Will Singleton
Fine Arts
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Act 5 Scene 1
Enter Clown and FABIAN
FABIAN: let me read his letter.
Clown: Fabian before that, let me ask you something.
FABIAN: Anything.
Clown: Don’t read the letter.
FABIAN: Saying something like that is like giving me a dog, and asking for it back.
Enter DUKE ORSINO, VIOLA, CURIO, and Lords
DUKE ORSINO: Do all of you guys work for Lady Olivia?
Clown: Yes, we are her servants.
DUKE ORSINO: How are you doing clown?
Clown: Truly, I’m better off than my enemies and have become worse off because of my friends.
DUKE ORSINO: That’s the opposite of what I expected to hear from you, I think you are better off because of your friends.
Clown: No, I’m worse off because of them.
DUKE ORSINO: Why do you think that?
Clown: My friends look up to me and make me feel dumb at the same time, but people that dont like me just tell me I’m an idiot. So listening to my enemies I am able to understand things about myself and change my actions into positive ways. On the other hand, my friends encourage me to make a fool of myself and I get abused by them when I do. So if four negatives make two affirmatives, I’m worse off because I don’t learn anything from my friends but become a better person from my enemies.
DUKE ORSINO: That was perfect.
Clown: Not unless you want
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I was never a bad guy or even a pirate, I do agree I was one your enemy for multiple reasons. I came here because someone put a spell on me. I saved that boy next to you from drowning. I saved his life and gave him love without knowing much about him. I gave him all of my dedication. For his sake I even risked my own life revisiting this town to help defend him when he was in trouble. But when the police arrested us, he acted like he’d never met me before. He acted like someone who knew nothing of me. He wouldn’t even give me my wallet that I let him borrow before the trouble
?This intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the people I knew and loved, driven me out of the bakery. Now, I?m more alone than ever before.? (75). This quote expla...
he has no friends and this quote proves that being on your own for a
-whatever goes on two legs is an enemy; whatever goes on four legs or has wings is a friend
“Honestly as much as I mess around and keep people at a distance with my jokes, you 're right Pheebs. You guys are the people I want to do that with the least.” Chandler
when he gets bored of it then he tells him to stop, just like that.
upon her. She knew she had fallen in love with Duke Orsino and had the
Andrew is funny, it is not intentional. His faults include a lack of wit, a
In Act 2 scene 5 the mood is very lighthearted and is full of theatrical comedy, we find Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and their friend Fabian hidden away as they await Malvolio to stumble upon the letter supposedly written by Olivia. Even though they are hidden the audience can still see their reactions and hear their comments, which adds to the melodramatic aspect of the scene. The audience is anxious to see what unravels next as they know Maria purposely wrote the letter in order to fool Malvolio.
Feste, the fool character in Twelfth Night, in many ways represents a playwright figure, and embodies the reach and tools of the theater. He criticizes, manipulates and entertains the other characters while causing them to reflect on their life situations, which is similar to the way a playwright such as Shakespeare interacts with his audience. Furthermore, more so than the other characters in the play he accomplishes this in a highly performative way, involving song and clever wordplay that must be decoded, and is thus particularly reflective of the mechanisms at the command of the playwright. Feste is a representation of the medieval fool figure, who is empowered by his low status and able to speak the truth of the kingdom. A playwright speaks the truth by using actors and fictional characters, who are in a parallel low status in comparison to the audience, as they lack the dimensionality of real people. Thus, the role Feste plays in the lives of the characters in the play resembles the role the play itself plays in the lives of the audience watching the performance. This essay will explore this comparison first by analyzing similarities between the way in which Feste interacts with other characters and the way the playwright interact with the audience, and then focus on the similarities between the aims and content of these interactions.
After Olivia has her very first conversation with Cesario (Viola), where he tries to woo her for Duke Orsino, she immediately falls in love with him. After Cesario leaves her palace, Olivia says to herself ‘Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit do give thee fivefold blazon. Not too fast; soft, soft. Unless the master were the man. How now? Even so quickly may one catch the plague?’ Here Olivia states that Cesario’s external features are what attract her to him. Her metaphor contains a s...
Humor in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In Twelfth Night we see different types of humour. There is the witty
The Role of the Fool in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare In English Literature, a fool is a person professionally counterfeits. folly for the entertainment of others. They are always regarded as comic figures, which provide mediation under tensional circumstances. As Twelfth Night is an atypical romantic comedy, the jester is not the.
The perfect lives that make up the routine of the Illyrian citizens portrays a society in which enjoyment, and personal gain are held in utmost priority. Shakespeares mocks the passivity of the Illyrian lifestyle to explain to the audience that excess of such festivity has negative side effects such as ego and lack of true love. He expresses that the pursuit of expression and truth in itself invokes enjoyment. Sir Aguecheek mirrors the uncertainty of a person through lack of self-confidence and the desire to openly reveal his true self when lamenting “Is it a world to hide virtues in?” (1.3.131). While uncovering aesthetic and emotional mysteries, the Illyrians find that disport restrains them from actual enjoyment and love. The play follows the audience to motivate them towards dissemination of feelings and expression of passion as a “locus of growth and self discovery” (Logan 223) and to obtain true happiness by ridding themselves of excessive, meaningless fun.
way that our friends have shaped the way that we are, is the way they
Mistaken identity and disguise are important aspects of comedy in Twelfth Night that stand at the forefront of the play’s comedy. Not only are mistaken identities and disguise evident within the main plot of the play but also in various other situations. Sexual confusion amongst characters, subversion of gender roles and farcical elements through stagecraft all effectively contribute to the dramatic comedy genre. However, it can be suggested that certain elements of Twelfth Night are not interpreted to be purely comedic; Shakespeare has incorporated serious and controversial subjects such as the idea of genuine love, the patriarchy of the time and the cruel gulling of Malvolio. Therefore, disguise and mistaken identity are not solely for the purpose of comedy and it could be inferred that it even borders on the genre of tragedy.