Guide to William Shakespeare: Understanding the Bard
Twelfth Night
by Caitlyn Hallman
Don't spend anymore time puzzling over Shakespeare trying to comprehend archaic Elizabethan English. Just trust the Chairman. Using the guide is the fun and easy way to learn everything you need to know about the works of Shakespeare. Impress friends, colleagues, and even English professors with your knowledge. It's a great tool for dinner conversations.
Synopsis: The play opens with the victims of a shipwreck washing up on the shore of Illyria. The survivors include several burly sailors1 and one beautiful maiden, named Viola. Viola has not had a good year; first her father died, then her brother2 apparently drowned in the shipwreck, and now she is stuck in Illyria, by all accounts a hostile country. Viola quickly decides to disguise herself as a boy3 (for safety reasons) and seek employment in the court the Duke of Orsino.
The Duke of Orsino is narcissistic and self-absorbed, so, of course, Viola falls in love with him immediately. Viola soon becomes a court favorite, so much so that Orsino trusts her (him) with the responsibility of wooing the local countess, Olivia, in his name4. Viola agrees to do this, but she visits Olivia in a bad humor and is rather rude and smart-assed to the lady, so, of course, Olivia falls desperately in love with him (her).
For the next few acts, the play centers its attention on the sub-plot involving Olivia's lady-in-waiting, Maria (pronounced Mariah, as in Carey), Olivia's uncle Sir Toby Belch, his cronies Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Olivia's stuck-up steward, Malvolio. Maria, Toby, and Andrew are regular good-time Charlies and enjoy an evening (and morning and afternoon) tipple. Malvolio is a puritan, 'nuff said. To get back at Malvolio's raining on their parade, the three invent a scheme in which to convince Olivia that Malvolio has gone insane. Their plan works brilliant, and Malvolio ends up locked in a garden shed.
As Twelfth Night is comedy, it all ends up happily (for the most part) and everyone gets married. First, Sebastian (Viola's presumed dead brother) arrives on the scene and Olivia mistakenly marries him in the belief that he is Viola. Then, Toby and Maria elope. Finally, Sebastian and Viola are reunited ('Reunited and it feels so good' ), Viola confesses that she is, in fact, a girl, and Orsino decides to marry her (afterall, it is difficult to find good help these days). However, Malvolio (as he is wont to do) plays the party-pooper and escapes and vows to seek his revenge on the entire world. Curtain close.
1 Who are soon to disappear from the action of the play forever.
2 Viola's fraternal twin
3 Using the name Cesario
4 Viola's other duties include playing the cello and providing interesting conversation.
('Reunited and it feels so good'5), Viola confesses that she is, in fact, a girl, and Orsino decides to marry her (afterall, it is difficult to find good help these days). However, Malvolio (as he is wont to do) plays the party-pooper and escapes and vows to seek his revenge on the entire world. Curtain close.
What to say about it to look smart (some key words):
Mourning - A reoccurring theme in the play. When Olivia arrives on the scene she is dressed in deep mourning for the loss of her father and her brother over a year ago. But is she truly distressed, or simply using mourning as a convenient excuse to put off Orsino's advances? Contrast this with Viola's genuine grief at the death of her father and the believed, tragic demise of her twin brother.
Gardens - Twelfth Night is a play of gardens. Traditionally, in the structure of Shakespeare's comedies there is a metamorphic realm6 where the problems and dilemma's presented in the first act are first confounded, but then ultimately, overcome and solved. Usually the metamorphic realm takes the form of an enchanted forest, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It, but Twelfth Night remains in the very ordinary space of a manor house's grounds. What makes the garden extraordinary and metamorphic is the characters' clever use of language (they like metaphors...a lot) and gender-bending tendencies.
Queer - This is an extremely queer play. First, there is cross-dressing (a common ploy in Shakespeare's comedies), but then there is the bizarre love triangle7 between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. Olivia loves Viola and thinks she is a boy. Viola loves Orsino but he thinks she is a boy. Orsino really only loves himself but is attracted to Viola because she makes a really feminine boy, and Olivia admits that she considers Viola hot because he (she) is so girly. Is it homosexual? Not really, but it's not particularly straight either.
Revenge - The play ends by Malvolio statement of dark intentions, as being at the end would suggest, we never learn what they are. However, as this play was written approximately around the same time as Othello, some critics suggest that Malvolio returns in this work as the uber villain, Iago8. The theory being that while Iago has absolutely no justification for his malicious behavior, Malvolio has more than enough, so maybe Shakespeare just enacted Malvolio's revenge in a different play (learn more about Othello in future installments).
5 Quote from song by 70's soulsters, Peaches and Herb.
6 Called the metamorphic realm because its a place where things morph into other things.
People switch genders, lose their identities, and are turned into animals, amongst other strange
occurrences.
7 Note: not the inspiration for the New Order song.
8 I think Northrop Frye, Shakespearean critic extraordinaire put this concept forward,
but I'm not sure.
Cool Quotes:
'If music be the food of love, play on...'
- Orsino, Act I, scene i'I am all the daughters of my father's house, and all the brothers too...'
- Viola, Act II, scene ivOrsino - 'And what's her history?'
Viola - 'A blank, my lord. She never told her love, but let concealment like a worm i'th' bud feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought, and with a green and yellow melancholy she sat like Patience on a monument, smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? We men may say more, swear more, but indeed our shows are more than will: for still we prove much in our vows, but little in our love.'
- Act II, scene ivOlivia - 'I prithee tell me what thou think'st of me.'
Viola - 'That you do think you are not what you are.'
- Act III, scene i
