Twelfth Night

William Shakespeare’s plays “Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” are completely opposite plays. However, there are many connections that can be made between the two. Seeing as “Hamlet” is a dark tragedy and “Twelfth Night” is a romantic comedy, both seem to have romantic twists to them developed by the hindering of the truth of one’s appearance. These are shown through major themes, such as deceit through disguises, complex love triangles, and varying opinions of marriage.

Viola’s actions of switching gender roles sets the tone for the plot. Since Viola is in disguise for her own benefits, her identity cannot be revealed. This becomes a conflict when she falls in love with Orsina who is love struck over Olivia. Olivia shows no interest in Orsina but grows to be attracted to Cesario, clueless to the fact that Viola is a woman. Viola’s mourning is parallel to Olivia’s (who is mourning the loss of her brother as well). However, the two women handle the situations in different manners.

“There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.” -Aristotle. Olivia’s clown, Feste has a very intriguing role in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Throughout the play, Feste is a bold and valiant character who continually makes daring comments towards everybody, including his mistress. The clown’s job is to be silly and crazy but in reality, Feste has the most wisdom and intelligence of all characters.

In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Feste's role in this Illyrian comedy is significant because "Illyria is a country permeated with the spirit of the Feast of Fools, where identities are

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.

Although Viola faced a lot of confusion and conflicts she was equipped to handle this because she was mostly causing it by cross dressing and lying about who she truly was. But, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andres, servants to Olivia, all decided to play practical jokes on Molvolio. By giving Molvolio a note and disguising it to look like Olivia’s hand writing, they caused Molvolio to make a fool of himself. The note left him directions to behave and dress a certain, this caused ignominious Molvolio to become confused. By being deceitful and conspiring, Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrews colors shined through. Not to mention, Molvolio’s true self became evident after misidentifying the letter. Molvolio became arrogant and was filled with self-importance, but when things became clear and Molvolio discovered the note was not written from Olivia he became embarrassed. He could not move forward, forgive and forget, so he left. This is how misidentification can cause conflicts and cause character’s true selves to shine

Olivia fell so in love with Cesario that she now refers to him as husband and when Duke hears this, he is shocked so Viola try’s to cover it up, to protect her relationship with Duke. This is why disguise caused the wrong characters to fall in love with each other and create

through his vanity is easily fooled into thinking it is he who she loves although

In the beginning, Viola was grieving because she thought that her brother was lost in the ocean. She was very convinced that he died. Viola tells the sea captain that she wants to dress up like a man so she could serve Duke Orsino. She wants to do this because

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare creates a comedy following the extravagancy and identity of characters within the land of Illyria. Illyria, home to the kingdom of Duke Orsino and noble lady Olivia, serves as refuge for the protagonist Viola, or better known as Cesario throughout the play. As the play develops, several formations of self-identity occur within the lives of the characters of Twelfth Night. However, boundaries established by society of the time limit the expansion of the characters within the play deterring, many from the creation of an identity of their own. The ability of people to step out of the bounds and search for meaning beyond the norms of society enables the development of a stronger sense of identity by their leaving what is

Olivia, being donned with compliments and confessions of love by Orsino, seems to find this rather refreshing and is attracted to Cesario. Olivia falls in love with Cesario's nature. For too long she has been subject to the melodramatic proclamations of love from Orsino, when into her household comes a young, candid, informal young "man". Viola's interpretation of a man is more that of a boy, and she exudes a certain charm that Olivia finds a cool refreshment from the stuffy "love" that Orsino tried to smother her with. Cesario is easy to relate to due to his feminine personality and appearance.

Viola realizes that her portrayal of a man are morally wrong, and have brought wicked ways into her life. However, she is stuck in this disguise, because she can not tell Olivia the real reason she, or Cesario, can not love her. She is stuck in her own

Despite knowing that Orsino “loves” Olivia, Viola almost immediately falls in love with Orsino. And because Viola is disguised as a man, she cannot show her true feelings for Orsino. After Orsino asks Viola to speak with Olivia and professes his love to her, Viola lets the reader know what she is truly feeling by saying “Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 40). This shows that even though she is willing to help Orsino pursue Olivia, Viola ultimately wants to marry Orsino. Viola’s love for Orsino is revealed again at the end of Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino is asking Viola to try harder in the quest for Olivia and he basically says that there is no love more noble or great as his, so she must love him. Viola then proceeds to say that maybe Olivia doesn’t love him; however, there is “someone” out there that does. She says:

Viola is not the only one affected by her plan; Olivia falls in love with Viola,

Also, perhaps Viola is in disguise herself.  She can see through other people's disguises or flaws, that not even they are able to spot.  Some characters are deceived about their true nature.  An example of this is that Orsino sees himself becoming "one self same king" of Olivia's "sweet perfections", fulfilling her sexual desire, thought and feeling "liver, brain and heart".  He naively believes that he is in love with Olivia when he has never really conversed with her.