Twelfth Night
The dramatic irony of Orsino’s speech on Cesario’s femininity (lines 30-40) establishes the gender confusion which is to become increasingly important to the plot’s comic complications.
Feste’s punning begins the scene, and he shows how, as in Act 1 Scene 5, ‘foolery’ can have a serious satiric purpose. He equates fools and husbands (lines 31-4) and also makes a comment about Jove sending the clean-cut young Cesario ‘a beard’ (line 44), a pointed observation sometimes taken to indicate that he knows the truth of the disguise. Feste sums up his role as ‘corrupter of words’ (lines 34-5); Viola observes that he ‘is enough to play the fool’ (line 58): perhaps Feste knows more about her than he is saying explicitly
The treatment of Malvolio in this scene brings out the latent cruelty inherent in comedy, and offers a darker perspective on Feste’s role. The play’s insistent questioning of categories of madness and sanity, or wisdom and folly is also brought to the fore. ‘I am well in my wits than a fool’, is Feste’s unpitying retort (lines 88-90). Feste’s disguise as Sir Topas is also significant as a malicious version of the deceits practised elsewhere in the play.
The monochrome portrait of an officious autocrat who is only too happy to play the number crunching games associated with the modern world of education. There are no shades of grey or ambiguities in this figure, who serves as the butt of much of the comedy
He is contemptuous of Hector’s old fashioned faith in the redemptive power of words (49)
It could be argued that the Headmaster is merely accommodating to the spirit of the age. Like any head of an educational establishment, he would feel under pressure from a of sources – local and national governments, school governors, parents, ambitious students, local media etc. – to produce results in terms of examination success and Oxbridge entry
Following the boys’ rendition of Bye Bye, Blackbird, the old standard from the 1920s acting as a kind of
Feste’s punning begins the scene, and he shows how, as in Act 1 Scene 5, ‘foolery’ can have a serious satiric purpose. He equates fools and husbands (lines 31-4) and also makes a comment about Jove sending the clean-cut young Cesario ‘a beard’ (line 44), a pointed observation sometimes taken to indicate that he knows the truth of the disguise. Feste sums up his role as ‘corrupter of words’ (lines 34-5); Viola observes that he ‘is enough to play the fool’ (line 58): perhaps Feste knows more about her than he is saying explicitly
The treatment of Malvolio in this scene brings out the latent cruelty inherent in comedy, and offers a darker perspective on Feste’s role. The play’s insistent questioning of categories of madness and sanity, or wisdom and folly is also brought to the fore. ‘I am well in my wits than a fool’, is Feste’s unpitying retort (lines 88-90). Feste’s disguise as Sir Topas is also significant as a malicious version of the deceits practised elsewhere in the play.
The monochrome portrait of an officious autocrat who is only too happy to play the number crunching games associated with the modern world of education. There are no shades of grey or ambiguities in this figure, who serves as the butt of much of the comedy
He is contemptuous of Hector’s old fashioned faith in the redemptive power of words (49)
It could be argued that the Headmaster is merely accommodating to the spirit of the age. Like any head of an educational establishment, he would feel under pressure from a of sources – local and national governments, school governors, parents, ambitious students, local media etc. – to produce results in terms of examination success and Oxbridge entry
Following the boys’ rendition of Bye Bye, Blackbird, the old standard from the 1920s acting as a kind of