Preview

How Does Shakespeare Use Disguises In Twelfth Night

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
839 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Shakespeare Use Disguises In Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is a comedic play written by William Shakespeare, full of love triangles and misunderstandings. Shakespeare uses disguises, classes, and lies to unfold the misjudgment of devotion and love characters have for each other in the play. Love blinds people, causing them to prioritize and risk their life and jobs to aid their loved ones, but in Twelfth Night characters also become blinded from social classes and unreciprocated love to the point where other characters in the book judge them.
Love makes characters in Twelfth Night prioritize the people they love: put them before themselves and their reputation. Throughout the play Malvolio, a steward in Olivia’s court, time after time risks his job and reputation for the one he loves: …show more content…
In multiple occasions love deprived characters in Twelfth Night view pursuing someone or something unattainable as mad and crazy. Maria sees the love Malvolio has for Olivia as a joke and even uses it as his achilles heel because she finds his devotion to someone that would never love him crazy. Maria confides her judgmental opinion of Malvolio and wicked plots aimed at Malvolio in Toby, Andrew, and Fabian;
“If you will then see the fruits of the sport, mark his first approach before my lady. He will come to her in yellow stockings, and ’tis a color she abhors, and cross-gartered, a fashion she detests; and he will smile upon her, which will now be so unsuitable to her disposition, being addicted to a melancholy as she is, that it cannot but turn him into a notable contempt. If you will see it, follow me.” …show more content…
Olivia falls in love with Cesario, someone who isn’t real but instead an illusion. Not only does this feed Shakespeare's comedy of errors but also proves that Viola herself judges someone for loving someone they can’t have when she herself loves Orsino as a “man”. In a monologue Viola pieces the puzzle together, “Poor lady, she were better love a dream./Disguise… As I am man,/My state is desperate for my master’s love.”(2.2.26...36-37) Love in others is hard to understand and can easily be judged because it’s not ours to understand and private. In Twelfth Night, love plays an essential role and allows the audience to walk through the maze of disguises and love triangles. Love in the play reveals what charcters like malvoio are capable to do for those they desire, reveals complications in l, and unleashes brutal judgement from other characters. Without the role of love in Twelfth Night there there would be no
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Love In Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'
    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page

    Love In Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'

    Twelfth Night is a comedic play written by Shakespeare centered around two twins, Viola and Sebastian. Viola who disguises herself as a eunuch named Cesario falls in love with Duke Orsino, who is in love with the Countess Olivia. When Cesario meets with Olivia, Olivia begins to fall in love with him thinking that she is a boy. Meanwhile, Malvolio, the steward of Olivia’s house, is tricked by other characters into thinking that Olivia has fallen in love with him. The characters often declare their love for one another through monologues. Throughout the story, Shakespeare effectively uses dramatic speeches to demonstrate love as being uncertain through the characters; Viola, Orsino, and Malvolio.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Twelfth Night Trickery Analysis
    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Twelfth Night Trickery Analysis

    In William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night or What you Will, The characters in the play face a plot complete with love and trickery. William Shakespeare includes many examples of love and trickery throughout the play and it makes it very detailed and interesting.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Magic In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Magic In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare is telling the readers that, love needs no reason to exist; it defies logic and ignores all circumstances. This compelling message is very thoroughly communicated with the connection of the fantasy world and reality. The connection occurs in a forest, where each character of significance is, at one point, present. Here, the characters experience unforeseen events, as a result of the debatable use of magic, from those in power. However, despite the extreme unusualness and complications, the characters challenge the circumstances, and persist in loving the one they feel closest to. In this play, this situation is best represented by three significant relationships. The first exists between a lover and her hater, the next involves a young and rebellious couple, and the last concerns an ill-fated mechanical and the queen of the fairies.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    How Does Shakespeare Represent Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Relationships in the Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night Essay Example
    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages

    How Does Shakespeare Represent Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Relationships in the Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night Essay Example

    Shakespearean plays have often stressed the importance of relationships between men and women; most of Shakespeare's plays, tragedies and comedies, involve romance between males and females, but the relationships that are far more poignant and effective in the play seem to be the relationships between the plays' same sex characters. Examples of important same- and opposite-sex relationships appear in both of Shakespeare's comedic plays Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing. Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing center around the intricate and sometimes extremely confusing relationships among the plays' characters. These two plays also examine how the relationships between the major characters begin, evolve through the course of the play, and the state of that relationship at the end of the play. These relationships often are brought about through deception and confusion and these attributes often drive the course of the play. How Shakespeare portrays relationships among men and women, men and men, and men and women illustrates the social dynamic of the time period and what I believe to be the ultimate repression of women and their roles in society.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Similarities Between Much Ado About Nothing And Twelfth Night
    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Similarities Between Much Ado About Nothing And Twelfth Night

    This essay talks about the role of love as it used in Shakespeare’s comedies. It directly talks about “Much Ado about Nothing” and “Twelfth Night”, and how they use love in their stories. “Shakespeare expects us to accept wonder as having some kind of value in itself and in its relations to the action that has gone before. We are presented with the wonderful as an incitement to knowledge and to pleasure; and we are asked also to consider the dramatic fact that those who participate in the happy ending must be ready to set aside their human confinement to the probable and accept an intrusion of the improbable into their lives.” (262-263) Wonder and love are on equal footing in Shakespeare. He expects us to accept that the characters fall in love with each other as well. Love is a vital part of every romantic comedy whether it’s a play written by Shakespeare or a movie like “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”. The essay also makes a note of how the characters change through the plays and compares how it works in both stories. The author of the essay…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    version 2 Comic characters always displ
    • 1244 Words
    • 3 Pages

    version 2 Comic characters always displ

    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.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Motif of Love in Twelfth Night Essay Example
    • 1954 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Motif of Love in Twelfth Night Essay Example

    Romantic love, one’s unconditional love, consists of a great portion of the play as it forms a part of the love triangle and is a key element when all issues concerning identity are resolved. First experienced by Viola, she, disguised as a eunuch, starts to fall in love with the Duke Orsino. When sent by the Duke to seek Olivia’s love, Viola makes it clear to the audience saying, “Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (I, iv, 42) . Later on, she becomes aware of the existence of a love triangle. Viola’s situation, already complex, worsens and she states, “My state is desperate for my master’s love” (II, ii, 36). When questioned about her love interest by the Duke, Viola answers someone “Of your complexion” (II, iv, 26) and “About your years, my lord” (II, iv, 28), subtly hinting her love. Troubled by her position in the love triangle, Viola decides to ask the Duke himself, who refuses to accept that Olivia does not share his love, what to do. She seeks helpful answers when she says,…

    • 1954 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is the Theme of Love and Hate Presented in Romeo and Juliet?
    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Is the Theme of Love and Hate Presented in Romeo and Juliet?

    The play Romeo and Juliet has two themes that rely on each other to create an understanding of the dynamics of relationships - the power of love and hate. One could easily conceive that hatred is the stronger theme when looking at the tragic denouement that befalls the star - crossed lovers. The ongoing feud between the Capulets and Montagues, functioning as a mean of hatred results in the deaths of the youths. However, a more profound exploration widens our horizons. Romeo and Juliet has become forever associated with love. The play has become an iconic story of love and passion, and the name “Romeo” is still used to describe young lovers. Shakespeare’s treatment of love in the play is complex and multifaceted. He uses love in its many guises to thread together the key relationships in the play.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    How Does Shakespeare Use Deception In Twelfth Night
    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How Does Shakespeare Use Deception In Twelfth Night

    Twelfth Night is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It was originally a Catholic holiday but, prior to Shakespeare 's play, had become a day of revelry. Servants often dressed up as their masters. The masquerading that is a frequent part of an Epiphany celebration is of course captured in Viola 's plan to disguise herself as a man. Almost all the in the play are either taken in by another characters disguise or a deception regarding their own identity. The confusions that unravel in amongst it give the audience an urge to want to read on. I think Shakespeare presented these to show that things really are not always what they seem to be, plus to show the consequences of deception. Hence, nearly every character at some points conceals reality behind some type of deception, leading to various consequences. Furthermore, the deception and confusion presented throughout this story makes each character develop an identity with either showing cleverness or madness, while it also makes each character realize the principles towards obtaining love and…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hidden Identity In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hidden Identity In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    William Shakespeare’s works have everlasting significance due to the fact that his plays explore key ideas still relevant in our own time. Shakespeare’s play Twelfth night was written in 1602, as a comedy. It contains ideas and themes that link it closely with society. Twelfth Night explores the idea of love through his characterisation of Viola and Duke Orsino. Andy Fickman’s film modernised Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through the change of some parts of the play and updating them.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In Twelfth Night
    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Roles In Twelfth Night

    “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…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Insanity In Twelfth Night
    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Insanity In Twelfth Night

    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.…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Twelfth Night Essay
    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Twelfth Night Essay

    Shakespeare presents love throughout the play to provide the audience with his perspective on love as it exists in human society including self-love, selfless love and true love. Shakespeare illustrates the different aspects of love throughout the play by the language used including soliloquies, metaphors, motifs and symbols.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Viola's Unselfish Love
    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Viola's Unselfish Love

    Some people will do anything for love. They will cheat, steal, lie, and even give up their life. In some cases they will sacrifice their dreams just to make them happy. This is what real, pure, unselfish love is. In "Twelfth Night" by Shakespeare, Viola, disguised as a man, has found herself in love with her master. Her love for the Duke Orsino is so great that she sacrifices her chances to be with him just so she can make him happy. This story of love shows through Viola's character that love is not just an attraction to another person, it is a undying passion and loyalty to make the other person happy.…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Love in Twelfth Night
    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Love in Twelfth Night

    In the play twelfth night, Shakespeare covered three types of love : Lust, true love and brotherly love. Love is one of the most confusing and most misunderstood emotions that we as humans posses. Love is an extremely diverse emotion which is why it was used as the main topic in twelfth night.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics