Critical Analysis of play ‘Twelfth Night’ of William Shakespeare

Introduction – Twelfth Night is among the most popular comedies of the great dramatist William Shakespeare. It is also titled as ‘What you will’. It was officially performed firstly in 1602. It ridicules cross class relationships of the then society.

Themes

Love – It is a romantic comedy where love is inevitable. There is a love triangle between Olivia, Duke Orsino and Cesario(Viola). Duke Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario(viola) and Cesario loves Duke Orsino. There is another love bird Malvolio who loves Olivia. At the end of the play all lovers were happy except Malvolio. Hence love is present everywhere in the play.
Identity – This play also reflects theme of identity. Viola hides her identity and took make attire and became Cesario. In the whole play she kept her identity hidden. But her look created confusion in the play as when her brother Sebastian appeared Olivia took her for Cesario and Antonio misunderstood Cesario as Sebastian. Hence identity
Loss of close ones – Olivia lost her both father and brother in the span of a year. Resultant she is in a state of sorrow. Viola lost her brother on sea voyage due to shipwreck and same could be said for Sebastian; brother of viola. These losses became base of the story in the play. Olivia lost interest in love proposals due to loss in life and viola was forced to become Cesario. Hence we can say that loss of close ones is certainly important theme of the play.
Merry making – This theme is reflected in the activities of Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. They both are heavy drunkards and often cause hullabaloo in the play.

Characterisation – Characterisation is one of the best things in this play. Amid unrealistic story events characters are true to life. Each and every character is developed in right manner and their scope is well utilized in the play. The way Maria and others befooled Malvolio is quite possible and merry making of Toby and Andrew is quite natural. Olivia’s stance of not entertaining any suitors due to loss of dear ones in life is realistic in life. Characters of the play are knitted well to be fit in the fabric of the real world.

Plot Structure – Elizabethan age dramas had adopted modern plot structure. They did not follow time and space unity. Story of the plays did not end in a single day or single scene. It went on to continue for many days at different places. Hence time, space, stage all started to change and this is quite visible in Twelfth Night too. Shakespeare has divided this play in five acts and story is quite aligned in all acts. It doesn’t seem to deviate much. There are flaws in plot in terms of unrealistic events like both Viola and Sebastian were saved in shipwreck by two different captains and Viola being a female is not identified by anyone in cross dress.

Romantic comedy – Twelfth Night is a typical Shakespearean romantic comedy. It has all the features of a romantic comedy like-

Love as the central theme
Obstscles in achieving the love
Love affair is reaching its destination of wedding
Two or more pairs of love birds
Many comic characters such as Sir Toby, Sir Andrews, Fool (Feste), and Malvolio in Twelfth Night,
Intermingling of love and comedy
Dominance of female characters such as Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night, Portia in Merchant of Venice, Rosalind and Celia in As you like it etc.

Represents contemporary society – Shakespeare has ridiculed few developing trends in the contemporary society through his play Twelfth Night. Cross class relationships is one of the things started to develop in Elizabethan times. Shakespeare has tried to mock that through relationships of Toby and Maria and Malvolio’s development of love for his mistress Olivia. Similarly crossing dressing is something Shakespeare has used in most of the comedies it shows such roles were acted by make characters as females were not allowed to take part in the plays in those times. The merry making of Toby and Andrew represents Twelfth night celebration and the disturbance it caused in those times to general public.

Consideration of female as subordinate sex – Duke Orsino’s character highlights issue of considering female as subordinate to male. He first of all is not ready to accept that a female could be in such deep sorrow after losing her brother that she could not accept his wedding proposal then his thinking about incapability of female sex in loving a male in equivalent manner as he loves olivia. Over that his persistence in unrequited(one sided)love and consistently sending his messengers to Olivia for making her accept his wedding proposal. Such acts of Duke presents him as thinking females subordinate to males.

Title of the Play – There is no where the title of the play mentioned in the play. Title suggests the day of Twelfth Night after Christmas i.e. 6th January. It was the day when Magi came to meet the baby Jesus and brought gifts. People celebrate this day with lot of hullabaloo and merry making. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew’s merry making in the play represents Twelfth Night celebrations.

Read my some other posts:

Critical Appreciation of ‘A Consolation’ (Sonnet 29) – William Shakespeare

Critical Appreciation of ‘Soul and Body'(Sonnet 146) – William Shakespeare

Critical Appreciation of ‘The Triumph of Death’ (Sonnet 71 ) – William Shakespeare

Critical Analysis of play ‘The Post Office’ of Rabindranath Tagore