Parallelism In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Parallelism is often used in pieces of literature to make characters and moments from the plot memorable to the reader, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, novel or play. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is no different as parallelism is scattered all throughout the story in many different forms and through many different characters. These characters may seem similar to one another in a lot of ways, but their outcomes at the end of the play are often very different. These characters- Orsino and Olivia, Feste and Viola, and Viola and Olivia- help emphasize the thematic issues of the play through this parallelism, many of which revolve around love and the characters' identity issues. One of the most obvious parallels is between Orsino and Olivia,
Both characters are able to move freely between the two main settings of the play, which are Olivia's home and Orsino's palace. Feste is Olivia's fool, who also talks and sings to Orsino, and Viola/Cesario plays the part of the messenger, as 'he' has to stay in communication with Olivia on behalf of Orsino. Not only that, but they are both the most honest and intelligent characters of the play. Feste has the ability to tell both Olivia and Orsino anything without fear of punishment as it is his job to remind them of their humanity, and this leaves him knowing most of the truth throughout Illyria. In Act 1 Scene 5, Feste proves this by seeing right through Olivia's grieving act and proving that it is simply just that: an act. He has no fear of her reaction, and similarly, Viola/Cesario couldn't care less about Olivia's reaction when 'he' goes to court her on behalf of Orsino. 'He' doesn't submit to her, hold back 'his' rude comments, or put on a different personality to try to make her fall for Orsino through him. 'He' doesn't hold back, much like Feste, even though he is not licensed to be
Not only are their names an anagram for one another, their personalities are both very similar, at least when Viola is able to be herself and not Cesario, her male persona. Both women are of upperclass in their respectable countries, and both have male family members who are recently dead; Olivia has just lost her father and brother, and Viola believes she has just lost her twin brother Sebastian to the accident they had on the sea. This leaves them both with even more wealth and social status than they already had with their male family member being alive. There is much more to them than money and power, though, as they are both incredibly intelligent and witty. They both come up with plans that prevent them from being forced into their gender roles- Olivia comes up with her grieving sister and daughter act, as she claims she will not marry for seven years as there is too much sadness, and Viola comes up with dressing like her twin brother, to prevent anything happening to her in Illyria. The gender roles in their time claimed that women needed to be taken care of by a man, who would hold all the power and money in their relationship. Neither woman wanted to be forced into these roles. They don't want to marry or be controlled by any man, hence their acts they put on, and before Viola even got the idea to dress like a man when she first washed up ashore, she originally thought that it might be nice to