Twelfth Night Character Analysis Essay

832 Words2 Pages

Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare

• The protagonist of Twelfth Night is Viola, the central character in the play, a likeable, resourceful and attractive young woman. At the beginning of the story, Viola is shipwrecked with her brother Sabatian. Fearing that Sebastian is dead, she decides to dress like a man in order to get a job with Duke Orsino. Viola, in love with Orsino, is asked by Orsino to court a woman for him. She finds herself in an unusual love triangle.

• 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.

• DYNAMIC CHARACTER: Olivia

• Plot

o EXPOSITION: Orsino expresses his love for Olivia: While Olivia is mourning for her dead brother; Orsino falls in love with her. He is trying to get her to marry him but she refuses. Since she mourns for the loss of her brother for seven years, Olivia will not see anybody who seeks a relationship with her. o RISING ACTION: Cesario, which is Viola, was asked by Orsino to court Olivia for him: Once Viola is hired to work for Orsino she automatically falls in love with him. Since Orsino thinks of Viola to be a man, he has no clue she is in love with him. Olivia is not impressed with Orsino’s poetry that Cesario reads to her, yet she is attracted to t...

... middle of paper ...

...a over because he is in a different social class.

• I did not enjoy Twelfth Night. It was a very confusing book. There were times where I was confused in the book about who loved who. I did not enjoy how there were so many characters within the plot and sub plot. I also did not enjoy how everything was not made clear to the reader until the fifth act. Most male readers would not enjoy reading about a love triangle.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a comedic spoof on love and social classes. Twelfth Night was full of comedy throughout the book until everyone found out who their lover was. I thought it was funny how Victoria (Cesario) had a girl falling in love with her while she was falling in love with a man. I would recommend this book to teenage girls. Females can relate to the complicated love and find the comedies enjoyable.

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