Malvolio a typical antagonist, someone who carries around a negative attitude, wishes the worst on the main characters, as well as Malvolio’s only goal in this play to have power over the

In “The Twelfth Night”, by Shakespeare, Malvolio, the steward of Noble Olivia’s household, gets a prank done on him from family and other workers of the countess. The prank originated from Maria, a servant in Olivia’s household, who wants to get revenge on Malvolio because he is always spoiling others fun. Maria “[drops] some mysterious love letters in his path” supposedly written by Lady Olivia but is actually written by Maria(3.1.34). The letter was written saying to Malvolio about what he should do when around Olivia but it is actually saying exactly opposite from what Oliva actually wants. With the help from others, they made a complete fool of Malvolio but was it really necessary, did they go too far?

Shakespeare implies that the character Olivia thinks Malvolio is self-centered ‘O you we sick of self-love Malvolio’. Shakespeare makes it clear to his audience that although Olivia trusts and respects Malvolio his opinions, however outside of business Olivia doesn’t respect Malvolio. Shakespeare also suggests that Olivia is sick of self-love through the way she word her question. Also Shakespeare suggesting that Olivia herself is sick of self-love through way her pride of rejecting her suitors. Shakespeare shows clearly that Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and the she expects and trust him in following her instructions ‘Go you Malvolio. If it be a suit from the count … what you will to dismiss it’. Shakespeare shows that Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and she expects and trusts Malvolio to follow her instruction and to cast away suitors, whatever it takes. Shakespeare insinuates the reason why Malvolio thinks he can woo Olivia,

In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, there are many characters that are greatly disliked by others, many would say Malvolio is the most disliked due to his profound attributes. Malvolio is Lady Olivia’s steward and his ego, gullibility and egotism cause him to be mistreated and greatly disliked. Malvolio’s egotism is portrayed throughout the play because it is a trait that affects him constantly. His gullibility is mostly seen during the major prank that is played on him. Malvolio’s sternness is demonstrated throughout the whole entire play as well,but it especially seen while Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are having their usual drunken nights and Malvolio will not put up with it. Malvolio’s egotistical, gullible and stern personality cause him to be justly abused and easily disliked by others.

In twelfth night, Malvolio’s self-love is that of a reckless and unsettling kind. With a name that translates to “ill will” in Italian, it appears the audience are not supposed to warm to this unrelenting and strict Puritan. Whilst the idea of a steward whom thinks himself to be better than his other staff members does provide comic relief to the audience, it also hints at some of the motivation behind his advances towards Olivia. His ambitions of becoming “Count Malvolio!”(2.5.1063), and adorning a “branched velvet gown” (2.5.1075) certainly speak of someone who wishes to up their societal value. Malvolio appears blinded by his own ambitions for his future, with his supposed love interest Olivia even claiming that he is “sick of self-love” (1.5.380) it is no surprise that the forged letter only adds to this dangerous self-infatuation. Whereas Orsino’s self-love was counteracted by Viola’s true love for him, Malvolio’s persistent smugness and lack of empathy makes him the least redeemable character. Malvolio is the “enemy of the pleasures of indulging in one’s appetite” Atkin (2008: 81). This infatuation goes so far as to him believing Olivia appreciated his embarrassing tirades of wearing cross-gartered yellow stockings.

Feste, the “fool” as many call him, is Countess Olivia’s official hired jester in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The court jesters in many of Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be guides for the audience and that is the main function of Feste in Twelfth Night. This character plays a very crucial role in the plot development of the play. He enlightens the audience and characters about the confusing events that occur within the mingled romances. Feste intuitively brings to light some of the follies that the characters make. By examining the characters he reveals the truth about them and pulls together the main plot and the subplot.