Function of Disguise in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is a play based around disguise in
the form of deception and becoming someone different. In Twelfth Night,
disguise takes many different shapes from physical disguise to mental
disguise. Disguise is one of the main topics of the play and helps to
create the plot. It brings in confusion and comedy as well as the
darker and sadder side of the play which is disguised as fun and
happiness. Disguise is evident from the very beginning of the play. A
supposedly noble Duke Orsino is suffering due to his unrequited love
for the Lady Olivia. The Lady Olivia, however, is also suffering due
to the recent deaths of her brother and father. Her way of mourning
them involves her hiding behind a veil or disguising herself from the
truth and refusing male company:
'But like a cloistress she will veiled walk,
And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine'.
Disguise creates confusion when a character named Viola becomes
shipwrecked in Illyria, a place previously unknown to her. She has
been warned of the dangers of being alone in Illyria and decides that
it is best if she disguises herself. Viola disguises herself as
Cesario, a male eunuch, and goes to work for the Duke Orsino. Unaware
that Cesario is not what he seems, the Duke Orsino becomes very
friendly with Cesario after just three of having known each other.
Unsuccessful in his pursuit of Olivia, Orsino sends Cesario to gain
her affection for him because he thinks she will be taken in by
Cesario's youth. Viola, dressed as Cesario, falls in love with the
duke Orsino but ...
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...was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day'
There are other songs sung by Feste which reveal a darker side to the
plot such as songs with lines:
'Come away, come away death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid'.
Malvolio also promises revenge on those who played the trick on him
and his last words symbolise parts of the darker side of Illyria:
' I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you'
Disguise is the main plot in Twelfth Night and without it the
storyline would not have been possible as disguise was needed in order
to create the Orsino, Viola, Olivia love triangle. This is the main
event in the play which is created by disguise. Disguise is also used
to bring in humour and confusion to the plot without which Twelfth
Night would not be the notorious and famous play as we know it today.
...wants to return to her proper position. Her disguise ;nevertheless, prevents her to do so. As the duke's servant, Viola has the freedom to speak about love , but as Viola she couldn't expose this love to him
...volio declares revenge on the lot before exiting, giving the floor to Orsino. He speaks to Viola, before Feste, Olivia’s Jester, sings to signal the ending. “Cesario, come – For so you shall be while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen.”
Complications also arose when viola fell in love with her master, duke orsino, while at the same time had the love interest of orsino, the countess Olivia, trying to woo her. This placed viola in an extremely difficult and complex situation on one hand, she loved the duke and would have liked to do all she could to win his heart. But because she was his servant, she was obliged to serve him and help him win the hand of Olivia. What was a poor girl to do ?
Andrew is funny, it is not intentional. His faults include a lack of wit, a
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
The antagonist of Twelfth Night is Sir Toby Belch because he tries to control Olivia’s life. Even though some may consider him a partier and jokester, he is also kind of a jerk. First he takes advantage of his nieces and Sir Andrew’s wealth. Sir Toby also wants Olivia to marry Sir Andrew so he can have more money for himself. He seeks revenge upon Malvolio by writing a phony love letter convincing Malvolio to perform hideous acts for Olivia’s love. Sir Toby knows Olivia will not put up with such acts and Malvolio was sent to the dark room for his insanity.
Have you ever worn a mask before? Maybe the mask wasn't a costume mask, but it was a mask to make you seem happy, or seem cool, or anything that made you feel like something than you are not normally. Chances are you have. Trying to fit in with the crowd, a mask is used to obtain the things we cannot reach on our own. Masks are especially common today because of the pressures to belong to the 'in'; group, or the pressures to succeed. Books, using masks, commonly show the many connotations of masks. They are used to find out what people are for real, on the inside of the mask. The imagery of masks is used throughout the book of Twelfth Night. Shakespeare uses the imagery of masks to reveal characters true emotions and to express the power of raw beauty. Shakespeare uses this imagery through all of his characters in the play, but especially the two characters of Viola and Feste.
As in most comedies, William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night extensively. uses disguises, masks and mistaken identities to add to the comical nature of. the play. Viola's disguise as Orsino's page, Cesario, becomes crucial to the action in the play. Without this important element, the action in the play would slow down dramatically, making the story much less intriguing.
As prescient and insightful as this evaluation may seem after considering the outcome of Twelfth Night’s romantic pairings, it reads as a very shallow perspective rather than any sort of wisdom – to the Duke, love is never permanent, lasting, or constant (just like the nature of the tides, it always changes). Duke Orsino has no concern whatsoever for Olivia’s feelings of grief after the loss of her brother – she is merely an object of his desires at the moment, and as his eventual courtship with Viola proves, he is extremely fickle in his affections. (Even before Viola’s disguise became apparent, Orsino showed some signs of attraction to the male Cesario – this raises a few questions about exactly how far his romantic indecisiveness
Viola, as Cesario, manages to win the favour of Orsino He truly believes that she is a he. Orsino, still convinced of my majesty, believes that he can win the love of a woman, via a proxy. By having Viola merely read the words he has prepared, he thinks that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him. But while Orsino had his head in the clouds about his love, Viola is attempting to conceal from him, her love for him.
Viola, alone in a strange land, disguises herself as a man in order to gain access to Duke Orsino's palace. She plays the role of Orsino's servant, Cesario, to be near him for she knows that he is the man who can help her in Illyria. On first hearing Orsino's name, Viola says: "Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor then." This reaction suggests that Viola already respects Orsino as a ruler before she begins to love him.
The Elizabethan Era is considered to be golden age in English poetry, music, and literature. William Shakespeare uses the theater as a place to display the latest styles in clothing, poetry and music. Clothing plays an important part in Shakespeare’s plays. Clothing helped the audience understand the character and components of clothing are mentioned literally and metaphorically in several of his plays, often used as a plot device, and used in appearance versus reality.
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.
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...
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.