Twelfth Night Symbolism

The following paper discusses the general themes and symbolism in the play- “Twelfth Night, Or What You Will”. I have tried to analyze the above topics to make the reader understand why these themes are important to note and how they add to the play. These themes are important to understand as they bring out the real meaning of the play. Twelfth night is a comedy by genre, but it also reveals a lot of messages that Shakespeare wants to give to his audience through his plays. I think it is important to bring out the comical aspects of the play as well as the message part of the play because the modern generation tends to always miss on those messages while watching this play. The symbolism is important to identify because there are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Gender is one of the most obvious and much-discussed topics in the play. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s transvestite comedies. In this play, Viola also known as Cesario in the play disguises herself as a man. It is a little unclear as to why she disguises herself as Cesario. There are a couple possibilities for this. One of them could be that, Viola disguises herself as a man because she is too afraid to face the world all-alone by herself as her twin brother Sebastian seemingly died in a shipwreck at the beginning of the play:

This would make sense if we look at the plot of the play because Olivia falls in love with Cesario due to the fact that they both lost someone. On the other hand, Viola could have cross-dressed because she is a bold and defiant person and she is willing to face whatever comes her way. It is interesting to see how Shakespeare plays out his characters in all of his ...

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...Olivia is so rich and has a high status in society, everyone wants to marry her. Even Sebastian is amazed by her status and social position. But he cant marry her either as he lost his wealth in the shipwreck like Viola.

Viola used to have high status in society, but she looses everything in the shipwreck, which is talked about at the beginning of the play and also disguises as a fashionable man. This suggests that you can change your class like your gender identity by dressing up for a social class different than their own.

For modern audiences, it's easy to forget about issues of "class" in Shakespeare's famously gender-bending play. Yet, crossing gender boundaries is not the only kind of social transgression at work in Twelfth Night. The play is very much concerned with social ambition, especially as it relates to marrying above or below one's "estate" (rank).