Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Essays - 448 Words

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare The complex plot - full of mistaken identities, misdirected passions, high comedy, low tricks, and unexpected poignancy - begins as a ship, carrying the identical twins Viola and Sebastian is wrecked off the coast of a fictional country, Illyria. Viola is washed ashore on this alien coast and becomes convinced that her beloved brother is dead. She learns that she is near the home of Olivia, a young countess who is also in mourning, for her recently dead father and brother. Accordingly, Olivia has sworn to have no contact with men for seven years, and in particular she is rejecting the amorous advances of the young Duke Orsino Desperate to know how to†¦show more content†¦And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me. When Violas twin Sebastian suddenly emerges, alive and well, this triangle is complicated almost to a breaking point. While Orsino, Viola, Olivia, and Sebastian are preoccupied with their romantic destinies, Olivias household is equally occupied with a power struggle between the ill-tempered, repressive steward, Malvolio, and her boisterous and bibulous uncle, Sir Toby Belch, accompanied by his vacuous, misfit friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Olivias maid, Maria. For his own financial ends, Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to woo Olivia, while plotting Malvolios humiliation. Throughout, Feste, the most enigmatic of entertainers, comes and goes between the two households, sparing no one he meets his barbed insights and his wit. Written in 1600 or 1601, this play is Shakespeares last romantic comedy. The comedies which followare much darker. Twelfth Night embodies many of the themes from his earlier comedies. For instance, he employed the device of having a woman fall in love with another woman disguised as a man. In some ways, Twelfth Night can be termed Shakespeares apology to Phebe. Whereas Rosalind dominates As You Like it, we have many centers of interest in Twelfth Night. Orsino continues the theme of overly idealistic love we have seen in Orlando. The setting has a different feeling from Merchant of Venice and As You Like It--two plays in which Shakespeare clearly contrasts the world ofShow MoreRelatedTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare1279 Words   |  5 Pages Within the play ‘Twelfth Night’ it can be argued that the audience may be entertained by the outlook of Malvolio’s gulling. To start with his name means â€Å"ill will† within Italian which already suggests his attitude towards the other characters thus showing his place within the play as an â€Å"unpopular†character. He is a part of a religious order who sought to regulate forms of worship. In modern time the word â€Å"puritan† is often used to mean Against pleasure . Historically, the word was has been usedRead MoreTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare1019 Words   |  5 Pagesconsidered elements of a comedy. Shakespeare wrote a comedy called Twelfth Night because that’s the Christmas Celebration when pranks and deceptions were allowed when people were off work. However the last day 6th January was when all the decorations came down, which brought a tinge bit of sadness to the Elizabethans. William Shakespeare employs the dramatic conventions of mistaken identity and disguise to establish humour in an example of Act 2 Scene 2 of Twelfth Night. Viola realises Olivia is inRead MoreTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare1164 Words   |  5 PagesIn the comedy Twelfth Night written by William Shakespeare many of the characters experience emotional pain. The pain that a character name Olivia experiences is the death of her brother, causing her to mourn. Malvolio who is Olivias steward is involved with emotional pain caused by humiliation, which occurs more than once in this play. Lastly, a great deal of characters battle with the feeling of unrequited love. Even though Shakespeare wrote this as a comedy, there was still a mass amount of emotionalRead MoreTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare2088 Words   |  8 PagesTwelfth Night, or, What You Will by William Shakespeare is a comedy that was written for the Christmas season. Twelfth Night presents many different topics through out the play like: crossdressing, homosexuality, unknown same sex desires, and undertones of talk about genitals. Although some are more noticeable than others, they are all present. I will be focusing mainly on the homosexuality of some of the characters and what the difference between that and just having a ‘male friendship.’ I will alsoRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night2005 Words   |  9 Pagesrole that gender plays in Shakespeare’s work. Focus on Twelfth Night or King Lear—or discuss both plays together. Do you see these patterns repeated? Or do you see them being challenged and somehow undermined (implicitly or explicitly) in the plots and language of the play s)?† wants to know if Shakespeare wanted to break the pattern of women being passive objects to men in the literature. In the story Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare all of the roles are played by men. In the fifteenth centuryRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s The Twelfth Nig ht Essay1515 Words   |  7 Pageselements in plays and films. Slowly with the knowledge gained, we transitioned into examining the adaptations of the world famous playwright, William Shakespeare. For this assignment, we were to choose a modern Shakespeare adaption and compare its successes and failures to its traditional script. With the choices given, I decided to choose the Twelfth Night to its modern adaption directed by Andy Fickman called, â€Å"She’s the Man.† I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it as an option, therefore I feltRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1967 Words   |  8 Pages William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Twelfth Night† or â€Å"What You Will† was written around 1601-1602 with the primary performance being in February 1602. It is known to be a high point of Shakespearian comedy as it is one of Shakespeare’s finest works. Twelfth night was written to commemorate the close of the Christmas season being possi bly one of the first ever holiday specials, kind of like the Middle Ages version of â€Å"Love Actually†. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated duringRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night Essay1470 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night can easily be interpreted as a romance play. Given that the majority of the characters in the play in some way or another fall in love, but there are many twists that come with these romantic relationships. Some of the characters fall in love with the same character, others fall in love with a character that loves another, who actually loves another causing a chaotic love triangle. Within every romance a character is tragically hurt, turning the romance play intoRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night Essay2147 Words   |  9 Pagesaffection for another person,† love takes on many forms throughout life and literature (Merriam-Webster). Through its passionate drama and witty repartee, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, explores the intricate, and often complicated, realm of interpersonal love. By tracing the intertwining storylines of four unique characters, Shakespeare communicates the futility of self-love, the desperation of hopeless love, and the immeasurable virtue of selfless love. An after-effect of human’s sinfulRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Twelfth Night1762 Words   |  8 PagesShakespeare wrote the romantic comedy play, Twelfth Night, in the year 1601. Despite being over 400 years old, people have been studying and performing the play continuously. Even though some may argue American audience now cannot understand the significance of social hierarchy in the play nor the lines written in Shakespearean English, Twelfth Night remains popular today as shown by New York Times’ publishing of seven reviews on different performances of Twelfth Night. At the same time, Shakespeare