Twelfth Night: Character Analysis

As the handmaiden of Olivia, Maria is considered today to play a relatively minor role in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, but despite her minor role, Maria is the driving piece in the subplot to trick Malvolio by writing a letter in her lady’s script, and she is, at the end of the play, married to Olivia’s cousin Sir Toby. Maria is typically interpreted as being “feisty, witty, and outgoing” (Marshall 217), but some would argue that this is not her personality in Trevor Nunn’s rendition of Twelfth Night. Here I will discuss the differences between Twelfth Night as a play by Tim Carroll verses Twelfth Night as a movie by Trevor Nunn; between these two renditions, Maria is more true to character in Carroll’s rendition than Nunn’s because

Nunn had to make Shakespeare’s play appropriate for the screen as well as wished to highlight Maria’s maternal side which resulted in the changing of her character.
Before explaining how the two directors interpret Shakespeare’s play, one must first look at who Maria is meant to be. When reading the play Twelfth Night, Maria is presented as a loyal and clever yet also vengeful character, and all of these qualities must be present for Maria’s actions in the play to appear logical. In the actual play, Maria is described to be similar to “Penthesilea” and “a beagle true bred” (2.3.165-7) by Sir Toby, but she is also marked by her desire to have her revenge on Malvolio. Despite her desire for revenge, Maria finds herself unable to confront Malvolio in person. In Act Two, she waits until he exits the stage to insult him. After she pens the letter, Maria goes directly to Sir Toby to report that Malvolio will soon begin to act out in front of Olivia (Atkin 53). Later in Act Four, Maria has Feste taunt Malvolio, and she leaves him to do so while she goes to fetch Sir Toby. This is arguably a way for her to impress Sir Toby (Atkin 54). Maria’s personality is what allow her to be able to trick Malvolio and result in her marriage to Sir Toby. If she was not clever or vengeful, her character would have been less likely to partake in the stunt against Malvolio, and this stunt is what led to her marring Sir Toby. This is shown when Sir Toby proclaims, “I could marry this wench for this device” in reference to Maria after witnessing Malvolio’s reading of her letter. In the play, readers are also given a short description of Maria’s appearance through the words of the other character. As previously stated, Sir Toby describes Maria as “a beagle true bred” (2.3.165). Adding this information along with Viola’s comment about Maria being a “good swabber” (1.5.195), readers can conclude that Maria is small in size (Atkin 54). Utilizing this information, making a comparison between Maria as presented by Tim Carrol and Trevor Nunn becomes easier with a neutral comparison.
In Tim Carrol’s rendition of Twelfth Night, Maria is played by the male actor Paul Chahidi.

Actually, all the parts are played by men. Tim Carrol’s production is meant to be an original production with the props and clothing appearing like that of the Elizabethan theatre (Stasio 101). This includes having viewers being circled around the stage with box seating on either side of the stage where viewers can also sit and watch (Benedict 25). This also means that all the lines were as close to what Shakespeare wrote as possible; the only additions being how the actors portrayed the characters and a character or two being present when not officially having a line. Some characters will also speak when they would not have during the original writing, but despite this, Carroll’s play is considered an original practice. The main deviation from what can be interpreted from reading the play is Maria’s apparent unhappiness to being married to Sir Toby. When reading the play, Maria seems to be trying to impress Sir Toby, and this is acted out by Paul Chahidi, but, Maria does not seem very excited when her marriage to Sir Toby is presented. She simply says “Yay…” in a rather melancholy fashion (Carroll). Maria is depicted as trying to be with Sir Toby. When Sir Toby kisses Maria, she looks very surprised and pleased, but the addition of her displeasure about marriage is simply another interpretation that can be supported by the lines of the

play.
In the play, Feste acknowledges that Maria is interested in Sir Toby with his line “if / Sir Toby would leaving drinking, thou wert as witty a / piece of Eve’s flesh as any in Illyria.” This suggests the two could possibly be together if Toby stopped drinking. Throughout the play, Chahidi presents Maria as flirting with Sir Toby (Als 130), and at one point, Sir Toby claims he could marry Maria because of her wit, but when Fabian announces the marriage in the play between the two, what he says leaves Maria’s happiness questionable. Fabian claims,
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was follow’d,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge;
If that the injuries be justly weigh’d
That have on both sides pass’d.
The end of this statement suggests that wrong has been done to Malvolio, but both sides are still equal after all the wrong doings are measured out. This could be justifying their actions against Malvolio by claiming what he did to them was as equally wrong as what they did to him, but these lines could also suggest that the plot Maria created to harm Malvolio is equal to Maria having to be married to Sir Toby. In Carroll’s production, Maria’s melancholy “Yay…” is an addition to the story; in the play, Maria and Sir Toby are not in the scene, but by adding Maria in this part and having her reply unenthusiastically, Carroll is showing which meaning he has chosen to present, and this meaning is possible to support with the text.
The only other apparent deviation in regards to Maria is that of her physical appearance. Maria would have been played by a boy actor instead of a full grown man, so in this case, Maria does not fit the description of being rather small (Schafer). Despite this, Paul Chahidi presents Maria as a clever, loyal, and vengeful character as well as adds movements in his acting to show that Maria worries about her appearance by trying to hide her face when laughing (Als 131). All of the almost vulgar jokes are included, and because her character is followed, she still follows the characteristic one would read in the play. Even though Carroll is presenting a play during a different time period, his Maria still follows Maria’s current personality, and because of this, all of her actions can be justified even if Maria is not presented as being excited about her marriage. Because his play follows the character of Maria even with her slight deviations, Carroll’s Maria can be used as a play to highlight how the deviations in Nunn’s film do not work.
As Nunn’s adaptation is a film, he is able to utilize different film techniques that could not easily be replicated by the theatre just as actually replicating the theatre may not appeal to movie goers. A few examples of these techniques and additions include: the beginning where the ship crashes, the interlocution between scenes, the use of more scenes in general, and rearranging scene orders. While making these changes, Nunn slowly changes the way Maria is shown; his additions and deletion of lines slowly changes Maria’s character, and these changes result in making Maria’s actions unbelievable. First, the change of scenery slightly changes all the characters. This film takes place in Cornish looking setting during the nineteenth-century milieu (Schafer 72). This was probably done to better help the audience understand the play. The actually gender problems would still be present, but the changing of speech and appearance would help the audience better place these problems and events. Maria is also played by an actress by the name of Imelda Staunton. Because all the female characters are played by woman, any puns made about an actor’s gender may no longer be relevant. All of this paired with the fact that Nunn decides to focus more on Maria’s romantic relation with Sir Toby by making her appear more maternal and feminine instead of crafty and vengeful, Maria’s character becomes significantly different from the production by Carroll (Garofalo 113). This deviated is openly admitted by both the actress and the director, but there are some places were the character chosen by the director is not followed. This difference is created by the addition and deletion of Maria’s lines.
Maria is constantly shown trying to impress Sir Toby, but while doing this, she is made out to be a more maternal character who would not partake in Sir Toby and Sir Andrew’s adventures, but this is a trait that Nunn wished to include in his film. Kelli Marshall concludes from other reviewer’s remarks and Staunton’s words about Nunn’s Maria not being “a pert and jolly maid but a woman of a certain age who is desperate to catch Sir Toby-it’s her last chance” (218) that Imelda Staunton’s character interpretation is difficult to watch because of the fact that she is not a very joyful character; she is more tamed and obsessed with attracting Sir Toby (Marshall 218), and this paired with Nunn’s additions to the story are what typically make Maria out to be a different character. At the beginning of the movie, Maria and Malvolio are seen walking through the kitchen. Maria walks quietly behind Malvolio who is inspecting all the staff and bringing order to the room; Maria follows behind him with a notebook where she will presumably write down any misdemeanors. This scene is not presented in the written play or Tim Carroll’s rendition, and Marshall argues that this scene makes Maria seem similar to Marvolio. If she acts so much like him, viewers should have trouble believing that she rebels against him later (Marshal 219). This is one way in which she also appears as a servant character, though, there is an argument that can posed against this claim but then quickly used to argue that Marie is made into a mere servant character.