William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night

Many people in Twelfth Night assume a disguise of one kind or another. The most obvious example is Viola, who puts on the clothing of a man and makes everyone believe that she is a male. This disguise causes great sexual confusion, as a bizarre love triangle results in which Viola is in love with Orsino, who loves Olivia—who loves Cesario, the male identity that Viola assumes. Thus, by dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare shows how malleable and self-delusional human romantic attraction can be.

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

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.

Throughout Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night, there are various depictions of gender identity, which causes different relations among the characters. Many of the characters fall between traditional and non-traditional in terms of their courtship rituals; this eventually leads to gender confusion. In addition, the appealing language influences the characters and their decisions.

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.

Derek Korff-Korn Shakespeare Dr. Honig–12th Grade Shakespeare’s Openness to Homosexuality (Prior to the 21st Century) Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy written by William Shakespeare around the early 1600’s, as an entertainment for the holiday of the Twelfth Night. It is a play that discusses issues that are incredibly sensitive, even by today’s standards. Homosexuality is the basis of a significant amount of deliberation in this day and age, However, Shakespeare wrote this work in the early seventeenth century, considering the topic of homosexual yearnings through humor and wit. While there is no specific evidence of Shakespeare’s personal opinions on the matter, his dealing with homosexuality in this play, especially through the relationship

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.

Shakespeare breached new ground in this play, covering gender and questioning the norms of society, while still keeping the general populace pleased by pairing off heterosexual couples in perfect fashion. Twelfth Night’s not-to-subtle comments on love and gender through Orsino and Cesario/ Viola’s relationship have remained pertinent throughout history, and continue to be relevant even to this

Many people encounter love, but through many difficulties and end up changing themselves. In Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare, Olivia is in mourning, but breaks free of her self-indulgent melancholy once Cesario appears, and she then has no problem showing affection from one man after another. Throughout the play, Olivia transforms mentally through her thoughts and attitude to convey the power of love. In the play, Olivia’s character begins by mourning the loss of her brother.

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.

Every major character in ‘Twelfth Night’ experiences some form of love or desire. Shakespeare exhibits intricate love triangles within the play that are only resolved when order is restored. ‘Twelfth Night’ derives much of its comic force by satirising the lovers in the play. Love in the play is generally represented as something that is irresistible, spontaneous and overpowering. Shakespeare portrays it as being dangerous and is compared to disease and suffering. In the first scene of the entire play, Orsino describes music a cure for the absence of love, “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.” This metaphoric phrase establishes love as a theme within ‘Twelfth Night’

Shakespeare wrote the romantic comedy play, Twelfth Night, in the year 1601. Despite being over 400 years old, people have been studying and performing the play continuously. Even though some may argue American audience now cannot understand the significance of social hierarchy in the play nor the lines written in Shakespearean English, Twelfth Night remains popular today as shown by New York Times’ publishing of seven reviews on different performances of Twelfth Night. At the same time, Shakespeare utilizes dramatic irony, created by Viola dressed as Cesario, and reversal of social hierarchy, created by the love struck Duke and Countess, the drunk knights Sir Andrew and Toby, and the brilliant maid Maria. This essay aims to analyze comedic elements in Twelfth Night, as well as explaining why it remains popular until this day. We will compare the original and several modern productions of the play that New York Times reviewers feature in the newspapers while integrating ideas from excerpts of William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction and Henry Bergson’s Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic.

Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare 's most popular, lightest, entertainment and its staging continues to delight audiences all over the world which narrated the history of Viola, a young woman of aristocratic birth. Viola thought that her brother was dead, so she decided to make her own way in the world, and in the kingdom of Illyria she decided to disguise herself as a young man, calling herself “Cesario”. She becomes a page to Duke Orsino who is a nobleman lovesick for the Lady Olivia. Viola “Cesario” ends up falling in love with him even as Olivia. The women Orsino is courting, falls in love with Cesario. Viola have a dilemma; she cannot tell Orsino that she loves him, and she cannot tell Ollivia why she cannot lover her that make a miserable love triangle scene where Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Cesario. In the Twelfth Night, the principal characters are confused by one character, Viola because she is in love with a man being a man, and a lady is in love with her being a woman. This is a confusing situation that is the central conflict in the play. It is a conflict of love, attraction, and gender roles between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola.

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