Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
The complex plot - full of mistaken identities, misdirected passions, high comedy, low tricks, and unexpected poignancy - begins as a ship, carrying the identical twins Viola and Sebastian is wrecked off the coast of a fictional country, Illyria. Viola is washed ashore on this alien coast and becomes convinced that her beloved brother is dead. She learns that she is near the home of Olivia, a young countess who is also in mourning, for her recently dead father and brother. Accordingly, Olivia has sworn to have no contact with men for seven years, and in particular she is rejecting the amorous advances of the young Duke Orsino
Desperate to know how to
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And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me." When Viola's twin Sebastian suddenly emerges, alive and well, this triangle is complicated almost to a breaking point.
While Orsino, Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian are preoccupied with their romantic destinies, Olivia's household is equally occupied with a power struggle between the ill-tempered, repressive steward,
Malvolio, and her boisterous and bibulous uncle, Sir Toby Belch, accompanied by his vacuous, misfit friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Olivia's maid, Maria. For his own financial ends, Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to woo Olivia, while plotting Malvolio's humiliation. Throughout, Feste, the most enigmatic of entertainers, comes and goes between the two households, sparing no one he meets his barbed insights and his wit.
Written in 1600 or 1601, this play is Shakespeare's last romantic comedy. The comedies which followare much darker. Twelfth Night embodies many of the themes from his earlier comedies. For instance, he employed the device of having a woman fall in love with another woman disguised as a man. In some ways, Twelfth Night can be termed Shakespeare's apology to Phebe.
Whereas Rosalind dominates As You Like it, we have many centers of interest in Twelfth Night.
Orsino continues the theme of overly idealistic love we have seen in Orlando. The setting has a different feeling from Merchant of Venice and As You Like It--two plays in which Shakespeare clearly contrasts the world of
A Misummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare. In this play there are multiple themes however the most evident theme is love. Why is love an evident theme? It is an evident theme because the play commences with two Greek mythology characters─ the Duke of Athens, Theseus and Amazon queen Hippolita planning their marriage. However as Theseus plans his marriage he has to help Egeus persuade his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. Unfortunately both the Duke and Egeus failed to persuade Hermia into marrying Demetrius so the fairies (another set of characters. The fairies in this play consisted of goddess of chastity and Queen of fairies, Titania and King of fairies Oberon and his assistance Robin Goodfellow) decide
My group and I chose to perform Act 3 scene 3 from Twelfth Night, a relatively short scene involving Antonio and Sebastian. We chose the scene because it would require us to “gender-bend” because we would be playing men. The scene provides insight into Antonio’s dark past. When they walk into town, Sebastian is excited and thrilled to simply be alive, but Antonio does not want to be seen in the town. Antonio used to be a pirate at one point in his life, and it seems that he is on many a hit-list, especially Orsino’s. Earlier, Sebastian had gotten in a shipwreck, and Antonio saved him from the raging depths of the sea. Ultimately, they wash up in Illyria. Finally, it shows a different side of both characters that may not necessarily be shown in the rest of the play.
In Summary, with these three examples it is shown that the play and the movie contrast quite a bit. Most of the story line and the dialogue were very similar to the original story in the movie but some things were changed, possibly to shorten the story to be able to make
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.
Hamlet and Twelfth Night could both be compared through instances of body imagery, critical thought and social integration.
her younger brother Jonas, and her head strong mother are separated from their father and deported to
on around them. It was enjoyable to see the character’s act confused to the scenes of Hamlet.
In the kingdom of Illyria (fantasy world), Twelfth Night was supposedly originally written for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare’s comedy associates with the Feast of Epiphany (January 6th) and was means for entertainment in the seventeenth century. It contains some aspects that can be thought of as a successful comedy when compared to the standards of today’s society. The play incorporates some of the very same devices that are used in modern comedies today, such as topsy-turvy romance, foolery, and mistaken identities. Twelfth Night also involves many cultural aspects that would be tough for an audience today to relate with. Some of these ideas are social class, dialect, and lack of modern technology that affect
Deception and disguise are two key themes in Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'. As in most comedies, Twelfth Night celebrates different forms of disguise and deception in order to make the play more entertaining. It also develops a strong connection between the main plot (with Viola, Orsino, Olivia, and the others) and the sub-plot (involving Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Malvolio, and Maria). Disguise and deception appear in many different ways throughout the story.
“Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a
Viola, one of the main protagonists, experiences suffering when she falls in love with Orsino, whom she cannot pursue or express her true feelings for. After a shipwreck, Viola finds herself stranded in the country of Illyria. In order to work for the Duke Orsino, she disguises herself as a man named Cesario, which makes romance with the duke impossible. After spending three days with him, she falls in love. Not only does she have to repress her feelings toward Orsino, but to add to her pain, Orsino assigns her to spend her time trying to persuade Lady Olivia to marry him. Viola says to the audience, “whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (1.4.42), because she wishes to marry Orsino.
The women in Shakespear's play: Twelfth Night, are all depicted as having power, comedic and being very emotional.
Equity between men and women is a deeply rooted battle. As the modern culture shifts further from patriarchal rule, it is interesting to question why females remained the submissive sex for so many centuries. When examining the play Twelfth Night, it becomes apparent that Shakespeare considered such an issue and used the character Viola and her interaction with Orsino as a vessel for gender equality.
Maria is one of Twelfth Night’s characters whose superior intellect seemingly clashes with her social standing
Throughout Twelfth Night, Shakespeare alludes to the conflict going on in England between the Puritans and the Catholics. Even the title Twelfth Night is in conflict since Shakespeare also named