William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night

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.

Feste wonders why Olivia is mourning her brother. Feste implies that, if he is going to heaven why should somebody be depressed? The clown is awfully fearless and he is a coward to no one. Furthermore, Feste continues to make nasty comments throughout the play, and towards strangers as well. After his conversation with Viola, he says,“Now

    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.

Feste’s character in this scene. Feste breaks the stereotypes set for him as a fool and proves

Although Twelfth Night is renowned for its comical nature and cross-dressing, on closer examination it appears that Shakespeare has used this comedy to have a greater effect on the audience than pure humour, supporting Berry’s statement. However, before attesting that Berry is entirely correct, we must evaluate three things: the way in which Shakespeare makes the audience feel ashamed, whether this shame is felt by both contemporary audiences and Elizabethan/Jacobean audiences, and whether shame is, as Berry writes “the ultimate effect”.

In Twelfth Night, the fools are the ones that control the comedy and humor in the play. They assist in the make believe game and fool around with characters who "evade reality or rather realize a dream". In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses. They create the confusion through humor and it all works out in the end to make William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a comical play of his time and today. In Twelfth Night, the clown and the fools are the ones who combine humor and wit to make the comedy work, just like in many comical plays in today’s society. Modern audiences would laugh from the foolery caused by these characters while the comic truth is unwinding to build up this comedy.

The torture many people receive for a reason varying reasons. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare presents a prank by five characters; Maria, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Fabian and Feste, that easily twists into bullying Malvolio. “Shakespeare gives the latest strategy in anti-bulling in schools” by The Denver Post shows how much bullying relates to the real world and Twelfth Night. Malvolio, the steward of Olivia, the noble woman of Illyria, always gets Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria, Feste and Fabian into trouble for many different reasons and their anger leads to a prank fooling Malvolio with an epistle that Olivia loves him and that to show his love he need to wear yellow as the sun stockings with black as night cross guarders up them, live openly mean to Sir Toby, walk around smiling and not mention anything about the epistle, this leads Maria and Sir Toby to lock him up in a dark room and make him go crazy. The thesis and matches the background knowledge because bullying takes place in both the play and the real world. Bullying in Twelfth Night and in the real life stay the same, the epistle works as a form of cyber bulling today, verbal, and physical bullying plays a role that works the same as Twelfth Night as the real, modern world too.

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

Shakespeare makes the readers feel sympathetic towards Othello to quite an extent, by highlighting the discrimination against Othello for being an outsider, painting Iago as a machiavellian character plotting Othello’s demise, and attributing Othello with a Christ like nature. But Shakespeare’s sympathy evoking portrayal of Othello is often juxtaposed by modern day ideals that make the readers question whether it his nobility or just mere stupidity that results in his tragedy. Shakespeare focuses on Othello’s race, and how that affects him. Most authors around his time portrayed black people as villains, but Shakespeare uses skin color to create sympathy.

In the play Twelfth Night, Shakespeare displays the common theme of foolishness throughout his play through his characters actions, behaviors, and words; while doing this he creates a diversified spectrum of foolery that can be witnessed through dramatic irony, indirect characterization, and dialogue that reinforces the idea behind certain jocose, satirical events within the lives of the characters in the play.

Shakespeare’s Fool is often the sole character who avoids being sucked into the dramatic maelstrom that engulfs other characters. Fools make jokes and can be relatively easy to pass over. It is as though they are saying - laugh away and ignore the man telling jokes. However, their jokes hold the key to some of Shakespeare’s beliefs and outlook on life. They reveal his existential musings such as “who are we?” and “what is the meaning of it all?”. Fools try to answer these questions at the same time as they amuse audiences. Shakespeare’s Fool suggests one is better off laughing at and with the more difficult aspects of the human condition.

“...there are characters in it that can always recognize a fool. The laughter that the witty young bucks of the older comedy share with the audience at the expense of a fool or fop unites the "real" world and the world of the play by showing that the same criteria for reason and unreason are valid in both”(Foster, 19).

Upon closer inspection of his words, the reader can see Feste's honest assessment of character shine through. For example, while jeering back and forth with Malvolio, Feste states, "Sir Toby will be sworn / that I am no fox, but he will not pass his word for / twopence that you are no fool" (1.5.77-79). In this proclamation, Feste shows his perceptions of both Toby and Malvolio. He believes that Toby is not a wise man due to the fact that, although the fool is clearly intelligent, Toby does not realize just how crafty Feste truly is. However, Malvolio's self-deception is so obviously false that even one such as Toby, who cannot even realize Feste's ingenuity, can see through it. Later, while he is fooling around with Toby and Andrew, Feste laughs, "Did you ever see the / picture of "We Three"?" (2.3.16-17). This comparison between the three characters in the scene and the famous painting of "We Three," a picture portraying only two fools, therefore implying the viewer to be a third fool, shows that Feste portrays both Sir Toby and Andrew to be fools, along with himself as the third. One last illustration of Feste's whimsical messages can be found while he is speaking to Sebastian. In this instance, the fool reveals one of the play's ongoing themes by stating, "No, I do not know you, … nor your name is not Master Cesario, … Nothing that is so is so" (4.1.5-9). To Sebastian, this statement was simply a sarcastic one,

Meanwhile Olivia's drunkard uncle, Sir Toby; his pawn in the story Sir Andrew Aguecheek, are trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia with Sir Andrew. When Sir Toby takes offense at Malvolio's, the houses Stewart, constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved, telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and in hopes of becoming noble he, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that

The notion of disguise is very important theme within Twelfth Night.  From my point of view I feel that the crux of the play is primarily based on this concept.  Indeed "there's something in it that is deceivable" summarizes this point precisely.  Disguise runs like a thread through the play from start to end and holds it all together just as tightly as thread would fabric.  Yet, paradoxically as the plot progresses there are many problems, deceptions and illusions, which provide a comment on human behavior and creating the needed escape of comedy.