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)

The play opens with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, expressing his deep love for the Countess Olivia. Meanwhile, the shipwrecked Viola disguises herself as a man and endeavors to enter the Duke’s service. Although she has rejected his suit, the Duke then employs Viola, who takes the name of Cesario, to woo Olivia for him. As the

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

Olivia, being donned with compliments and confessions of love by Orsino, seems to find this rather refreshing and is attracted to Cesario. Olivia falls in love with Cesario's nature. For too long she has been subject to the melodramatic proclamations of love from Orsino, when into her household comes a young, candid, informal young "man". Viola's interpretation of a man is more that of a boy, and she exudes a certain charm that Olivia finds a cool refreshment from the stuffy "love" that Orsino tried to smother her with. Cesario is easy to relate to due to his feminine personality and appearance.

Every major character in Twelfth Night experiences some form of desire or love. Duke Orsino is in love with Olivia. Viola falls in love with Orsino, while disguised as his pageboy, Cesario. Olivia falls in love with Cesario, causing an interesting love triangle, which is only resolved when Olivia falls in love with Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, and, at the last minute, Orsino decides that he actually loves Viola. Twelfth Night derives much of its comic force by satirising these lovers.

From what seemed to be a harmless plan of becoming her brother has now turned into a disaster waiting to strike. Things seem to become very tense and rough between Sebastian (Viola) and room mate Duke Orsino, as Duke believes that Sebastian is trying to do everything he can to keep Olivia away from him. Duke is in some ways right with what he is saying as Sebastian (Viola) is attempting to get Duke away from Olivia, because deep down, Viola actually loves Duke, but she knows it won’t be that easy to explain to him that he has been living with a girl this whole time. This fits perfectly with Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, as in the storyline, Duke Orsino sends his servant Cesario (Viola) to woo Olivia and proclaim Duke’s Love for her. A quote from the book is when we read Viola’s emotions in first person.

Her brother disappeared due to the storm and Viola believed that he drowned. She had to figure out how to defend for herself in the new country. Viola decided to disguised herself as a guy to get close to Duke Orsino. Duke is a handsome bachelor that governs the land of Illyria. Duke is already in love with Olivia, who is not interesting in dating at the time. Duke asked for Cesario to vouch for him to Olivia. Ironically, Olivia falls in love with Cesario not knowing that “he” is a girl. As time went on, Viola ended up falling in love with Duke Orsino. By Viola being in disguised, she created a tangled love web between everyone. Malvolio is a character that becomes intertwined with the love web as well. He is in love with Olivia and he thinks he has a chance because of a forged letter he received. At the end of the play, Sebastian ended being rescued which made the plot thicken. Viola did not have a choice but to reveal her true identity to everyone. Once the truth was finally told, Viola and Duke ended up getting married with some

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, starts off very dramatic and with a feeling of sadness and love lost or out of reach. Orsino has fallen for a woman called Olivia, whose brother has died. At the same time Viola’s loses her brother as well tragically in a shipwreck. Following immediately after this she decides to dress as a man, to gain her livelihood working for Orsino. Here we go from the Romantic mood of the story, to the slightly ludicrous but amusing idea of cross dressing or gender bending. Which is a major plot instrument throughout the entire story, an instrument that crates both hilarity and a great amount of drama.

It is often said the surest cure for vanity is loneliness. This saying is proven true in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Within the story, a prodigious love triangle is created between the characters. The wealthy Duke Orsino loved the wealthy, young heiress, Olivia. Olivia later fell deeply in love with the Duke’s servant, Cesario. Olivia was not aware that Cesario actually was a woman named Viola. Viola dressed as a man to make it easier to obtain employment. Viola grew fond of Duke Orsino, but he was not aware of her true identity. On the side, Maria tricked Malvolio, Olivia’s servant, into loving Olivia. Additionally, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a wealthy friend of Olivia’s uncle, wanted to marry Olivia for her money. The characters involved

Comedy, in the Elizabethan era, often included themes of wit, mistaken identity, love, and tragedy, all tied up with a happy ending. These themes are prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a comical play that explores the pangs of unrequited love and the confusion of gender. Love is a powerful emotion that causes suffering, happiness, and disorder throughout the play. The play also demonstrates the blurred lines of gender identity, which ties into the modern day debate on sexuality and gender identity. The main characters in the play, Viola, Olivia, and Orsino are connected by a love triangle, each person pursuing an unrequited love. Suffering from love and the fluidity of gender are the prevalent themes explored throughout the play and intertwined with Viola, Olivia, and Orsino.

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is a widely known romantic comedy that was first published in 1623. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s finest works and it tends to have an affinity to modern romantic comedy films and stories. The play has love triangles, unrequited love, lies and deceit, playful comedic relief, and obstacles that interfere with characters’ goals. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were turned into film adaptations and many were used very loosely as source material. Hamlet had Lion King (very loosely), Romeo and Juliet had Romeo and Juliet (the DiCaprio version), and Twelfth Night has She’s the Man. She’s the Man is similar to Twelfth Night in three ways, the plotline, the names of the characters, and the humor. Despite the

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

Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, written by Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, centers around the convoluted and shifting nature of love. The play makes a point that the ways in which love and affection are expressed and interpreted differ amongst the different social classes. Count Orsino and Lady Olivia, representing the upper class of the nobility, demonstrate their love in grand, impersonal gestures, whereas Viola, whose status is slightly lower, does so in a selfless, more authentic manner. This stark difference in how these two classes perceive love is also seen in how quickly the feelings of Orsino and Olivia change for their love interests once someone new comes along. The nobility has little to no sense of what genuine love is, which is seen in both their frivolous displays of affection and how quickly they are able to fall for someone new.

Love breeds conflict as it always has, such is the case for Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and “She’s the Man” by Andy Fickman. Front and center of the conflict for both the play and movie is the love triangle with Orsino, Olivia and Viola/Cesario/Sebastian. Duke/Orsino like Olivia but she dosen’t like him back, then Viola comes along as Cesario or Sebastian in the movie and meets Orsino who she becomes enamoured by. Meanwhile Olivia longs for Viola who is dressed as a man. In all of this, Viola’s own passions are ignited for Orsino however to him she is a man so she can not pursue her interest. Through all of this fickle drama the one thing that is constant is that love causing considerable pain to everyone. In Twelfth Night Orsino is in a constant state of lovesickness with the play open by him saying “If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”(I.i.1-4). As well as Olivia with her saying “After the last enchantment you did