Twelfth Night, Or What You Will

1
Twelfth Night,Or What You Will

• One of Shakespeares great comedies--that is,
  not just funny, but bitter sweet.

• Other great comedies are As You Like It and
  Much Ado About Nothing.
• The title refers to the twelfth night after
  Christmas, the end of the holiday season.

2
What is a comedy?

• A comedy is a dramatic form, as is a tragedy.
  Therefore it need not necessarily be comic.

• In fact, much comedy can be a bit horrifying if
  we think about it--the physical violence of
  slapstick, laughter at anothers expense in
  farce, the isolation of an outsider or scapegoat
  (in this play, Malvolio).

3
The Plot

• There is no standard plot in comedy, but there
  are typical features and set types of characters.
  Many of these characters have prototypes in Greek
  and Roman comedy.

• By contrast, most tragedies tell the same story
  someone whose qualities we admire suffers for
  those very qualities.
• Remember to distinguish comedy and tragedy from
  the comic and the disgusting.

4
The Plot, cont.

• This play follows a typical plot line boy meets
  girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. This can be
  reverse girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl
  gets boy.

• The playwright's job is to invent obstacles to
  keep the lovers separated, then a means to for
  them to overcome the obstacles.

5
The Plot, cont.

• This is a play about three couples, the reuniting
  of a set of twins, and a social outcast.
• Like many comedies, it symbolizes social renewal.
  This is the symbolic meaning of marriage, but
  also of the outcast.

• 1. Viola and Duke Orsino
• 2. Sebastian and Olivia.
• 3. Sir Toby and Maria.
• 4. Malvolio--the loser (who loves Olivia but
  loses)

6
The Plot, cont.

• Let us ask, what obstacles keep the couples apart
  until the exciting climax of the play?

• Since the play has multiple plot lines, we should
  also compare and contrast them. (We will save
  this task for discussion.)

7
Viola

• Obstacles
• 1. The Duke is in love with Olivia.
• 2. Viola is dressed as a man and therefore cannot
  express her womans love for the Duke.
• 3. To remain his servant, she cannot reveal her
  true rank.

• Viola washes ashore in Illyria (the Dalmatian
  coast, across the Adriatic from Italy). She has
  heard of Duke Orsino, and disguises herself as a
  man to work for him.

8
Duke Orsino

• Duke Orsino is a moody man in love with Olivia, a
  rich countess. His obstacle to loving Viola is
  that he does not know she exists. This will be
  solved when she reveals herself. It is part of
  the plays humor that he will never overcome the
  obstacles to loving Olivia.

• Obstacles
• 1. Olivia is mourning her dead father and not
  interested in the Duke.
• 2. Olivia falls in love with Cesario (the name
  Viola adopts in her disguise as a man).

9
Malvolio

• Malvolio is steward to Olivia and loves her
  hopelessly. He has no sense of humor, and is the
  butt of Uncle Tobys jokes. He is the funniest
  and the saddest character--that combination that
  produces a great comedy.

• Obstacles to his love for Olivia.
• 1. He has a rival, Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
• 2. Neither Olivia nor anyone else particularly
  likes him.
• 3. He is pompous and humorless.

10
Uncle Toby Belch and Maria

• Obstacles to love.
• 1. Too much drinking.
• 2. He needs to learn how clever and fun Maria is.
• 3. Shakespeare wants to surprise the audience by
  making his attraction to Maria see very sudden.

• Uncle Toby lives in Violas house and parties
  every night.
• He is a rogue, like Falstaff, who takes money
  from Sir Andrew Aguecheek on the pretext of
  forwarding Andrews suit for Olivias hand.

11
Sebastian

• Sebastian is Violas twin brother. She thinks
  that he drowns in the storm that washes her
  ashore. But he is alive. Sir Andrew mistakes him
  for the disguised Viola, whom he challenges as a
  rival for Olivia.

• Sebastian and Viola form another kind of couple
  they are twins who are reunited at the end of the
  play a reversal of their fortune as they
  recognize each other. These are standard plot
  features.

12
Elements of Plot

• Reversal
• One of Aristotles plot elements, perepeteia is a
  reversal of intention, and occurs when a deed
  is done in blindness and defeats its own
  intention. Note the relation to character vice
  that is virtue misapplied.

• Recognition
• Also mentioned in Aristotles Poetics, a
  recognition, or anagnorisis, occurs when a
  character recognizes the truth.

13
The purpose of comedy

• To show the flaws and imperfections of humans.

14
Types of comic characters

• These comic characters occurred in Greek comedy
  and were copied by the Roman playwrights Terence
  and Plautus, and in turn by Renaissance writers
  like Shakespeare.

• 1. The busy-body servant.
• 2. The angry old man
• 3. The gluttonous parasite.
• 4. The impudent cheat
• 5. The greedy procurer (pimp)

15
Types of comic characters, cont.

• 6. The whore with a heart of gold.
• 7. The braggart soldier
• 8. The young lover
• 9. The meretrix mala
• 10. The leno periurus

16
Types of comic characters, cont.

• Other types are mentioned by Aristotle in his
  Rhetoric and the treatise on comedy, the
  Tractatus Coislinianus

• The eiron, the one who deprecates himself one
  who pretends to know nothing
• The alazon, the self-important character the
  ridiculous imposter
• The pharmakos, or scapegoat may be a scoundrel.
• The bomolochoi, or buffoon
• The agroikos, or churlish rustic, country cousin

17
Act 1, Scene 1

• The play begins as Duke Orsino consoles himself
  with the thought that the reason Olivia rejects
  his love--that she might mourn for her dead
  brother--indicates the intensity of her passion,
  a passion that one day may be directed at him.

• The scene revolves around several metaphors.
• 1. Music food
• 2. Hart (a deer) heart (the dear one pursued)
• 3. Desires hunting hounds that attack a man
  changed into a hart (the Actaeon myth)

18
Act 1, Scene 2

• Elsewhere, Viola, who has been shipwrecked in
  Illyria and thinks her brother has died in the
  wreck, convinces a sea-captain to help her
  disguise herself as a eunuch in order to serve
  Duke Orsino

19
Act 1, Scene 3

• In yet another scene, Sir Toby convinces Sir
  Andrew to remain in Illyria to allow time for
  Olivia to notice him and be impressed by his
  talents (which are fairly nonexistent).

20
Act 1, Scene 4

• Viola, now in the service of the Duke and named
  Cesario, promises to woo Olivia for the Duke
  (although she seems to keep in reserve whether
  she intends to double-cross him.)

21
Act 1, Scene 5

• 1.5
• Olivia falls in love with Cesario.

22
Summary of Act 1

• Violas dilemma

• The same disguise that makes Olivia love Cesario
  prevents the Duke from loving Viola.

23
Act 2, Scene 1

• Sebastian, Violas twin brother, has arrived in
  Illyria too.

• Sebastian leaves Antonio, because he does not
  want to infect him with his misfortune.

24
Act 2, Scene 2

• Realizing from the ring that Olivia love her,
  Viola abdicates to the workings of time the
  problem of how to resolve the love triangle,
  wherein Olivia loves her as a man while she, as a
  woman, loves the duke.

• I am the man!

25
Act 2, Scene 3

• Sir Toby invites Andrew to burn some sack,
  forgetting that he has promised Maria (or, at
  least, given her the impression) that he would go
  to bed in exchange for her promise to gull
  Malviolio.

26
Act 2, Scene 4

• The duke sends Cesario on a second mission to
  Olivia.
• He offers instruction in love, while missing the
  point of Cesarios story of his sister who pine
  away while concealing her love.

• This is a scene of high erotic friction between
  Viola and the unobservant Duke.

27
Act 2, Scene 5

• Malvolio convinces himself that Marias riddling
  letter is Olivias declaration of passion for him.

• MAOI
• Yellow stockings, cross-gartered.
• Among the group eavesdropping on Malvolio, Sir
  Toby declares that he could marry Maria for
  having contrived the gulling of Malvolio.

28
Act 3, Scene 1

• After Cesario says she can never love a woman,
  Olivia lies, desperately asking her to come back
  and woo for the duke.

• Viola meets the Fool Feste at Olivias house she
  had met him previously at Orsinos.
• Olivia pursues Cesario.

29
Act 3, Scene 2

• After Fabian and Toby convince Andrew to
  challenge Cesario as a way to win Olivias favor,
  Maria invites them to watch Malvolio approach
  Olivia in crossed garters.

• Does a man win the way to a womans heart by
  valor?
• Is there anything worse for a man in love than to
  be laughed at?

30
Act 3, Scene 3

• Antonio gives Sebastian his purse, to see the
  town, while he goes to the Elephant to hold rooms.

• This action sets up Andrews confusion, when he
  will attack Sebastian, thinking he is Viola.

31
Act 3, Scene 4 Malvolio

• Malvolio appears before Olivia, who is expecting
  Cesario. Maria convinces her Malvolio is mad, so
  Olivia orders Maria to have Sir Toby look after
  Malvolio.

• O ho, do you come near me now? No worse man than
  Sir Toby to look to me! This concurs directly
  with the letter she sends him on purpose, that I
  may appear stubborn to him.

32
Act 3, Scene 4 The duel

• Sir Andrew brings in his challenge, which Toby
  undertakes to deliver. The he and Fabian warn
  Cesario.

33
Act 3, Scene 4 the jewel

• Olivia gives her picture to Cesario. Olivia
  invests this picture with symbolic significance
  it represents her honor and her commitment to
  Cesario.

• The duel is prepared, but interrupted as the play
  returns to Cesario and Olivia in order to
  increase Violas problems for Cesario besieged
  by aggression, that of Olivia in love and of Sir
  Andrew.

34
Act 3, Scene 4 the duel

• Toby and his companions so frighten Cesario and
  Andrew that both are too frightened to duel.
  Nonetheless, Viola does not run away.

• Now Antonio, who is always following Sebastian,
  saves him from Sir Andrew. Doing so, however,
  means he is no longer hidden. Officers recognize
  him, and arrest him.

35
Act 3, Scene 4 confusion of identities

• Under arrest, and thinking Cesario is Sebastian,
  Antonio asks for his purse back. Viola realizes
  that she has been mistaken for her brother, who
  must still be alive.

• At this point the resolution of the play is
  clear, but Shakespeare delays and delays Violas
  public recognition of her brother. The effect is
  an eros of expectation for the audience that
  imitates the pursuit of desire.

36
Act 4, Scene 1

• The clown ( a rustic servant), sent to bring
  Cesario to Aoliva finds Sebastian instead, who
  accepts this gift of fortune and Olivias
  declaration of passion for him.

• Before meeting Olivia, Sebastian wallops a
  confused Sir Toby, who now enters the hangover
  phase of the play.

37
Act 4, Scene 2

• Feste teases Malvolio in prison.

• Why does Feste need a disguise of the room is
  dark?

38
Act 4, Scene 3

• Sebastian, figuring he or Olivia is mad,
  nonetheless agrees to a quick wedding.

• Olivia wants a quick wedding just to calm herself
  down. Shes willing to wait to make it public and
  have another ceremony more fitting for her high
  station.

39
Act 5, Scene 1 Recognitions

• At the court of Duke Orsino, Viola relates how
  Antonio saved her in the duel.

• Antonio has been recognized as a pirate.

40
Act 5, Scene 1 Recognitions, cont.

• Olivia, now married, comes in, and wonders why
  Cesario is so cold to her. She pronounces him
  husband.

• Olivia mistakes Cesario for Sebastian (who she
  married, thinking he was Cesario).

41
Act 5, Scene 1 Recognitions, cont.

• The duke is furious at Cesario for his disloyalty
  and, of course, because he loves Olivia.

• Now, quickly, anger is added to the obstacles
  Viola must overcome. What mechanism will allow
  this? . . .

42
Act 5, Scene 1 Recognitions, cont.

• Sir Andrew enters, having been beaten by
  Sebastian, whom he confused with Cesario.

• Andrews confusion allows all the others to
  recognize their mistakes.

43
Act 5, Scene 1 Recognitions, cont.

• Sebastian enters.
• Viola delays her recognition of her brother long
  enough to warm the duke to her.

• The delayed recognition explains the sudden
  turn in the dukes affections in fact, by stage
  time, it is a long period.

44
Act 5, Scene 1 the scapegoat

• Feste reads Malvolios letter from prison. Olivia
  delivers him. Fabian confesses how they tormented
  him.
• Malvolio curses the merry makers.
• The clown sings a sad song.