Twelfth Night

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience is aware of a significant fact that the characters in the play are not. The most obvious example of this type of irony in the play is the mistaken...

Though we seldom seem to think about it, history tells us that many of the productions of Shakespeare's plays included music. Most of the music itself has been lost, but, in fact, song lyrics are a...

A literary device is any technique an author uses to relay the intended message or the intended image. There are many different kinds of literary devices to become familiar with, including...

DUKE ORSINO If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. (I.i) Some background and a couple of definitions will...

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy concerning the loves and adventures of two pairs of lovers, Sebastian and Olivia and Orsino and Viola. All of the protagonists are members of the...

As the title Twelfth Night suggests, the play was written for an Epiphany celebration held at one of the Inns of Court in 1602. Epiphany is celebrated as the moment when the Magi, or three wise...

Antonio looks after Sebastian. He really cares about Sebastian, and wants to protect him. This is why he stays in Illyria even though his legal history is such that he really should not be seen...

The most important qualities Viola and Olivia share in Twelfth Night are, first, their profound grief and, second, their opennness to folly and improvisation. Both women have lost their fathers,...

Shakespeare scholars believe that Twelfth Night, or What You Will was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth I as part of the Twelfth Night celebration held at Whitehall Palace on January 6, 1602. The...

In the main plot, Duke Orsino uses the shipwrecked Viola, who is disguised as a man named Cesario, to help him woo the Countess Olivia. However, comic mayhem follows as Olivia instead falls in love...

As a romantic comedy, Twelfth Night is about love, and it certainly teaches the audience some lessons about love. While love in this play love is true, but it is also fickle, irrational, and...

Feste, Olivia's fool or clown, sings the "Carpe diem" song. Despite being a "fool," Feste, like King Lear's fool, is a sharp observer of those around him who, as a witness to the main action,...

Society was dominated by men and the only position available in the Duke's household was that of a manservant to the Duke. A woman certainly could not have held that position so she was required to...

Before you can answer this, you must know what the term "dramatic techniques" encompasses. Dramatic techniques are tools the playwright uses to create theatrical, dramatic effects in a theater...

Typically as one of Shakespeare's comedies, this play involves mistaken identities, cross-dressing, disguises and people falling in love with people they shouldn't fall in love with. Thus it is...

In Act 1, Scene 2, Viola sees herself in what the Captain describes of Olivia: A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count That died some twelvemonth since; then leaving her In the protection of his...

Maria and Sir Toby Belch of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, introduce the audience to the lower class characters of Illyria, and as such their language is more bawdy that that of Orsino and Olivia....

The Duke has been telling Viola, who loves him but is keeping her love a secret, how women don't know anything about what it is to love, unlike men. Viola's response has been to tell him about a...

Viola is shipwrecked in Illyria and separated from her twin brother, Sebastian. However, from the words of the ship's captain, she has reason to hope her brother might still be alive and not...

In Maria's contemptuous speech in act I, scene 3 about Sir Andrew, she uses alliteration and irony. Alliteration occurs when the same consonant appears at the beginning of words that are in close...

You have asked a very perceptive question. Obviously, the fact that Shakespeare decided to give this play a subtitle makes us ask what relevance the subtitle has to the play at large and causes us...

Something is flawed in Orsino's approach to romance, and fixing that is the work of the comic action. In the opening scene, we learn that Orsino has been sending his serving men to deliver messages...

'Festive comedy' was sub-genre which a critic called Barber established with her book 'Shakespeare's Festive Comedy'. It argues that the spirit of the festival (meaning simply a public or religious...

Duke Orsino is a true romantic. He is in love with the idea of love and craves the excitement and stimulation of emotion. Even though he gets carried away with his feelings, he also understands...

Differences between Twelfth Night and She's the Man include the setting, the reason for Viola's deception, and the impersonation of Viola's twin, Sebastian. Similarities include Viola's...

In Act 2 Scene 3, many of the characters in Twelfth Night are discussing matters jovially and joking around with the Clown. Sir Andrew, enticing the Clown to sing a song, instructs him to sing a...

While one can never be completely sure why Shakespeare titled his plays as he did, it can be assumed that Twelfth Night refers to the Eve of Epiphany. This was a holiday celebrated twelve days...

The main thing which attracts Olivia to "Cesario" is Cesario's forthrightness. As Cesario, Viola is plain when speaking with Olivia and is not too timid to critique her behavior regarding love....

Yes, Twelfth Night is a festive holiday play—its title, in fact, refers to the twelfth night of the Christmas season, the day before Epiphany, which celebrates when the Magi brought gifts to the...

In a soliloquy, a long speech made by a character who is alone on stage, there is a revelation of the inner thoughts and feelings of this character to the audience only. In Act II, Scene 2, for...

Antonio rescues Sebastian from the stormy sea and feels responsible for him. Not only that, the two men form a strong friendship as Sebastian regains his strength under Antonio's watch. Even though...

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night begins in act 1, scene 1 with Orsino, the Duke of Ilyria, declaring his love for Olivia, a wealthy countess, despite having only once caught sight of her. When one of...

'By my life!' is an exclamation of surprise, something like the modern 'Oh my God!' - and Malvolio is surprised because he has recognised what he believes to be his lady's 'hand' (which means...

The thread on this question offers solid answers of how the songs in Twelfth Night contribute to the complex mood of the play. This play begins with melancholy and death—including the presumed...

Twelfth Night is predominantly a satire of the ideas of love professed by and made popular by the Medieval poet Francesco Petrarch ("Shakespeare's Twelfth Night"). Petrarch wrote over 300 sonnets...

The first song that the fool sings is to Sir Toby. The lyrics begin by addressing his “mistress mine,” which is Olivia, to ask where she is “roaming.” At this point in the play, Olivia is searching...

Throughout the play, Feste calls other people fools as an insult. For him, being a "fool" is a profession, but when he calls another person a fool, he means it more as we use it today, to mean "a...

Antonio plays a small but key function in the plot of Twelfth Night. He is essential to the plot because he is the character who makes Viola suspect that her twin brother Sebastian is probably...

Shakespeare is the king of double entendre, and Twelfth Night does not disappoint. The Bard employs double entendre (words that have several meanings, with one usually being sexual or profane) a...

A crucial moment in the play in regards to the theme of self-deception is when Malvolio connects the person in "Olivia's" letter (which was really written by Maria) to himself. As part of a cruel...

In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew is the "foolish knight" who has come to woo Olivia at her kinsman Sir Toby's suggestion. Sir Andrew is wealthy, and Toby wants to set himself up so he can...

Despite ending in three marriages, love seems to be portrayed more as a sickness or even a kind of madness in Twelfth Night rather than as a lasting source of joy and companionship. Notice the...

This action occurs in act 2, scenes 3 and 5. The meaning of “MOAI” is one of the hotly debated subjects in Shakespearean scholarship. There are three aspects to your question. One is, why would...

A literary device is any technique used by a writer to produce an effect. As such, it's a fairly broad umbrella term; particular structures, such as the iambic pentameter Shakespeare uses across...

When defining what a comedy is, particularly a Shakespearean comedy, while the ability to make us laugh can be a part of it, the term comedy usually defines a "dramatic form, a structure" ("Comedy:...

Twelfth Night is a mistaken-identity comedy by William Shakespeare. The character of Malvolio is an upstanding citizen with illusions of chivalry and grandeur. After he scolds a group of revelers...

"You are sick of self-love", Olivia tells Malvolio, "and taste with a distempered appetite". And he is: he genuinely thinks he is fantastic. So before I tell you the things that Malvolio fancies...

In this play of "erotic lunacy," as Harold Bloom dubs Twefth Nigh/What You Will, the passage, from Act II, Scene 2, is a soliloquy by Viola/Cesario. As the central character who is the only one...

The theme of the folly of ambition in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is apparent in the character of Sir Andrew Aguecheeck who pretends to be Sir Toby's friend, but he really scams him for his money....

The Clown says he can prove Olivia is a fool. The fool has been having a good time with Maria (Olivia's maid), so he is already warmed up by the time Olivia shows up. The exchange shows that...