Twelfth Night

Viola, alone in a strange land, disguises herself as a man in order to gain access to Duke Orsino's palace. She plays the role of Orsino's servant, Cesario, to be near him for she knows that he is the man who can help her in Illyria. On first hearing Orsino's name, Viola says: "Orsino! I have heard my father name him: He was a bachelor

In “Twelfth Night”, disguise is a key theme in order for the play to take shape. Within the first three scenes, we have several examples of characters deliberately deceiving others in order to achieve a selfish goal. An example of this is seen through Viola’s decision to disguise herself as a eunuch in order to find favour with the duke.

Furthermore Feste advises Viola about Olivia's love for her on numerous occasions.  He is Olivia's servant, and thus it is his duty to help her out with problems that may arise.  Even though Viola, being a female, does not like Olivia, she still benefits from Feste's conversations.  His ingenious commentary and creative word combinations give Viola a real appreciation for the fool's art.  She realizes that his comments are not just random remarks, but skillful comments that require careful observation of the people he jest about.  Walker remarks, "As soon as his quicksilver wit

She feels pity for Olivia and herself with the statement "Poor lady, she were better love a dream" (2.2. 25)! Viola's use of deception causes a cross gender love triangle with which she can not deal.

The play opens with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, expressing his deep love for the Countess Olivia. Meanwhile, the shipwrecked Viola disguises herself as a man and endeavors to enter the Duke’s service. Although she has rejected his suit, the Duke then employs Viola, who takes the name of Cesario, to woo Olivia for him. As the

It stands as Olivia loves Cesario/Viola, who loves Duke Orsino who loves Olivia. Each character suffers in sorrow as they cannot have who they desire, because of status, gender or love for another.

One of the most overt examples of disguise is through the character of Viola. This is the origin of much of the deception in the play. Stranded in Illyria after a shipwreck, she dresses as a male in order to work as a Eunuch for the Duke Orsino.

The play Twelfth Night encapsulates what it meant to be a man and women throughout

Through out Shakespeare’s entire Twelfths Night Act there were various roles of mistaken identities. “Shakespeare often uses mistaken identity to create confusion and tangled, love triangles. This keeps his plays fresh and serves to add humor to the entertainment.” (D, Jill) Viola is one of the main characters of the Twelfths Night Act we can easily reduce the amorality or her decision to dress like a young man. Her character is the center the entire plot. She seems to be the only character to truly be authentic. She also seems to be truly in love. Viola also plays the character of Cesario. At times she has problems keeping her identity being that she is in disguise. For Orsino and Olivia, Orsino starts out by professing his love for Olivia.

According to The English Review, Duke Orsino has “full of devotion to an ideal of love.” He does not understand that love is not straightforward, and if you love someone, they might not love you back. Orsino loves Olivia, but Olivia loves Cesario who is really Viola. Olivia’s love is complicated. She decides to confess her love to Cesario by saying “Would thou ’dst be ruled by me!” (4.1.68). The confusing part of this encounter is that Olivia really says this to Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, not Cesario. Olivia’s confusion is most likely not commonly found in the everyday world. However, her complex relationship shows how love is not simple. Olivia thought she loved Cesario/Viola, but in the end, she loved Sebastian. Now, Viola’s character shows the pain and complication of a silenced love. She loved Orsino the whole time she was pretending to be Cesario. She says that she would marry Orsino in the beginning of the play when she says “myself would be his wife” (1.4.46). However, she couldn’t act upon this love until her true identity could be revealed. Sounds very simple and easy does it

Truly, the main theme in this loosely-contained chaos of a play is adopting roles and identities through outward dress. Viola hides in plain sight in Orsino’s court as the young page Cesario. Main point of paragraph: Viola is in disguise, yes. But how much of this disguise is put-on versus how much is truly her? Ok, what does that mean. The idea that you must dress up to take on a role is very prominent in this play. The most obvious example is Viola herself, as she asks the captain for (feste dressing up to become Curate Topas Sir Topas, even though he didn’t need to…

The instances of mistaken identity are related to many disguises in the play. Viola, who puts on male attire, begins to have everyone believe that she is a man. By

Viola contributes a great deal to the theme of Disguise versus Identity in Twelfth Night. Viola must bundle up her personal emotions which she has for

Viola sacrificed who she was and expressing her love to Orsino so that she could create her voice in the world and be accepted in a dominate male society. Act one, scene two, lines 53 and 54, Viola says, “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become.” She portrays her courage when she decides to disguise herself as a young man. She does not have to mask her inner bravery while dressed as a man, because it’s acceptable for a male to be openly courageous constantly, while Desdemona showed moments of her strength which I will discuss. Viola becomes “Cesario” and Olivia becomes infatuated with him because he is unlike any other man she has encountered. Act one, scene five, lines 296-298, Olivia speaks to herself after Cesario has exited, “Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.” Cesario acts as a close female friend would, because he is actually a female. He listens, cares, and makes Olivia a priority. I believe that this is Shakespeare’s way of convincing or proving to 1600’s men in the audience that if they show compassion and understanding toward women, young ladies will fall in love with them easier.

The concept of disguise has been known and used since the beginnings of drama, but this concept was most famously known for being used in plays written by the biggest playwrights of the Elizabethan era— especially for being used in William Shakespeare’s plays. What do we mean by disguise? In broad terms, it would mean pretending to be something that one is not. The concept of disguise can mean changing behavior, or hiding intentions, the most frequent form of disguise is the change of ones personal appearance, usually through the changing of clothes, to mask ones true self. Shakespeare used disguises in various ways in his plays; As You Like It, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, and Twelfth Night were all plays in which Shakespeare used the concept of disguise as a device to further the plot, it was sometimes even used for comic relief. Disguises can be used both maliciously and/ or morally, depending on its use and its influence on the characters. In both Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure, both Portia and Duke Vincentio donned a disguise to pursue justice how they saw morally fit, but ultimately their deception was only for selfish gain; Portia disguises herself to save a friend, and Vincentio disguises himself to know the true feelings of his subjects, both manipulate the law in the name of justice while in their disguises.