Student Question

Does Viola in Twelfth Night have a mother? What is her name?

Quick answer:

In Twelfth Night, Viola's mother is not mentioned, and there is no record of her name or presence in the play. While Viola and her brother Sebastian speak of their father, who shared the same name as Sebastian, their mother is notably absent from the dialogue. This omission is consistent with several of Shakespeare's works, where mothers are often unnamed or unmentioned characters.

Expert Answers

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I presume she must have had a mother at some point - or how could she be alive? But we never hear about her mother in the play - she's never mentioned once. We do, however, obviously know about Sebastian, her brother, and the two fo them, in the play's final scene, talk about their father in very affectionate terms:

SEBASTIAN:
What countryman? what name? what parentage?

VIOLA:
Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
Such a Sebastian was my brother too:
So went he suited to his watery tomb:
If spirits can assume both form and suit
You come to fright us.

SEBASTIAN:
A spirit I am indeed;
But am in that dimension grossly clad
Which from the womb I did participate.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
And say ‘Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!’

VIOLA:
My father had a mole upon his brow.

SEBASTIAN:
And so had mine.

VIOLA:
And died that day when Viola from her birth
Had numbered thirteen years.

So yes, Viola and Sebasitan have a father also called Sebastian. But Shakespeare makes no mention of their mother. She's one of a line of mother who goes unmentioned: Queen Lear, Mrs. Leonato in Much Ado, Mrs Duke Frederick in As You Like It... and so on.

Hope it helps!

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