Twelfth Night The Fool

William Shakespeare’s plays “Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” are completely opposite plays. However, there are many connections that can be made between the two. Seeing as “Hamlet” is a dark tragedy and “Twelfth Night” is a romantic comedy, both seem to have romantic twists to them developed by the hindering of the truth of one’s appearance. These are shown through major themes, such as deceit through disguises, complex love triangles, and varying opinions of marriage.

    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.

Maria is also a character who has been touched by the love bug. She loves sir toby in the play. Her and Sir Toby get hitched by plays end off stage. Maria is also the key to Malvolios downfall. She was the only one close enough to Olivia to copy her hand writing perfectly. She sets him up with eh dastardly task and styles to act and wear. “f you will then see the fruits of the sport, mark his first approach before my lady. He will come to her in yellow stockings, and ’tis a color she abhors, and cross-gartered, a fashion she detests. And he will smile upon her, which will now be so unsuitable to her disposition, being addicted to a melancholy as she is, that it cannot but turn him into a notable contempt. If you will see it, follow me.”( 2.5.10). (”Twelfth Night." Twelfth Night. Web. 09 May

really is just a fool. And Feste, the other character, looks the part of a fool and is used for

“If music be the food of love, play on” (1.1 1) In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare shows love in various different forms. Love is defined as “a strong affection or liking for someone,” and we can see love being portrayed in different ways throughout the play. Some of these forms of love include true love, self-love and a love for money. "Twelfth Night" has many love triangles. Many of the characters are caught up in the web of love and are blind to realize that their emotions toward other characters are sometimes untrue.

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

Fools. What does this mean? As the interviews were conducted, many people interpreted what they believe the definition of fools was to them. In the play, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by William Shakespeare, a famous line was spoken by Robin in Act III: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” This quote was read by twelve different people in different age groups. They were also asked to give their opinion on the quote by agreeing or disagreeing . These interviewees taught the interviewer how there are more definitions towards the word fool and the reasons behind calling someone a fool with amazing real life stories and people.

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.

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

After a series of dramatic events, Shakespeare introduces the fool to brighten the situation and in doing so causes the king to have an epiphany. I have noticed that Shakespeare frequently includes a character with the same purpose to that of the Fool, such as, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream. This fool is intelligent and uses symbolic questions to help King Lear reflect on his heinous actions. For instance, he asks the King "Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?" The fool answers with an analogy of the King, where the snail is the king and the home is his kingdom. The fool's questions are harshly candid that it appalled me that the King did not berate him for it. Instead, the King does something aberrational for his character; he admits

In response to the statement above, my answer is that Feste could sometimes be considered the actual fool whereas sometimes people think of him as the ‘paid fool’. Malvolio could be the hidden fool in Twelfth Night as he is the butt of most of the characters jokes and is there for the audience's entertainment in my eyes. So in response I agree to an extent with the statement ‘Malvolio is the real fool of Twelfth Night’. The word fool has many meanings.

In Act 2 scene 4, Fool rightly observes Duke Orsino’s love for Olivia as fickle and not genuine when likening his mind to an opal, implying that he changes his mind as much as an opal changes color (which is very often). He observes how foolish Olivia’s excessive mourning is when grieving over her dead brother (Act 1 Scene 5 Lines 64-69), and on several accounts points out the absurdity of Sir Toby’s over-indulgent lifestyle in witty banter. Fortunately for Feste, because he is an “allowed Fool” (Act 1 Scene 5 Line 93), he is licensed to voice his observations without trouble, earning him many laughs for speaking his mind. Fool’s honest observations make him the comedic truth of the

Throughout William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste exemplifies the role of a jester and fool, but thoroughly demonstrates to his audience that there is more to him than the other characters might see. Feste is often degraded by his fellow associates, and deemed inferior to others because they view him for his “lack of wits,” but very few of them realize that Feste is anything but a fool. Feste is Olivia's personal and professional fool, and is therefore given the license to kill (with words). In the first scene that Feste is introduced to the reader, he is immediately stereotyped for being the usual joker, and he even plays along with the part that others reckon him to play. In this scene, Feste wittily

William Shakespeare, in his well-known comedy Twelfth Night, creates a plot that revolves around mistaken identity and deception. Mistaken identity, along with disguises, rules the play and affects the lives of several of the characters. Shakespeare's techniques involve mistaken identity to bring humor, mystery, and complication to the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola who is disguised as a eunuch, Maria who writes a letter to Malvolio as Olivia, and then the mix-up between Sebastian and Viola are revealed.

Molière. Since we’re on the subject of discussing your play Twelfth Night, there are a couple of key aspects within the dramaturgy of that play that, to this day, still confuse me.