Twelfth Night
Introduction
Shakespeare wrote the play, Twelfth Night, in the very early 1600s to show the simple confusions of daily life at the time. Love is the main example, and at the very centre of the play as each character are faced off with a complex love triangle. Twelfth Night’s brief synopsis is mainly concerned with the confusions of the characters’ love, all fighting each others for their true lovers. Not only Shakespeare concerns over the theme of love, but also comedy, in which he uses quite often throughout his plays. In these article, we are able to express ourselves fluently about how we think about the Twelfth Night and what makes us think that.
Act 1 Scene 3/4
Act 1 Scene 3 is a smaller scene, totalling only 3 pages in the Cambridge twelfth night book, while Act 1 scene 4 is even smaller, taking up only 2 pages. These scenes both have wildly different themes, however provide us with valuable insight into some of the predominant characters within twelfth night. With well placed jokes and metaphors, Shakespeare brings humour to the play in Act 1 scene 3, and introduces the secret relationship between Viola and Orsino in scene 4.
Act 1 Scene 3 provides us with an introduction to the funnier characters in twelfth night, that being Maria, Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew. Sir Andrew, the uncle of Olivia, is an older man, burdened by a heavy drinking problem but still very witty. Maria, a friend of Olivia’s, is equally smart and witty, and critical of some of Sir Toby Belch’s decisions. The scene begins with Maria criticising Sir Toby Belch’s invitation to Sir Andrew to come woo Olivia, calling him a fool. But Sir Toby will have none of it! Sir Andrew is apparently as ‘smart as any man in Illyria’, capable of speaking 4 languages! This leads the viewers to believe that Sir Andrew is equally smart and witty as Sir Toby and Maria, that is until his introduction in the play. Sir Toby is shown to be not as smart as he was made out to be. Coming out to join Maria and Sir Toby and immediately showing his inability to keep up with the conversation. As shown when he asks Maria “what is your metaphor?” Sir Andrew voices his concerns about not being able to woo Olivia and his plans to leave Illyria, however whilst trading jokes about his stupidity, Maria and Sir Toby convince him to stay by manipulating his thoughts with extreme flattery.
Act 1 Scene 4 has a completely different feeling than the comedic jest of the previous scene. It features the characters Valentine, Orsino and Cesario, showcasing Orsino and Cesario’s developing relationship. Throughout their conversation, it is shown that after only three days under Orsino’s service, Cesario is already one of his favourites. Orsino tells Cesario of his love for Olivia, and of his plans to woo her, and that of his plans to have Cesario become a wingman in his pursuit to win Olivia’s love. Although doubtful, Cesario agrees to become a messenger for Orsino’s messages of love. Orsino convinces Cesario to do this by hinting that Olivia will listen because Cesario looks so much like a woman, subtly hinting at Viola’s disguise. Cesario’s agreement to become the messenger is very hesitant however, because as the audience is told, Viola has fallen in love with Orsino and wishes to marry him.
In Scene 3, Shakespeare has brought comedy into the play, bringing Sir Andrew to be a scapegoat for jokes and fill the audience with laughter from the witty quips traded between Sir Toby and Maria. He toys with the idea of a somewhat forbidden love between Viola and Orsino in Scene 4, showing that Viola has fallen for Orsino, and that Orsino also feels close to Viola, but as a friend, not as a love interest. These scenes were similar in both versions of the play, and were critical to the play as they brought feeling to the characters involved.
Act 2 Scene 1/2
Throughout Act 2 Scene 1–2, there were a whole lot of lines and parts which significantly impacted how the story was flowed out. In terms of how much the impact had on Act 2 Scene 1–2 was in my opinion the game changers and perhaps, was the start of this misconception amongst the characters.
Well, from the previous act, we were then also able to observe the tragic shipwreck which has segregated the sister and the brother in which Viola (Sister) finds out that her twin brother Sebastian has been sent to Elysium (Heaven) during the shipwreck, which later in Act 2 Scene 1, we can discuss that Sebastian (Viola’s twin brother) isn’t dead. In an attempt the search for her lost brother, Viola disguises herself as a man so she could ask for Duke Orsino’s help for the search of her lost brother.
In Act 2 Scene 1, Sebastian wakes up in Illyria, saved by an experienced seafarer called Antonio. After finding that her sister wasn’t there, Sebastian makes a presumption that her sister had drowned during the shipwreck, in which he heads out to the land of Illyria just like her sister for the attempt of the search.
Act 2 Scene 2 was probably the plot twists since it was the misconception of Olivia’s unrelenting love towards Cesario in which Cesario did not realize until Malvolio handed him a ring that Cesario denied and until he found out that Olivia was in love with him.
During the play, when Viola yells out to the audience, “I left no ring with her: what means this lady?” was in my opinion what started the confusion amongst the characters. Later then she says, “It is too hard a knot for me t’untie.” Meaning that this problem has gotten extremely complicated, and it’s gotten up to a point where she can’t handle the situation on her own.
However, in the second scene of Act 2, we were able to discover the survival of Sebastian in which he didn’t drown but did think the same way as Viola did when she first survived the shipwreck. When Sebastian decides to head out to Duke Orsino’s Court, that was perhaps the scene that could decipher this complication since from Viola’s perspective, was to search for her lost brother, and Sebastian was also to search for her lost sister. I find these 2 scenes relevant in terms of how the story was later then carried out. Without the occurrences of the confusion, none of this would’ve happened since each character had their own goal to aim for, and for the brother and the sister, it was to find each other.
Throughout the films and the actual plays that were filmed, what we’re able to observe through the plays and films were the exchange of genders and how each character was portrayed out in the film. The Scenery of Act 2 Scene 1–2 in the film was pretty much 2 identical actors performing the role of Viola and Sebastian, both with the same clothing, hair, etc, in which Sebastian utilized the manly tone and in which Viola did not. From this perspective, we knew that this was the scene where Sebastian and Viola both dress up as Cesario.
What made me understand the scenes more clearly from the films was the use of tones and the delayed speeches in which the actors had. A clear example could be the part where the actor had to act out the 16th line on Act 2 Scene 2, which in the Globe version of the film, the actor paused the speech after saying the verse before that. However, as the next verse started, the actor sort of took a muddled facial expression and hand gesture, which clearly showed to the audience that something was not going in which it was supposed to go just as it was in the actual book. This made it a lot easier to imagine and observe rather than just reading the play.
The Globe Version of the film was probably in my opinion was a lot more descriptive and it portrayed the scenes in time and expressed a lot more body language and tones since the book wasn’t the best when it came to understanding it just by reading, but from the films of the play, it made me understand each scene much more clearly.
The National Theatre play was also superior and expressed lots of languages in each scene. But when I compared the two, I personally liked the Globe Version more because the Globe Version just seemed to be more right in terms of the clothes they were, the scenes, the stage, etc. The National Theatre one seemed to be based off from more industrialized version of the actual film, which was also pretty good and creative since it was a little bit easier to understand the film but for me, the Globe Version just seemed to carry out the play much more fluently and gave out a lot more expression than the National Theatre Version.
Overall, I was able to see the relevance between the 2 Scenes which greatly impacted the ending as the play went on and on and on. I think that without the tragedy and confusion of Viola and Sebastian’s disguise, I wouldn’t think the story would’ve flowed out in more of a dramatic way or possibly would’ve even flowed out as it was supposed to.
Act 2 Scene 4
Act 2 Scene 4 is relatively short with a total of 4 Pages on the Cambridge School copy. To add a bit of context, a recap of the ending of the last scene: The scene depicts Cesario (Viola in disguise) returning back to his master after failing to woo Countess Olivia to liking Orsino. Cesario has recently confronted a number of thoughts that he has had, with some truth to it as we later find out. One major realisation that Cesario has, however, is the fact that he “dotes over” Orsino, which is definitely apparent in scene 4.
To scene 4, it takes place the next day at Orsino’s Mansion, to which Cesario has come to report on his encounter with Olivia. Orsino, as his character, a lovesick and yet persistent count, would do, begins his speech about love to Cesario. The scene is not particularly complicated, a teacher-student moment if you will. However if one were to look between the lines, or onto the brilliant acting in the plays, it seems more than that.
Shakespeare is delicately hinting at Orsino having a romantic interest in Cesario, simply in the ways he acts, and the way he speaks, rather than the words themselves, as the very same words, could be used in 100 different scenarios and yet have such completely different meanings. The confusions therefore created in the scene, both for Cesario and the audience, as well as having an incredible amount of irony, shows just how talented Shakespeare is. He builds romantic tension by creating a love triangle, and he also uses dramatic irony in the exchange between the two characters to emphasize just how confused they are to the audience. By this scene, we already have prior knowledge that some of the characters don’t know. For example, we know that Cesario is really Viola in disguise, but no one in the play does, and through Cesario’s wording he/she is desperately hinting at her being a girl, or otherwise letting it slip, like when she says “I am the daughters of my father’s house.” Which, then quite hurriedly continues with “And the brothers too.” This is a slip up in my personal opinion, and she tries to hide it.
Shakespeare intends to make the relationship between the characters confusing, intersecting them into tangled love triangles, Orsino and Cesario are no different. This scene is the beginning of the confusing love triangle between Cesario, Orsino and Olivia, as what started a simple crush on Olivia for Orsino becomes a mess as Orsino tries to figure out his feelings for Cesario. The play depicts just how confusing the world truly is, and while a comedy, the message has a lot of truth to it. Love isn’t always straightforward. There are moments where a boy is in love with a girl, but there are also moments where a boy is in love with a boy. While gay marriage was frowned upon at the time of writing, the message has only grown as gay pride has grown with it, as seen in the much more new play remade to incorporate more gay pride, as opposed to the original script. There are some suspicions that Shakespeare himself was also gay, considering how he had so many love sonnets to a young man, and his scenes did conspicuously have a lot of gay pride within them, even at a time where the movement had not yet started. Of course, we will never know for sure considering he is… quite apparently.. dead. However somehow Mozart graciously came back from the dead to release his new album, so you never know.
Act 3 Scene 1
Wow! just wow! This scene was extremely interesting from the start to the end with so many events that included love, jokes and so much more.
We start this scene when Viola, who is dressed up as Cesario currently, is running an errand for her ‘crush’, the all-mighty duke of Illyria. She encounters the funny and all-loving Feste outside of Olivia’s house. Together, they sit outside of Olivia’s garden to trade funny remarks, the battle of the wits, some may call it. As they play their innocent game, Cesario suddenly cuts it off and explains to Feste how ‘he’ felt nice to “dally nicely”, however reminded Feste that he is but a fool… literally a fool. Later in the scene, When Cesario is explaining to Olivia about Feste being a fool, she also makes a remark about him. He is just Olivia’s “Corrupter of words”. This shows us how the status of Feste in the story is presented. We can see that he is prone to verbal abuse, however, he takes none of it. This may also be a reference to the social hierarchy during Shakespeare’s time. Nonetheless, he is a very open-minded character in this story and is quite funny. This also shows the readers how Feste is resilient and has a calm nature that accompanies his intelligence to read the room.
Moving onwards, this is also the first scene that Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Cesario all meet. They, like Feste, also try to joke around with Cesario. However, Sir Toby’s and Andrew’s comedy was nothing like the fool. The setting with all three of these characters was quite rigid and awkward, though this was the first time all of them had been together. Nonetheless, it was inferred that both Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are very impressed with Cesario, in the manner in which he spoke. This also shows the professionalism behind the secretive crossdressing, how Viola was able to express her feelings and thoughts in a way that a man during that time would. It is quite hilarious that we are unable to know, how both Sir Andrew and Toby truly feel about some of these characters most of the time due to their intoxication leading to them not thinking straight! Soon after Sir toby mentions “my niece is desirous, you should enter.” Is she desirous for love or someone to hang out with? Or maybe someone to talk to. The answer to this question is uncovered later in this scene.
Before Cesario could enter the house, Maria and Olivia enter the garden. In a blink of an eye, Olivia tells everyone “Let the doors of the garden be shut and leave it to my hearing,” apart from Cesario. What could she need to tell Cesario that is so important, that everyone in the garden had to leave? Olivia starts to ask Cesario what he thinks of her now after she gave him the ring. He replies with a simple “I pity you”. Olivia, who is slightly disheartened starts begging Cesario to stop delivering the love letters to Orsino. Why could that be? Does she not like The Duke? She then continues to confess her love for Cesario. Cesario who is quite shocked had only one option, which was to reject the confession and explain why he can not love Olivia. Love is one of the main themes in Twelfth Night, as portrayed in this scene. Continuing, the love in this act is purer than in others. This is seen as a woman who has fallen in love with a man that occupies traits that the woman desires. However, with love comes heartbreak and heartache. When Cesario explains why he cannot be with Olivia, she does not choose to despise him or feel sad. She is somewhat disappointed yet, able to accept that Cesario shan’t be with her. Olivia, being able to accept all of this, explains who Olivia is, as a character in this play. She is emotionally strong and is very accepting of most things. Soon after, Cesario reassures Viola by clarifying “I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, and that no women has; nor none shall be mistress of it, save I alone.”
This is the ending to a very love associated scene and is a stepping stone to the next scene in this act
Act 3 Scene 4
When analysing Act 3 Scene 4 of Twelfth Night, it can be understood that the segment was a major difference-maker when approaching the conclusion of the story. There were pieces of the scene that were key factors in the development of the plot.
To begin with, the scene starts off with Olivia arranging for ‘Cesario’ to visit again. At the tip of the iceberg, it may seem like a normal interaction, but by looking at previous parts of the story (Act 3 Scene 1), we can understand that Olivia is attempting to incite a romantic relationship with Cesario. However, this was interrupted as Olivia called for Malvolio because he was described to be “sad and civil” and “possessed.” As he entered the room with Maria, he seemed to be quite giddy because of the fake Maria-written letter he found, which stated him to “be opposite with a kinsman, surly with servants,” and also when he was “in my (Olivia’s) presence still smile.” Now you may wonder, why would Maria set him up like that? Well, it was because he acted like a bit of a prick to anyone below him. He constantly pushed around servants and would bark orders at them because he felt like a king compared to them. When discussing if the letter was justified, I believe it was completely right to do as an egotistical man must be put in his place before he does something to negatively affect everybody around him. This slice of the section can be seen as a major influence on the downfall of Malvolio which led to darkness and is a symbol of his apparent insanity.
Moving back into the book, Sir Toby and Fabian greet Cesario in a somewhat threatening way. Before any real conversation, they basically forced him into agreeing to fight an assailant who was “quick, skilful and deadly.” On the other hand, the “deadly assailant,” was Sir Andrew who offered a horse to Cesario to just forget about the matter, but Sir Toby manipulated both men by saying that they both had individually agreed to fight. Now by using this information, we can gain an immense amount of understanding of the secret jokester, Sir Toby. The knowledge we received from this section proves that Sir Toby is a cunning conman who exploits others for his own entertainment. In my opinion, Sir Toby was a large reason for the humour in Twelfth Night, but he could have been less of a drunkard to make his character more likeable.
Now, it’s finally time for the most important part of this scene (in my opinion). So as Sir Andrew and Cesario are about to fight, Antonio enters the room and immediately states that “If this young gentlemen have done offence, I take the fault on me.” This allows us to know that Antonio believes that the cross-dressed Viola is actually Sebastian, who he is deeply in love with. However, in his attempt to protect his mistaken lover, Antonio was caught by officers due to his past crimes against Orsino. The arrest allows us to know that Antonio was on the boat at the beginning of the play as he was most likely on the run. Now as Antonio was getting apprehended he began to ask Cesario back for a sum of his money, but unfortunately ended up feeling betrayed as he possessed no such thing. This reaction caused Antonio to have an outrage, eventually saying “Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame.” This quote was extremely important as it allowed Viola to finally understand that there was a potential chance that her dead brother was actually alive.
Moving onto the plays, Act 3 Scene 4 of the National Theatre version was far superior to the globe version in my eyes. The National Theatre play managed to create far more humour in my opinion, therefore allowing me to enjoy it more. On the other hand, the globe version got my mind more enriched in the story, unlike the National Theatre. This was due to the fact that it felt far more natural in the globe version, which may have been because the costumes appeared to follow the time period, unlike the Natural Theatre play. When observing the acting of both productions, the National Theatre seemed to follow more of an entertaining approach while the Globe’s goal was to trap your mind within the story. Furthermore, the National Theatre appeared to possess a spinning stage which was quite an interesting factor as the Globe was consistently in one setting. While both scenes were overachieving in their own aspects, I personally preferred the National Theatre interpretation of Act 3 Scene 4 in Twelfth Night.
Act 4 Scene 2
The classic Shakespearean comedy play, Twelfth Night, displays a plethora of interwoven plots and concepts, most notably Act 4 Scene 2 where the audience is shown one of the main subplots of the drama. This scene presents the prank on Malvolio coming to its peak where Malvolio gets imprisoned in a dark chamber and gets tricked once again by Feste.
A reoccurring theme that twelfth night implemented throughout the play would be the use of disguise. Specifically, in Act 4 Scene 2 where the fool changes his identity as Sir topaz and uses his authority and power to toy with Malvolio, thus making Malvolio drive into brinks of insanity. The use of disguising and taking advantage of identities is also shown in the first few scenes of the play where Viola also changes her identity to Cesario to gain the authority to enter Orsino’s court. From this, the audience can gradually grasp the timeline of this play as well as the purpose of each character. Other themes that can be identified in this play include the classes of masters and servants, and also the use of madness. Although Malvolio’s imprisonment and Sir Toby’s trickery are in some ways a sub-plot of the play, this scene illustrates how the year in which the play is being performed can reflect how punishment and authority are interpreted at the time. The script states that inside Olvia’s house, Maria, Sir Toby, and the other servants have locked Malvolio into a small, dark chamber. From seeing this, the audience can recognize the time that took place in this play, which gives the audience not only a further understanding of the character’s intentions but also implements a sort of personal relationship between the viewers and the play itself. Additionally, when performed by the two adaptations where the audience can visually see Malvolio getting trapped in a chamber which facilitates and develops the viewers’ awareness of the play, making this scene so crucial.
By comparing Shakespeare’s play with the two adaptations, the audience perceives clear differences in the way the central character of Malvolio is interpreted. The most notable difference in these two adaptations would be that in Globe on Screen Malvolio is portrayed by a man while in the National Theatre is portrayed as a woman. Although in both adaptations, Malvolio throughout the play is still presented as a kind of puritan, someone who despises joy and games and adores order beyond anything else. Furthermore, during Act 4 Scene 2 is when the audience can identify the major differences between these adaptations. In Globe on Screen where Malvolio is played as a male, he is as the script follows in a dark chamber pleading and begging for forgiveness meanwhile in the National Theatre where Malvolio is played as a female, she is ruthlessly tied up on the floor with her outer clothing stripped away, crawling for help. As a result, this makes the audience feel more empathy towards Malvolio in the National Theatre rather than the Malvolio in Globe on Screen.
Act 5 Scene 1
“Journey’s ending, love is meeting,” — Feste, the fool.
The most significant and a prerequisite to any good play is an ending: Act 5 Scene 1 (or just Act 5). Furthermore, it acts as a climax and a falling action, where confusion and chaos accumulated then deescalated to a positive ending. Act 5 is the conclusion towards the whole of Twelfth Night, thus has a crucial role.
Throughout its pages, all characters resolved (most) complications/confusions and became happy love couples; Viola and Duke Orsino were happy together; Sebastian and Olivia were happy together; Sir Toby and Maria were happy together; Viola and Sebastian were happy because both were alive from the shipwreck; Malvolio was happy that he was out of the dark torture and constant humiliation he had to face for several days…or maybe not. Though the “main” protagonists were blessed by a happily ever after with their newfound love, Malvolio has sworn to take revenge on those who have wronged him.
I can also relate to being humiliated in front of noble people and being thrown into a completely pitch-black room because someone framed me for being diagnosed with severe insanity. In seriousness, Malvolio was harshly treated, and his anger can be somewhat justified; Malvolio claimed that a “notorious wrong” has happened to him. On the other hand, the pranksters (Feste, Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew) proposed that everyone should just laugh, stating that both sides were to blame for several things. Though, they did not receive any consequence and were not punished…yet.
The hilarious or dramatic (depending on the viewer) cliff hanger was a powerful device in a play. Curious viewers may have interest in what happens next to the characters they have attached to, however. Viewers with a certain humour will be amused from Malvolio’s torment. Overall, bringing a more memorable ending.
Love, ambiguous gender/confusion, the themes of Twelfth Night, are also concluded during Act 5. Love is a prevalent occurrence which are felt by almost all characters, as well as influencing most or all plots. Act 5 terminates the love triangle (Olivia, Orsino and Viola/Cesario) by organising pairs into happy love couples. Confusion also plays a notable role in the play as the main complications of the plot. Hidden gender identities/confusion are all discovered as Viola confesses her secret and Sebastian is found to be Viola’s sibling during this Act. As a conclusion towards the play, all ambiguities are cleared and “love is meeting”.
The movie adaptation of Twelfth Night (Globe version, dir. Tim Carroll, 2012) added new actions, comedy aspects and emphasises the emotion in the script, thus increasing understanding of the themes, characters and some occurrences.
Now that the viewer/reader can now use their eyes and ears, characters can give visual cues which can incorporate additional comedy, imply certain messages with verbal language and possibly other things which simply cannot be expressed with just words. Emotion can show that characters are expressing love. The visual aspect of costumes of characters can also bolster the ambiguity of the whole ordeal.
Another minor aspect of the play is music. Music of the fool, the transitions as well as the scenes which require music all contain audible instruments and/or singing. In the Globe variant of the adaptation, the music animates the environment and atmosphere, which elaborates on the theme of love.
In conclusion, Act 5 Scene 1 (or Act 5) plays a vital part of being a climax and solution to the wonderfully chaotic plot of Twelfth Night.
Conclusion
Each of the following scenes had its own significant roles, which all expanded and elaborated on Twelfth Night’s themes, characters, language, with the adaptation further broadening them as concrete display. Through witty remarks, piqued love interests and smart metaphors, Shakespeare has once again created a masterpiece of a play.
