CRITICISM

Charles, Casey. “Gender Trouble in Twelfth Night.” Theatre Journal 49, No. 2 (May 1997): 121-41.

Asserts that same-sex attraction—explored in the relationships of Olivia and Viola, Antonio and Sebastian, and Orsino and Viola-as-Cesario—is a crucial issue in Twelfth Night. Charles maintains that the portrayal of homoerotic attraction serves as a way of representing the social construction of sexuality through gender identity.

Daalder, Joost. “Perspectives of Madness in Twelfth Night.” English Studies 2 (March 1997): 105-10.

Explores the ways in which the concept of “madness” is treated in Twelfth Night, noting that words such as “mad” and “madness” are used more often in Twelfth Night than in Shakespeare's other plays.

Greenblatt, Stephen. “Fiction and Friction.” In Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, pp. 66-93. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Studies the nature of the illicit attractions in Twelfth Night.

Gregson, J. M. “The Play.” In Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, pp. 24-49. London: Edward Arnold, 1980.

Offers an overview of the plot and characters in Twelfth Night.

Hunt, Maurice. “Malvolio, Viola, and the Question of Instrumentality: Defining Providence in Twelfth Night.” Studies in Philology 90, No. 3 (Summer 1993): 277-97.

Argues that through his portrayals of Malvolio and Viola, Shakespeare represented the controversy within the English Church over whether Providence works principally through a primary cause, or through a secondary agent.

Hurworth, Angela. “Gulls, Cony-Catchers and Cozeners: Twelfth Night and the Elizabethan Underworld.” Shakespeare Survey 52 (1999): 120-32.

Compares the portrayal of gulling in Twelfth Night (in which both Malvolio and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are deceived) with contemporary narratives of “underworld literature” in which deception, known colloquially as cony-catching, cozening, and gulling, is fully treated.

Huston, J. Dennis. “‘When I Came to Man's Estate’: Twelfth Night and Problems of Identity.” Modern Language Quarterly 33, No. 3 (September 1972): 274-88.

Explores both the trivial and the more significant of the unanswered questions that arise from a reading of Twelfth Night.

Ko, Yu Jin. “The Comic Close of Twelfth Night and Viola’s Noli Me Tangere.” Shakespeare Quarterly 48, No. 4 (Winter 1997): 391-405.

Examines the similarity between Viola's rejection of Sebastian's embrace and Jesus's resisting Mary Magdalene's embrace after his resurrection.

Osborne, Laurie E. Introduction to Twelfe Night, Or what you will, by William Shakespeare, pp. 13-34. Hertfordshire, UK: Prentice Hall International (UK) Limited, 1995.

Discusses the textual features of the Folio, contrasting them with later texts, and examines the numerous performance options inspired by “this Shakespearean original.”

Slights, Camille. “The Principle of Recompense in Twelfth Night.” Modern Language Review 77, No. 3 (July 1982): 537-46.

Maintains that the play's comic movement from chaos to harmony may be described as a transformation of fragmented isolation to cohesive mutuality.