Twelfth Night - Critical Commentary of Major Themes and an Analysis of Language

The plays tittle refers to the carnivalesque spirit of abandon that surrounded renaissance Twelfth Night festivities. In which the normal rules and order of social life were suspended or else deliberately reversed, "serious issues and events mingled perplexingly with revelry and apparent madness." Closer textual and language analysis provides a detailed demonstration of these ideas, the comedic elements of the play draw from the tensions created between common social restraints and the unruly, inspiring and irrational forces of love. Our leading heroine, Viola, embodies these ideas wholly and presents them continuously, particularly in the soliloquy she delivers upon picking up the ring of Olivia (II, ii, -17). Here she spells out the intricate tangles of the predominant plot and amidst this narrative of knots pulls the threads of the main ideas that run through the play.

Initially Viola ponders the inkling that Olivia may have mistakenly fallen in love with her:

Viola: I left no ring with her. What means this lady? Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her.

Viola refers to a moment earlier in Olivia's court (I, v,), where the Duchess ran a critically praising eye from toe to head of Viola's "outside" :

Viola: She made good view of me, indeed so much

That straight methought her eyes had lost her tongue,

Quickly, Viola, resigns herself to the knowledge that Olivia has fallen in love with her:
Viola: She loves me sure, the cunning of her passion

Invites me in this churlish messenger.

The mention of a "churlish" or rude messenger could take a duel meaning. Primarily, the delivery of a ring to symbolize Olivia's affections delivered under the false pretences of it being jeered at. These false pretences are also evidence to "the cunning of her passion" Ironically, Olivia's advance is just as deceitful as Viola's mere presence. Secondly, this may be taken as a blazenly blunt description of the conceited steward, Malvolio.

Viola