Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (disguised as a page named Cesario) falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her, thinking she is a man.
The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements drawn from Barnabe Rich's short story "Of Apollonius and Silla", based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first documented public performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of the Christmastide–Epiphanytide season in the Christian liturgical year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio.
Characters
Viola – a shipwrecked young woman who disguises herself as a page named Cesario Sebastian – Viola's twin brother Duke Orsino – Duke of Illyria Olivia – a wealthy countess Malvolio – steward in Olivia's household Maria – Olivia's gentlewoman Sir Toby Belch – Olivia's uncle Sir Andrew Aguecheek – a friend of Sir Toby Feste – Olivia's servant, a jester Fabian – a servant in Olivia's household Antonio – a sea captain and friend to Sebastian Valentine and Curio – gentlemen attending on the Duke A Sea Captain – a friend to Viola
Synopsis
Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and comes ashore with a captain's help. She has lost contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, who she believes has drowned. With the aid of the Captain she disguises herself as a young man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino has convinced himself he is in love with Olivia who is in mourning and who therefore refuses to see entertainments, be in the company of men, or accept love or marriage proposals from anyone, including Orsino, until seven years have passed. Orsino then uses "Cesario" as an intermediary to profess his passionate love for Olivia. But Olivia falls in love with "Cesario", setting her at odds with her professed duty. Meanwhile, Viola has fallen in love with Orsino, creating a love triangle: Viola loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Viola disguised as Cesario.
In the comic subplot, several characters conspire to make Olivia's pompous steward, Malvolio, believe that she has fallen for him. This involves Olivia's riotous uncle, Sir Toby Belch; another would-be suitor, the silly squire Sir Andrew Aguecheek; Olivia's servants Maria and Fabian; and Olivia's witty fool, Feste. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew engage themselves in drinking and revelry, disrupting the peace of Olivia's household until late into the night, prompting Malvolio to chastise them. Sir Toby famously retorts, "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" (Act II, Scene III).
Maria suggests taking revenge on Malvolio by convincing him that Olivia is secretly in love with him. She forges a love letter, mimicking Olivia's handwriting, and plants it in the garden. The letter asks Malvolio to wear yellow stockings cross-gartered—a colour and fashion that Olivia hates, to be rude to the rest of the servants, and to smile constantly in Olivia's presence. Watched by Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian, Malvolio finds the letter and is surprised and delighted. He starts following the letter's instructions to show Olivia his feelings. Olivia is shocked by the changes in him and, agreeing that he seems mad, leaves him to be cared for by his tormentors. Pretending that Malvolio is insane, the tormentors lock him in a dark chamber. Feste visits Malvolio to mock Malvolio's professed insanity, both as himself and disguised as a priest.
Meanwhile, Viola's twin, Sebastian, has been rescued by Antonio, a sea captain who previously fought Orsino, yet who accompanies Sebastian to Illyria, despite the danger, because of his admiration for Sebastian.
With their love for practical jokes, Sir Toby and Fabian convince Sir Andrew to challenge Cesario to a duel, knowing that neither of them can fight. Their initial duel is interrupted by Antonio, who believes Cesario to be Sebastian. Orsino's officers then arrest Antonio. Emboldened by this, Sir Andrew mistakes Sebastian for Cesario and slaps him, prompting Sebastian to beat up Sir Andrew. Olivia witnesses the skirmish and chastises Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian. Taking Sebastian for "Cesario", Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Finally, when "Cesario" and Sebastian appear in the presence of both Olivia and Orsino, there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. At this point, Viola reveals her identity and is reunited with her brother.
Sebastian and Viola reunite, and the cases of mistaken identity are resolved. Orsino and Viola marry (Orsino to Viola: "But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen"). Fabian confesses the plot against Malvolio, and reveals that Sir Toby has married Maria. Malvolio swears revenge on his tormentors and stalks off, but Orsino sends Fabian to placate him. The play ends with a song sung by Feste.
Setting Illyria, the exotic setting of Twelfth Night, is important to the play's romantic atmosphere.
Illyria was an ancient region of the Western Balkans whose coast (the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the only part of ancient Illyria relevant to the play) covered (from north to south) the coasts of modern-day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania. It included the city-state of the Republic of Ragusa, which has been proposed as the setting, and which is today known as Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Illyria may have been suggested by the Roman comedy Menaechmi, the plot of which also involves twins who are mistaken for each other. Illyria is also referred to as a site of pirates in Shakespeare's earlier play, Henry VI, Part 2. Most of the characters' names are Italian but some of the comic characters have English names. Oddly, the "Illyrian" lady Olivia has an English uncle, Sir Toby Belch.
It has been noted that the play's setting has other English allusions, such as Viola's use of "Westward ho!", a typical cry of 16th-century London boatmen, and Antonio's recommendation to Sebastian of "The Elephant" as the best place to lodge in Illyria (The Elephant was a pub not far from the Globe Theatre).
Sources The play is believed to have drawn extensively on the Italian production Gl'ingannati (The Deceived Ones), collectively written by the Accademia degli Intronati of Siena in 1531. It is conjectured that the name of its male lead, Orsino, was suggested by Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, an Italian nobleman who visited London in the winter of 1600–01.
Another source story, "Of Apollonius and Silla", appeared in Barnabe Riche's collection Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession conteining verie pleasaunt discourses fit for a peaceable tyme (1581), which in turn derives from a story by Matteo Bandello.
"Twelfth Night" is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, also called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It was originally a Catholic holiday, and these were sometimes occasions for revelry, like other Christian feast days. Servants often dressed up as their masters, men as women, and so forth. This history of festive ritual and carnivalesque reversal is the cultural origin of the play's gender-confusion-driven plot. Puritans often opposed Epiphany celebrations, much as Malvolio opposes the revelry in the play.
The actual Elizabethan festival of Twelfth Night involved the antics of a Lord of Misrule, who, before leaving his temporary position of authority, called for entertainment, songs, and mummery; the play has been regarded as preserving this festive and traditional atmosphere of licensed disorder. This leads to the general inversion of the order of things, most notably gender roles. The embittered and isolated Malvolio can be regarded as an adversary of festive enjoyment and community. That community is led by Sir Toby Belch, "the vice-regent spokesman for cakes and ale", and his partner in a comic stock duo, the simple and constantly exploited Sir Andrew Aguecheek.
Date and text
The full title of the play is Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Subtitles for plays were fashionable in the Elizabethan era, and though some editors place The Merchant of Venices alternative title, The Jew of Venice, as a subtitle, this is the only Shakespeare play to bear one when first published.
The play was probably finished between 1600 and 1601, a period suggested by the play's referencing of events that happened during that time. A law student, John Manningham, who was studying in the Middle Temple in London, described the performance on 2 February 1602 (Candlemas) which took place in the hall of the Middle Temple at the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar, and to which students were invited. This was the first recorded public performance of the play. The play was not published until its inclusion in the First Folio in 1623.
Themes
Gender Viola is not alone among Shakespeare's cross-dressing heroines; in Shakespeare's theatre, convention dictated that adolescent boys play female characters, creating humour in the multiplicity of disguise found in a female character who for a while pretended at masculinity. Her cross-dressing enables Viola to fulfil usually male roles, such as acting as a messenger between Orsino and Olivia or serving as Orsino's confidant. But she does not use her disguise to intervene directly in the plot (unlike other Shakespearean heroines, such as Rosalind in As You Like It and Portia in The Merchant of Venice), remaining someone who allows "Time" to untangle the plot.Hodgdon, Barbara: "Sexual Disguise and the Theatre of Gender" in The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy, edited by Alexander Leggatt. Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 186.
As Twelfth Night explores gender identity and sexual attraction, having a male actor play Viola enhanced the impression of androgyny and sexual ambiguity.Charles, Casey. "Gender Trouble in Twelfth Night". Theatre Journal. Vol. 49, No. 2 (1997): 121–141 . Some modern scholars believe that Twelfth Night, with the added confusion of male actors and Viola's deception, addresses gender issues "with particular immediacy".Smith, Bruce R. "Introduction". Twelfth Night. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. They also accept that its depiction of gender stems from the era's prevalent scientific theory that females are simply imperfect males. This belief explains the almost indistinguishable differences between the sexes reflected in the play's casting and characters.
Metatheatre