Orsino continues the theme of overly idealistic love we have seen in Orlando. Whereas Rosalind dominates As You Like it, we have many centers of interest in Twelfth Night. In some ways, Twelfth Night can be termed Shakespeare’s apology to Phebe.
Forinstance, he employed the device of having a woman fall in love with another woman disguised as aman. Twelfth Night embodies many of the themes from his earlier comedies. Written in 1600 or 1601, this play is Shakespeare’s last romantic comedy. Throughout, Feste, themost enigmatic of entertainers, comes and goes between the two households, sparing no one hemeets his barbed insights and his wit.
For his own financial ends, Sir Tobyencourages Sir Andrew to woo Olivia, while plotting Malvolio’s humiliation. While Orsino, Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian are preoccupied with their romantic destinies, Olivia’shousehold is equally occupied with a power struggle between the ill-tempered, repressive steward,Malvolio, and her boisterous and bibulous uncle, Sir Toby Belch, accompanied by his vacuous, misfitfriend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Olivia’s maid, Maria. When Viola’s twin Sebastian suddenly emerges, alive and well, thistriangle is complicated almost to a breaking point. Olivia remains unmoved by Orsino’s attentionsbut finds herself instead attracted to young Cesario, who in turn begins to fall in love with Orsino.Īs Viola says, My master loves her dearly And I, poor monster, fond as much on him. She transforms herself into Cesario, enters into the service of Orsinoand is soon sent to woo Olivia on the Duke’s behalf. Accordingly, Olivia hassworn to have no contact with men for seven years, and in particular she is rejecting the amorousadvances of the young Duke OrsinoDesperate to know how to survive, and to keep the spirit of her twin brother alive, Viola decides todisguise herself as a boy. She learns that she is near the home of Olivia, a youngcountess who is also in mourning, for her recently dead father and brother. Viola is washed ashore on this alien coast and becomesconvinced that her beloved brother is dead. The complex plot – full of mistaken identities, misdirected passions, high comedy, low tricks, andunexpected poignancy – begins as a ship, carrying the identical twins Viola and Sebastian is wreckedoff the coast of a fictional country, Illyria. The Comedy Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
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