Twelfth Night” or “What You Will” is one of Shakespeare’s many comedic plays. This essay will attempt to critically analyse a passage in Act 1, Scene 5 of “Twelfth Night.” The passage centres on a conversation primarily between Feste and Olivia about the mourning of her brother. This conversation adds comicality to the play, which contributes to the shape of it as a whole. The passage also briefly involves the character, Malvolio, who contributes to an underlining truth in the play. This essay will explain the meaning of the passage, attempt to unpack the language uses and determine the ideas behind the language. It will then try to justify why and how those ideas in the passage contribute to the play as a whole.
Firstly, the passage in Act 1, Scene 5 is written in prose as it is a conversation mostly between Feste and Olivia. In Shakespeare’s early plays, he often uses prose to signify interactions between characters of a low social class (Tootalian 3). Therefore, this suggests that the characters involved in this scene, except for Olivia, are of a lower social class. The punctuation used by those of a lower class in the passage is ironically correct. For example, Feste says, “Wit, an’t be thy will, put me into good fooling!... ‘Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit’ God bless thee, lady.” (1.5.28-32) (Greenblatt, et all. 1800). Feste serves as an ironic character because he is a fool or a clown, but he is actually very clever.
Furthermore, Olivia speaks of Feste as a fool by saying, “Take the fool away” (1.5.33) (Greenblatt, et all. 1800). Feste replies cleverly to Olivia, “Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady” (1.5.34) (Greenblatt, et all. 1800). This is one example of when Olivia and Feste play word games, com...
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...ood liar. This further highlights that Malvolio is one representation of deception in the play.
In conclusion, William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” or “What You Will” is one of Shakespeare’s many comedic plays. The passage in Act 1, Scene 5 focused predominately on a conversation between Feste and Olivia about the mourning of her brother. It was through Feste and Olivia’s word games that contributed to the play as a whole because it added humour to the play. The passage also helped to reveal an underlining theme of the play, which is deception as shown through the character of Malvolio. This essay has attempted to explain the meaning of the passage, attempted to unpack the language utilised by Shakespeare and determine his ideas behind the chosen language. It then tried to justify why and how those ideas in the passage contributed to the play as a whole.
In William Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’, there are many instances of trickery and deception, which seem to surround the whole of the play.
At first glance, this short fragment is just a boutade, a silly parody permitted by clever alliterative transposition. Too short to be catalogued or to deserve literary analysis, as Crosby implies in his edition. My English translation, necessarily barren of all the metaphorical punning, underscores the apparent triviality of the joke. A keener look at both form and content of the paragraph, however, brings forth unexpected construes.
Venkova, Savina. “Theatrical Analysis: Hamlet, Shakespeare.” Rev. of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Helium. Helium Inc., 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2011.
Misunderstandings generate conflict and drive stories forward. William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is a play filled to the brim with misunderstandings and comedic situations. The constable of Messina, Dogberry, contributes to many such comedic situations with his twisted speech and juxtaposing sobriety. In this essay, Dogberry’s reality, character, and wrongly-used phrases are to be compared to actual reality.
Welsford, Enid. The Fool; His Social and Literary History. Gloucester, MA: P. Smith, 1966. Print.
In the early scenes of the play, before Malvolio believes that Olivia is in love with him, he appears to be a prudish person and uses his actions to subvert the enjoyment of others . While Toby a...
Using the chosen texts, Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice, this essay will consider whether or not the dramatic effects of deception and disguise are significant in Shakespearean works. Deception and disguise show the difference between appearance and reality and often go hand in hand within many, if not all of Shakespeare’s plays. There are, for example, many instances of disguise leading to accidental deception, the use of disguise as a means to deceive in a form of self-preservation such as the tactics used within Twelfth Night and there are occasions when deception is used in a more malevolent fashion as shown in both Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice. Other characters are known to even deceive themselves, ultimately believing they are something they are not, as such deception and disguise is one of the most significant dramatic effects used in any Shakespearean play.
scene 5 Feste begins with a pun “he that is well hanged in this world
With Feste's help, we are able to attain a better understanding of the other characters in the play- revealing their true personalities, which are sometimes unseen, not only by us, the audience, but also by the characters themselves. He shows Olivia how unrealistic and excessive her mourning for her brother's death has been, he tells Orsino how foolish he is for languishing in a mood of love-sick melancholy for Olivia and points out how mercurial his personality is, and he makes a fool out of the pompous Malvolio. "Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun- it shines everywhere" says Feste.
Logan, Thad Jenkins. "Twelfth Night: The Limits of Festivity." Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. N.p.: Rice University, 1982. 223-38. Vol. 22 of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Rpt. in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Nights as a comedic play on how the theme of love takes an overwhelming influence over characters actions. The play’s treatment of love began with a Duke named Orsino who is madly in love with a character named Olivia but Orsino love is cannot be reciprocated because all her love remains with her dead brother. Later in the play Shakespeare treats love as something that can be a joyful delight regardless of the reality. Olivia’s handmaiden, Maria, plays a prank on Malvolio by forging Olivia’s hand writing to write Malvolio a love letter. After Malvolio reads the letter he begins to show how Malvolio is desperately in love with Olivia by following the letters ridiculous commands with delight. Then towards the end there is an encounter with Viola, Sebastian, Orsino, Olivia and Malvolio. At this point Shakespeare displays love as a joyful
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 misunderstanding and marriage in the final scenes of the play. Alongside the main plot of Twelfth Night is an almost equally prominent subplot involving Malvolio, a servant of Olivia, who falls in love with her and who falls prey to a prank planned by the other members of the household who despise his abhorrence of fun. In the article “The Design of Twelfth Night” by L.G. Salingar, Salingar examines the plot and structure of the play and addresses the significance of the subplot. The purpose of this essay is to examine both evidence from the play and articles from other authors, with a focus on Salingar, who have written on the subject in order to determine the purpose of the subplot. In his article, Salingar comes to the conclusion that the purpose of the subplot is to provide a comic mirror of the main plot while amplifying the main themes of delusion, misrule and festivity. Salingar presents a solid argument, however he has neglected another lesser but significant element of the sub-plot which illustrate...
In the article, "If Only We All Spoke Two Languages," by Ariel Dorfman, he states that things in America would be better if everyone agreed that being bilingual and teaching another language is actually beneficial. I agree with his statement because I believe that everyone should know their native language, but not be subjugated to only one. Also, It should not be frowned upon to learn another language. This may be America, but its' population is filled with many different cultures and races. Therefore, we should take the time to learn about each other's backgrounds and languages to fully understand one another.
William Shakespeare's, Twelfth Night has many themes, but appearance vs. reality is the theme that illustrates a different picture from two perspectives, there are many characters behind their masks and disguises. Some are hiding love behind these disguises and some are trying to show their love through a different disguise. They both still being servants are using disguise differently. Malvolio, servant of Olivia, falls in love with the trap (the letter) thinking his lady likes him, and to show his love he uses a different appearance to express it. Viola, servant of Orsino, falls in love with him, but secretly, not wanting to express her love for him, because of her disguise as her barrier for that case. Viola/Ceasario is wearing a disguise and secretly loves Orsino. Malvolio, on the other hand, is also a servant but still changes his appearance to express love for the great lady Olivia. This essay will prove that disguises and appearances are symbolic of the characters named Viola and Malvolio and are differently used for both.
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.