Deception in Shakespeare's Plays | Carl Dennis (essay date 1973)
Carl Dennis (essay date 1973)
SOURCE: "The Vision of Twelfth Night," in Tennessee Studies in Literature, Vol. XVIII, 1973, pp. 63-74.
[In the following essay, Dennis suggests that the self-deceptions practiced by Orsino and Olivia in Twelfth Night are both related to vanity, specifically as self-glorification in Orsino's case and narcissism in Olivia's case.]
More than most of Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night is so rich in meaning that no single critical perspective seems to be able to encompass and unify all the issues that the play raises. In recent years, however, some very illuminating attempts at interpretation have been made. Perhaps the most convincing total view is presented by Joseph Summers in his essay, "The Masks of Twelfth Night."1 For Mr. Summers the play is about the masks or guises which men assume, consciously or unconsciously, that prevent the discovery or expression of their...
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