William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare contradicts vapid stereotypes about gender. Through Viola’s disguise as Cesario, he is able to prove that a woman is able to fulfill a man 's role in society. She is able to fool the other characters and is even able to woo another woman. This reinforces ideas about how invalid the rules and regulations society has made since Viola easily broke through them. Later on in the story, Sir Andrew challenges Viola to a duel. Viola expects Sir Andrew to be a great fighter, and he expects the same from her. This creates a comedic situation since they both are too afraid of each other to engage in the fight. (3.4, 223-298)

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.

The first scene starts off at the Duke’s palace, where we, as the audience, are introduced to the duke, who is thinking to himself. Next, it is revealed that the Duke is listening to music, and is in love, as indicated by “O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,” (I, i, 9). However, suddenly, he decides that he does not want to listen anymore, as indicated by: “Enough, no more!” (I, i, 7). After this, we are introduced to a character named Valentine who tells the Duke that Olivia “Shall not behold at face for ample view;” (I, i, 28) for 7 years, due to her mourning her brother’s recent death. This does not sadden the Duke, however, as he enthusiastically says that

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

William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest playwright of modern Western civilization. He wrote 37 plays in his lifetime, all of which have some varying degree of fame, such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night. Although he has been dead for 400 years, these pieces are still being read and analyzed under scrutiny today. One of the plays that seems to get the most attention is Hamlet. Much of the diction uses double entendre which causes much dispute among critics, and because of this there have been many elements of this play that have been put under a very fine microscope. One of these is the main male characters’ treatment of the women in the play, Gertrude and Ophelia. It is very apparent from the very beginning that on the surface the characters Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet think very little of these women as people, often citing sexual references in a few different ways directly in front of them with total disregard for their feelings, yet they also show true compassion toward them and seem to care for their well-being. These women provide much more, however. Ultimately it can easily be said that, based on the evidence, the entire reason for Hamlet’s, as well as the other male character’s, motives have to do directly with the influence these women have on them, so in many ways these women are responsible for the entire outcome of the play. Though they may appear on the surface to be one-dimensional characters, Gertrude

In examining each character, we will see the various gender identities in which Shakespeare depicted in Twelfth Night. Beginning with Viola, we knew that she ultimately creates her male persona to search for her twin brother Sebastian; however, as she is looking for him she begins working as a page for Orsino. After some time passed, Viola/Cesario becomes Orsino 's trusted right hand whom he assigns to woo Olivia on his behalf. Not only does her disguise enable her to search for her brother undetected but also it allows her to have the power of a man. She can say what she wants, feel what she wants, and do what she wants without having to ask a man permission as most Elizabethan women did. During that time, Elizabethans expected "women to be housewives and mothers," that was their only job (Sharnette). Obviously, Viola did not have a traditional courtship with Orsino or Olivia. With Orsino, everything was a secret as he thought she was a man. What is worse is that he thought she was a man trying to help him with his relationship with Olivia. This situation only led to a relationship between Viola and

"I swear, that Tobias is going to hear an ear full from me once I see him. I mean, how reckless can he be?" Noel fumed, pacing back and forth.

When analyzing a pair of twins, people will recognize that they seem very identical, but many would argue that their brains function differently and that they behave differently than each other as well. In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, two main characters Viola-Cesario and Sebastian are lost in a shipwreck, but later reunite with each other and along their journey they confuse many other characters as they mix one another up. Viola-Cesario and Sebastian are twins who look very similar in appearance, but nevertheless they are actually two opposite characters when it comes to their attitudes and characteristics as they think and behave differently from one another. For instance, Sebastian and Viola-Cesario behave differently from each other since Sebastian is an aggressive person and Viola-Cesario is a peaceful person. However, considering the fact that Viola-Cesario and Sebastian are twins, they still look very similar to each other because Viola-Cesario looks exactly like Sebastian when she disguises herself as Cesario. Furthermore, Sebastian and Viola-Cesario both find love in the play, but they fall in love differently because Sebastian is infatuated by Olivia and Viola truly falls in love with Orsino.

For generations, Shakespeare’s masterpieces have remained at the peak of the ever increasing bar of literary works. A reason for this could be the inclination of everyday people to the consistent and underlying concept of romance in each of Shakespeare’s plays and related movies. For instance, one could look at the movies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Shakespeare in Love. The latter follows the life of William Shakespeare himself, everything from his love affair with Viola de Lesseps to his creation of Romeo and Juliet. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of the most famous plays of Shakespeare’s, revolving around the tumultuous relationships of four lovers, aided, and sometimes thwarted by the mischief of fairies. Although Shakespeare in Love outlines a few of the characteristics, such as the triumphs over obstacles, presence of danger, and humourous qualities that define Shakespearian romance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream provides depth into these feelings, displaying more, if not better examples of the complex type of “love” that Shakespeare portrays.

Just like the way we think of it in today’s society, love, in a classical Shakespearean play is heavily influenced by other people. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, is a very unique comedy in which love has a different definition with everyone in the play. The play portrays the adventures of four young lovers and a group called the mechanicals along with their interactions with woodland fairies and a duke and a duchess. This work is widely performed around the world, and it’s no wonder, it 's about the world 's most popular pastime, falling in love. But as the mischievous Puck knows, falling in love can make fools of us all. The message conveyed of the nature of love, in the play, is that no matter how hard you try, the control of love is out of your hands, but is in the hands of society.

In his famous comedy, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare took a conventional comedic concept and constructed a fool character that inserts an intricacy and resonance to his work. This fool is completely placed distant from society and moreover disregards or is unable to reflect the model of society in which he finds himself. The fool is identified as the inferior in society, where he stands lower in the class system. Olivia states this notion by saying “There is no slander in an allowed fool though he do nothing but rail” (I.v. 83-84). The fool in Twelfth Night, Feste, whose insider-outsider position as a professional fool, supports him to obtain steadiness among the surrounding contradictions in a way that is unlike any other character in this play. He stuns and puzzles; persuades conjecture; and he works as a mediator between the play and audience. As stated by Walter Kaiser, it is when Feste mocks the characters’ flaws and turns to his wits to “create laughter, to teach us the truth, and to embody paradoxes.” By walking on this fine line, Feste reveals the foolishness and truths of the other characters.

Finally, the strongest lesson that can be learned in Twelfth Night is having genuine friendships. I believe that Antonio and Sebastian have a great friendship. When Antonio saved Sebastian from drowning he wanted to be his servant so bad he was willing to beg for it even though he SAVED his life. Antonio said “If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your / servant. (II.i.29-30)”. Similarly, Maria and Sir Toby had a true friendship too. When Maria was setting up the letter prank for Malvolio, she wrote the letter by mimicking Olivia’s handwriting. Sir Toby was very happy with her and started to like her for who she truly was. Not for her looks which other guys usually do. He ended up eloping with her from something that made them stronger

This trickery is later taken too far, causing Malvolio detrimental distress. Trickery is also displayed in the duel between Sir Andrew and Cesario. Sir Toby’s delight in practical jokes is once again illustrated as he plans good sport between Sir Andrew and Cesario, but of course always the assumption that no harm will be done and his arrangements will “so fright them both that they will kill one another by the look, like cockatrices”. Sir Toby was right. When Sir Andrew and Cesario come face to face they are so frightened that it takes some time for the duel to kick in .The duel is one of the high points of the comedy. Equally absurd is the fact that the pretended duel is the fact that the pretended duel is fought over Olivia who Cesario has rejected her love and Sir Andrew thinks he has a chance with Olivia that he enters a duel on her behalf.Before the duel took place Cesario is worried “Pray God defend me! A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of man” Viola speaks in prose which shows how worried and endanger of her true identity being discovered.

Twelfth Night (c. 1600-01) is a complicated play which deals with the nature of love, gender role and the intricate comic and tragic experiences of love. The characters have multiple layers of gender roles and sexual attractions which makes the issue of gender identity more complex. For example, Viola, the heroine of the play is dressed as a male, Cesario, throughout most of the play. As a male, Viola woos Olivia for Orsino, resulting in Olivia falling in love with Viola-as-Cesario. At the same time, Viola, dressed as a man, falls in love with Orsino.

Twelfth Night is a dramatic comedy which revolves around the classic Shakespearean traits of comedy, which are difficult to categorise but generally identifiable in that they often contain dazzling word play, irony, and a greater emphasis on situations than characters. While in many ways the play is a celebration of social upheaval through its characters, the play is very much characteristic to typical conventions seen in Shakespeare’s comedies when it’s identifying features are considered.