Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night is a comedy written by William Shakespeare. This play of William Shakespeare was named after the Twelfth Night holiday. It was first performed on 2 nd February at Candlemas and was printed to be executed as part of the celebrations of Twelfth Night. The assumed time of the composition of the play is between 1599 and 1601.

Like early comedies such as ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘TheComedy of Errors’, ‘Twelfth Night’ is also one of the comedies which describes a carnival of romantic love and can be watched as a conventional romantic comedy. This play ‘Twelfth Night’ contains some basics which are common to Elizabethan romantic comedy involving divided twins, the devices of mistaken identity, its plan revolves around conquering obstructions to true love and gender-crossing mask. He has also described about the madness of love in his play.

Characters

Orsino

He is a strong nobleman who lives in the country of Illyria . He loved the gorgeous lady Olivia and acts as a medium through whom Shakespeare discovers the irrationality of love.

Viola

She is a young woman of upper-class birth and the main character of the play. She hides herself as a eunuch and also describes herself as ‘Cesario’. The emotional dilemma of Viola is the fundamental quarrel in the play.

Olivia

She is described as a good looking, wealthy and noble woman who lived in Illyria . She was invited by Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Orsino but refused to marry them for about 7 years.

Sir Toby Belch

He is the uncle of Olivia. Olivia lived with his uncle but does not support of his practical jokes, noisy behavior, late-night partying and heavy drinking.

The other characters of the Shakespeare’s play are Maria, Malvolio, Sebastian, Fool, Antonio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Captain, Valentine and Curio and Fabian.

Summary of the Play

Shakespeare used the gadget of mistaken identity in this play. Viola who is a survivor of the wreckage of the ship and walks along the ashore at Illyria and makes her way in a world of men. She dressed like a man and describes herself as Cesario and indicates herself into the service of Orsino and later on she falls in love with him.

The identical twin named as Sebastian is also a survivor of shipwreck. He was saved by Antonio who is a sea captain. He believes that his twin sister has drowned in the sea. Antonio provides him some money to live in Illyria but the people living here think that Sebastian is a pirate.

Olivia lived with his uncle named as Sir Toby Belch who was a cheery character. Later on in the play, confusion was created with mistaken identity, jealousy and duels and fights.

After that, Olivia and Sebastian fall in love and got married and Maria and Sir Toby Belch also decided to marry. The play ends and excluding Malvolio all are happy and Shakespeare describes about the madness of love in this play.