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.

This rejection of love is doubled between Olivia and Orsino. The duke sends messengers to Olivia to declare his love to her and refuses to give up. She has clearly grown tired of this, and when Viola (Cesario) first arrives, she tells her steward to say she is “sick, or not at home” (1.5.104). To complicate matters more, both of the ladies suffer from unrequited love. As described previously, Olivia is denied love from Viola. Similarly, Viola herself is denied love from Orsino. In these ways, the parallels between Olivia and Viola’s relationships highlight that being rejected of love and rejecting love are both universal occurrences in the lives of human beings.

love when actually they just loved the idea of it. One such a man is

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

I believe that excessively relying on others is another lesson to be learned in Twelfth Night. Relying on others excessively is a lesson to be learned in Twelfth Night because Orsino never went to confront people that he loved. He said to Cesario “Thou know’st no less but all. I have unclasped / To thee the book even of my secret soul. / Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her; / Be not denied access, stand at her doors, / And tell them there thy fixed foot shall grow / Till thou have audience. (I.iv.13-18)”. Eventually when he asked Viola to woo Olivia for him she fell in love with Cesario instead. Leaving him without the love of his life for the time being. Moreover, relying on others excessively is a lesson to be learned because

Within the play ‘Twelfth Night’ it can be argued that the audience may be entertained by the outlook of Malvolio’s gulling. To start with his name means “ill will” within Italian which already suggests his attitude towards the other characters thus showing his place within the play as an “unpopular”character. He is a part of a religious order who sought to regulate forms of worship. In modern time the word “puritan” is often used to mean "Against pleasure" . Historically, the word was has been used degradingly to characterize the puritan group as extremists. This religious group was despised for its opposition to the theater, winter festivals, musical festivals and any forms of entertainment which is what ‘Twelfth Night’ "The evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking" actually stands for, as it is a festival in itself which further comical as he is incongruous with the play's title.

Sociology teaches that society has naturally produces standards, that people are preferred to follow. Gender, arguably is basis from which all following norms branch from. Pierre Bourdieu writes in his boot “Masculine Domination”, “The social world constructs the body as a sexually defined reality and is the depository of sexual defining principles of vision and division” (Pierre 11). These divisions produce gender roles that are based on the patriarchy. Traditionally, gender roles states that men are the leaders in society and the family, while women play submissive role in raising children and caring for the immediate needs for the family. However, William Shakespeare’s Olivia, in the Twelfth Night, and Oscar Wilde’s Gwendolen, in the comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest narrative seemingly contradict orthodox gender norms. Olivia and Gwendolen both live in a social construct based on male dominance. Yet both of them upends this norm and play dominant role in both of their relationships.

In Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, there are quite a few characters that don't seem as important and generally irrelevant to the overall message of the story. Although it may seem that way while glancing at what the characters say and their frequency in the play, they are all deeply relevant. One in particular is the fool. The fool is one of the most impactful characters of them all by influencing other characters.

Shakespeare's story Twelfth Night has an underlying theme of love and a twisting path of gender roles. The gender roles create confusion for both the characters in the play and also the readers due to the fact that one of the main characters is a female but willingly chooses to pretend to be a man throughout this play. The confusion is created due to a  disguise in comedy which then creates a space in which  boundaries are tested. Viola does not feel comfortable in her own skin and dressed as a male to find herself. I feel that Twelfth Night addresses that there is a sense of confusion with the characters being who they truly are and understanding themselves as a whole.

From physical disguise and elaborate ploys to the perplexing notion of love, deception and concealment are both themes that drive the storyline of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Disguises and mistaken identities allow the characters in this tangled play to obtain what they desire and forge a more substantial path for themselves in life. Whether disguise is deceptive or deception is disguised, concealment is employed by nearly every character. Duke Orsino asserts a fictitious love for the countess Olivia, claiming it is real, Viola conceals her identity by assuming a disguise in order to assure her safety, Feste acts as a fool to keep his place in Olivia’s court and reveal truths about those around him, while Malvolio acts as something he is

After attending Texas Theatre and Dance’s full play production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, I am decently surprised to realize that the ‘Romantic Comedy’ genre can be timeless when done properly. This play, written in year 1601, still manages to translate the hardships of infatuation, loss, and gender identity surprisingly well to a modern audience. In this production, the tragedies of the main characters turn into an awkward love triangle in which no one is who they seem. Although the play Twelfth Night appears to be all about love and the characters endeavors to gain each other’s affection, it is clear that none of the characters are truly in love.

Each time he go tries to woo her it always brings him more pain. So to him it seems that love is an awful savage that keeps attacking him. On the other hand Viola, who is disguised as a man and who falls in love with Orsino, states that, “My state is desperate for my master’s love” (Act II. Scene II. Line 37) in which she means that she is hopelessly in love and she will do anything to gain it. This results into violence in a later scene with her and Orsino because he thinks that Cesario (Viola) is Olivia’s lover. Viola does bring pain to Olivia due to her deception because Olivia fell quickly in love with Cesario when he comes to woo her for Orsino. As stated, the play does have a happy ending. Those who were set out pursuing for love got it for the most part. Orsino and Viola ended up together, Olivia and Sebastian (Viola’s twin brother) ended up together (partly because she mistakes him for Cesario), and Maria and Sir Toby ended up together. The same could not be said for Malvolio who was in love with Olivia. He was tricked into thinking that Olivia returned the same affections, but in it was all a trick. Malvolio had the mindset that Olivia loved him, but Olivia just thought he was going mad so she sent him off to this dark cell where he remained until the end of the play. Malvolio’s love for Olivia hurt him more than it did more good. He had to suffer because of his actions which portrayed him as a fool. Love

William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” or “What You Will” was written around 1601-1602 with the primary performance being in February 1602. It is known to be a high point of Shakespearian comedy as it is one of Shakespeare’s finest works. Twelfth night was written to commemorate the close of the Christmas season being possibly one of the first ever holiday specials, kind of like the Middle Ages version of “Love Actually”. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated during a shipwreck. Viola falls infatuated with Duke Orsino, who in turn is enamoured with the Lady Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Lady Olivia falls in love with viola thinking she is a man. Shakespeare explores and illustrates the feeling of affection

Far from an unfamiliar concept, love can be seen throughout time by tracing its countless strings in stories of ancient gods and goddesses to modern fairytales. As such a timeless and endless subject, society continues redefining, reanalyzing, and recasting it as humanity deciphers its many facets. The resulting interpretations appear in some of history’s greatest artworks, in forms of musical compositions, paintings, or dramas. Shakespeare explores his own view of love throughout the comedic Twelfth Night, with its many love conflicts and subplots. Set in Elizabethan times, the play contradicts the common belief of a set hierarchy that controls the universe. The hierarchy begins with God, filtering down through celestial objects, man, animals, plants, and ending at elements. Each of the four distinct levels contains a primate, a head among the group running along the border of the next rather than inside of it. These positions and the levels themselves develop from the balance of elements. The more perfectly the elements mix, the higher they are in the pecking order and the less prone they are to decay. Shakespeare, instead of depicting his characters to follow this hierarchy, allows them to break social norms of the time in the name of love. Through the quickly knotting ties between those of the love triangle, Shakespeare surmises that love surpasses any limitations.

Within Shakespeare’s plays, there are many ways in which characters play with gender stereotypes. Through changes to appearance and personality, characters disguise themselves to fit in with the opposite gender. Cross-dressing suggests that because the characters are female, they do not have the appropriate power they need for the situations they find themselves in, and when they achieve that power, they are still female and still manage to fulfill their goals. So, for a woman to have power does not mean she needs to stop being female but to stop being perceived as a female so she can be treated differently. In ‘The Twelfth Night,’ Viola disguises herself as a man in order to find her brother and in ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ Julia also dresses as a man to travel to Milan and visit Proteus. Both of these women find themselves in challenging situations, who use unique strategies in order to cope and subtly opposing gender roles.