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Twelfth Night: themes and context
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Twelfth Night is named after the last night of the Christmas season, a time of feasting and turning the normal order upside down.
Love and desire
Love in the play is often foolish or self-indulgent (Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio). Viola's patient love is more genuine.
Disguise lets love cross normal boundaries, causing confusion.
Disguise lets love cross normal boundaries, causing confusion.
Identity, disguise and madness
Viola says "Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness."
She also hands the problem over to fate: "O time, thou must untangle this, not I; / It is too hard a knot for me t'untie."
Malvolio is treated as mad; Sebastian wonders if he is mad when Olivia welcomes him.
She also hands the problem over to fate: "O time, thou must untangle this, not I; / It is too hard a knot for me t'untie."
Malvolio is treated as mad; Sebastian wonders if he is mad when Olivia welcomes him.
Context: festivity and order
Written around 1601. Twelfth Night (5 January) ended Christmas with misrule, when normal rules were relaxed.
The play mocks puritan dislike of festivity through Malvolio.
Boy actors played women, so Viola was a boy playing a girl playing a boy.
The play mocks puritan dislike of festivity through Malvolio.
Boy actors played women, so Viola was a boy playing a girl playing a boy.
Why does Shakespeare include the darker treatment of Malvolio in a comedy?
- The tricksters go too far, locking him in a dark room.
- His threat of revenge spoils the happy ending.
- It reminds the audience that festive fun can turn cruel.
Answer: To show that fun can become cruelty, leaving the comedy with a bitter edge.
Themes: love and desire, identity and disguise, madness, festivity versus order. Context: about 1601, Twelfth Night misrule, puritans, boy actors.
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