Twelfth Night The Fool

    It is not unusual that the fool should be a prominent figure and make an important contribution in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that either escape reality or live a dream. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses.

“Infirmity that decays the wise doth ever make a better fool” – though uttered by one of his own characters Shakespeare does not seem to conform to this ideal. The fools carved by Shakespeare in his plays showed no resemblance to the mentally and physically challenged people who were treated as pets and used for amusement during the medieval period. Rather Shakespeare’s fools appear to be in the best of their wits when they are in possession of the wisest minds. Fools whether in their rustic vigour displaying grotesque humour or in the forms of the sophisticated court jesters with their polished puns occupied a substantial position in his plays. Not only they added the element of humour but often alluded a

Twelfth Night and The Servant of Two Masters both relate to this course’s theme of the carnivalesque. Both plays share the commonality of having a clown, or a fool; in Twelfth Night it is Feste or the Fool, and in The Servant of Two Masters it is Truffaldino. Both characters play the fool in contrasting ways to express similar yet different forms of the carnivalesque. During carnival, laughter is prominent; people are laughing together, they are laughing at each other, and they are being laughed at. The laughter of carnival is both malicious and happy and everyone is included in it. Feste and Truffaldino show the different aspects of carnival laughter through their portrayals of the fool. Feste plays the role of the artificial fool

The part of the fool is played to the hilt by Orgon. Throughout the first three acts he is such a domineering idiot that he is not even worth pitying. He, along with his mother, play the part of the blind zealot. What he chooses to call Christian love leads him to punish his family and himself because he takes away their freedom of choice and integrity and his own property. But, Orgon is not content to follow

Wisdom is not always affiliated with those society gives power to. It is often thought that those in power are those that possess the greatest knowledge and ability for the situations at hand. The reality of this may be quite different, often those who are the “wisest” in society are not in a position of power at all. They spout wisdom and blindly hope that maybe someone will listen and effect the change. If someone were to listen, society may be different, but they often don’t. This individual is that of the fool, the comic who seems to understand more about the world than those running it. The fool in Shakespeare is one of the least foolish characters in the play. Throughout both comedies and tragedies, Shakespeare uses the character of the fool to guide the main characters and offer insight into the situations at

In the play “Twelfth Night”, Shakespeare presents many tricksters. In fact, the majority of the characters can somewhat be characterized as a trickster. Some characteristics that you would see in a trickster are that they are intelligent, ambiguous, deceitful, and self-serving. In the play “Twelfth Night” some characters that you would classify as tricksters are Viola, Feste, Maria, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Some tricksters are of higher class/rank while others are of lower class/servants. In “Twelfth Night”, the tricksters are used to develop conflict, challenge social order, and create comedy.

People tend to judge others based on many aspects. Sometimes they may try to force people to act upon certain rules that define their place in society. They often try to meet expectations that society has made for them based on gender and social status. William Shakespeare reinforces these ideas in his play Twelfth Night, which introduces many meaningful messages about situations that still occur in society today. He clearly develops important themes worthy of analysis. A few of these strong themes are about stereotypes and society’s expectations and rules, which he proves to be irrelevant most of the time. Many situations in the play falsify commonly held stereotypes about gender and social status by showing how they are sometimes invalid. He also shows how these stereotypes can affect the way people behave towards and judge others.

through his vanity is easily fooled into thinking it is he who she loves although

The Fool in the Tragedy of King Lear is a loyal, humorous, honest and sincere character that attends King Lear and tells the truth, in snippets of clever dialogue. The Fool has an important role in the play as he/she looks after King Lear, tells the truth and lastly foreshadows and prophecizes what will eventually happen in the following acts. Ultimately, The Fool is the crutch King Lear can rely on when he is downcast and eventually when he turns mad. No matter what circumstances the King may undergo, The Fool is loyally there to support the King and tell the truth with candor, and ultimately is, a candid caretaker.

Within the play ‘Twelfth Night’ it can be argued that the audience may be entertained by the outlook of Malvolio’s gulling. To start with his name means “ill will” within Italian which already suggests his attitude towards the other characters thus showing his place within the play as an “unpopular”character. He is a part of a religious order who sought to regulate forms of worship. In modern time the word “puritan” is often used to mean "Against pleasure" . Historically, the word was has been used degradingly to characterize the puritan group as extremists. This religious group was despised for its opposition to the theater, winter festivals, musical festivals and any forms of entertainment which is what ‘Twelfth Night’ "The evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking" actually stands for, as it is a festival in itself which further comical as he is incongruous with the play's title.

My favorite character in Fools is Snetsky, played by Jacob Priddy and the shepard, because he was the funniest out of everyone who acted. Everyone in the play had a part to be funny with some jokes here and there, but Snetsky takes the cake on how hard he made me laugh. He said his lines with passion, gave real feeling that he has been cursed, and everyone else is not really that good at acting. It was fun watching him preforming. My least favorite has to be Magistrate, played by Noah Jobbins, because he served no purpose. Magistrate only told information about the town when Leon was with him and gave the marriage of Sofia and Leon. I think he should not be in the play at all. It is not because Noah did not do a bad job portraying the character, it is the character role had no meaning to it made it pointless having him. Several people told Leon about the towns history and someone else could have done the

The Fool in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is more intelligent than most of the other characters in the play. When talking to Olivia, and attempting to make her laugh, he turns her words against her. As she demands his removal, he says, “Do you not hear fellows, take the lady away” (Page 29). Though she carries power over him, the fools wit is more powerful than hers. Olivia’s disposition leads the fool to wonder why she is mourning. Once Olivia mentions the death of her brother, the Fool bluntly states that “his soul is in hell.” Olivia responds with her belief that his soul is, instead, in heaven. The Fool, because of his intellect, knew she would reply with her answer; thus proving her mourning to be fruitless.

William Shakespeare has entertained people for centuries with his romantic comedies. One of his well-known plays is Twelfth Night which explores the relationships between friends. The main characters in the play have to overcome many different challenging obstacles and when all hope seems to be against them, they end up overpowering their difficulties and fall in love. . Jesus’s words in John chapter 15 are perfect: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Loyalty and trust was shown in Jesus’s actions because he did what he promised and gave his life up for the sins of others. Compatibility is shown between the friendship of Toby and Andrew. Trust must be present amongst friends in order for the relationship to be at its fullest. Loyalty is expressed between the relationship of Antonio and Sebastian. Throughout the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare demonstrates that true friends are always compatible, trustworthy, and loyal to each other.

Recently, I’ve been reading an intriguing play, Twelfth Night, which was written by William Shakespeare. What interests me in this play most is the fact that there are a lot of love interests. Duke Orsino is greatly attracted to a gentlewoman called Olivia. However, despite his attempts to court her, she rejects his approaches as she claims to be in a period of mourning for her dead brother which has been going on for seven years. Olivia forms a tight friendship with Viola, a woman who acts as a messenger for the Duke, and ends up falling in love with her. Viola, on the other hand, is totally awed by Orsino. The fact that Olivia is in love with Viola who is in love with the man who has been courting the former for years is quite ironical. I believe that love is what makes us be better people and the relationships between people can influence each othet and their personalities. Love, a big subject existing in this world, we can’t live without it whether it’s optimized or not.

The question of “Feminist Criticism maintains that literature consistently tends to reassert women as second or other, as the passive object to man’s more active and powerful subject. Think about the role that gender plays in Shakespeare’s work. Focus on Twelfth Night or King Lear—or discuss both plays together. Do you see these patterns repeated? Or do you see them being challenged and somehow undermined (implicitly or explicitly) in the plots and language of the play 's)?” wants to know if Shakespeare wanted to break the pattern of women being passive objects to men in the literature. In the story Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare all of the roles are played by men. In the fifteenth century the women could not be involved in a play of that sort. In my opinion the idea of women being second or other as a passive object to a man’s more active and powerful subject is somewhat challenged as well as included in this piece of writing. I feel that William Shakespeare wrote this and made the men in the play seem to be homosexual because it was showing that the men were taking the “woman 's place”. It is showing that a woman were not allowed the same rights as a man was. Author Judith Newmark states “But today, even all-male productions of Shakespeare -- such as director Joe Calarco 's heart-rending, four-man version of "Romeo and Juliet,"(Newmark). In showing that men were the only ones allowed to be in a play of this caliber many people feel as if it is pushing women