While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.…
Specifically malvolio is presented as the ‘priggish’ and selfish butler to the lady Olivia. He is written in my opinion specifically for the audience to dislike giving the play a range and depth in the character selection. He isn’t a delicate or sensitive person, for instance he is sent by Olivia to quieten her cousin sir toby and says “My masters are you mad or what are you? Have you no wit, manners nor honesty but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?” which shows him as someone who, although he takes propriety seriously, thinks of others unlike him with distaste. This shows his typically puritan views. The audience at such moments like this should respond by laughing at malvolio, he’s the type of character who will say something funny but considering he has no sense of humour won’t realise what he has said that is funny which in turn makes it funnier. You could say the character of malvolio is used by Shakespeare as one of his main comedic features via his use of comedic irony. Many things can happen behind Malvolio’s back but he would be too self-centred to see it as proved later by Maria and Sir Toby’s letter of love from him to Olivia.…
What's to Blame? Final Edit "A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's"(Richard Whately). This statement is saying that a person is not selfish if they care about their own well-being, but are selfish if they do not care about others well-being. This kind of selfishness is shown in the story, Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet selfishness is shown by the Friar in his actions and words. The Friar is more focused on making himself look better than he actually is. Friar Lawrence…
It has been stated that comic characters always display a lack of self-knowledge, however within Twelfth Night to some extent this can be disagreed with. The subject of self-knowledge is presented as a theme throughout the comedic play as it adds to the image of love being folly. Orsino and Malvolio are examples of comedic characters within the play which display a lack of self-knowledge whereas Viola and Feste are characters which oppose this view.…
(Shakespeare 2.3.87-89). Malvolio suggests that they act like unruly commoners instead of noblemen, and his arrogance shines as he admonishes the noblemen for their drinking. Malvolio’s scolding showcases his disrespect for these noblemen despite his own career as a steward. He calls Sir Andrew and Sir Toby “masters” sarcastically as if he only says that to provoke them and to challenge their authority. He disregards the fact that his social position remains below Sir Toby and Andrew, calling them “tinkers.”…
In Romeo and Juliet, the discussion of what lead to the tragedy is one that many have been debating for years. Love is a major factor in the misfortune that occurred as if it were not for love, Romeo would've felt no obligation to Juliet. Selfishness also played a big part as it caused the Fight between Romeo and Tybalt,ending in Romeo's banishment.…
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Shakespeare’s plays and poetry have been translated into every language and have been performed all over the world. Shakespeare’s plays have remained at the center of the theatrical repertoire through periods of changing dramatic tastes and they have adapted themselves to different culture and theatrical traditions. William Shakespeare was born in 1564.…
“Nothing that is so is so,” states the fool Feste while looking at Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, a double for Cesario (IV.i.9). This singular quotes embodies the idea that gender identity is fictional in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, and that homoerotic desires are natural to the human body and mentality. Throughout this play, many characters are introduced to having homoerotic desires: Orsino for Viola dressed as Cesario, Sebastian for Antonio, and Olivia for Viola dressed as Cesario. Most provocative is the homoerotic desire between Maria and Olivia. Olivia, the lady of her house, is the employer of lady-in-waiting Maria, who serves Olivia with her best intentions in mind. Olivia feels a dutiful comfort with Maria, proven through…
Although Malvalio is only steward, a lowly status social status in his days, he is presented as puritan (quote Maria). A puritan considers activities such as drinking and singing as indecent. However a puritan would not be appreciated in the circles of fun loving notables like like sir Toby(quote sir Toby). On the other hand, Malvalio is highly regarded and appreciated for his services by lady Olivia because he excels in his profession(quote maria.). Due to this fact and as a head servant, he commands some standing in the lady Olivia’s house hold where the play is taking place. Servants detest him because of uncompramising attitude because of his belief that servants should be loyal to their masters.(…
In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare constantly alludes to the contrast between darkness and light by the use of secrets, mistaken identities and the contrast between sanity and insanity. With this motif Shakespeare shows us that if we act on first impressions without the true knowledge of the entity of the situation or character, then the misinformed motives will surely be in vain; and our efforts futile.…
Twelfth Night is known for being one of the finest romantic comedies of all time. The play begins with love at first sight, which then gradually transitions into a love triangle. However, it is kept light with the addition of the subplot. The movie version of the play Twelfth Night is fairly relative to the written version of the play, yet it did have some minor differences. As the written version is written by William Shakespeare himself, it is most likely the most accurate version of the play, however the movie had a little bit of alterations in its scenes. Some dialogues were cut in order to keep the play interesting and to keep the audience engaged within it. For example, the scene where Orsino expresses his love for Olivia, is a beautifully composed rhyming couplet in the book. On the other hand, the movie kept the piece very concise and short. Other scenes were altered in…
I have told Joseph that he did the right thing, for all the right reasons, in all the wrong ways.…
The prevalence of disease, though not stressed directly, is an issue of importance when addressing William Shakespeare’s play, “Measure for Measure.” At the surface the reader is made aware that there is an abundance of sexually transmitted diseases. The commonality of such maladies is a direct result of the widespread practice of the Earth’s oldest profession, prostitution. Brothels such as the one run by Mistress Overdone were plentiful in the days of Shakespeare and this is illustrated in the play. The period, unlike today, offered no preventative measures from sexually transmitted diseases other than abstinence and monogamy. Neither of these, however, seem to be the common practice, thus disease runs rampant through the population, particularly Syphilis, or as it is called in the play, French Velvet. While the presence of physically detrimental diseases is not to be…
Life is not fair, the characters in Twelfth Night, a play wrote by William Shakespeare, generally speaking, do not get what they deserve. Some of the characters get too much. And it’s unfair to the others, and some get too little. Most of the iniquity happens with the second category. When characters get too little of what they deserve. This essay is going to explain how the characters were cheated out and what they actually deserved.…
“ Depart again. Here, here will I remain with worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here will I set up my everlasting rest” ( Shakespeare, 473). Being in love and being willing to kill yourself for a woman are two completely different things, when you just met a woman and you are already willing to kill yourself because she is dead you are just straight up idiotic. Stupidity is one of the worst traits that you can have in your boyfriend immaculate decisiveness is what you want, Romeo is foolish but, handsome weak yet, strong, though Romeo can defeat Tybalt the littlest thing that happens to Juliet he is broken. Romeo also kills himself because of a girl he met the day before has died the main reason he got her in the first place was because of…