Twelfth Night at a Glance:

The play starts at the court of Duke Orsino were from his dialogues we come to know that he is
in love with Olivia, his neighboring countess and at the same time we are aware that this love is
unrequited because Olivia has sworn that she would avoid showing her face to the people for 7
years to mourn the death of her brother. Meanwhile a young gentlewoman and a group of sailors
who gets shipwrecked and fortunately has survived arrive in Illyria. Viola the young beautiful
lady also mourn the death of her brother, Sebastian, whom she believes has died in that same
shipwreck. Viola is a courageous lady and thus decides to dress herself as a male page to the
Duke Orsino. The captain of the ship helps her as she has asked him to help her disguised herself
as a man to enter the court and serve Orsino.

There comes the household of Olivia where we meet a number of characters like Sir Toby Belch
her uncle. Sir Toby for his own selfish means keep a cowardly Knight with him they both drink
and revel till late night that is why Olivia sends a message and says that she dislikes such
activities. Feste the Clown is absent for long time and when he returns, Maria the maid threatens
him about anger of Olivia but still he is confident enough to manage the situation through his
wit.

Viola impresses the Duke through her disguise and he orders her to be sent to the countess. At
the same time he stresses that he (Viola as Cesario) must not return before he meet and give
message to the countess. Viola (Cesario) is successful to do the same. And due to his tenacity
and amiable impression Olivia falls in love with him.

She sends her steward after him with a ring which she pretends was left there by Cesario. Olivia
sends an indirect message for another visit. She tells that if he visits again she would tell him the
reason for not keeping the ring. Viola becomes nervous due to the unexpected and complicated
circumstances. She at the same time feel pity for her love. In the next act we come to know that
the brother of Viola had not lost his life in that specific shipwreck but Antonio who was the
captain of the ship had saved him. Sebastian wants to go to Illyrian court and his friend Antonio
is reluctant to go there because of his enmity with Duke Orsino. Just for the sake of safety
Antonio accompanies Sebastian and they together go to the capital of Illyria. Malvolio the
puritan steward shows his mentality by considering himself superior and telling all the household
not to make disturbance in the house. His every step reflects has self-righteousness.Due to his
unbearable attitude all the household try to make a plan to set him right and that is why they
make a plot. Maria is the mastermind of the plot. Malvolio has to get a letter which was supposed
to be from Olivia in which she would supposedly tell Malvolio that she loves him and she would
tell him how to dress and act. Maria is so clever that she writes about those dresses which Olivia
strictly dislikes.

At Illyrian Court there starts a new story of unrequited love between Viola and the Duke Orsino.
Duke likes Viola for his/ her wit and Viola falls in love with the Duke Orsino. The Duke insists
on sending his message to Olivia and the Clever Viola expresses her love and pretend that the
story is that of her sister. Here comes the trapping of Malvolio and the self-important Malvolio
takes no time to be trapped and he easily believes that the letter is from Olivia, starts following
the instructions present in the letter.

The coward knight hopeful for Olivia's love is instigated to challenge Cesario for fight because
he has been told that the youth is favored by Olivia. Although he does not have the courage to
fight but still he challenges Cesario. Meanwhile Antonio to save Cesario (taken as Sebastian)
comes and arrested by the officers of the Duke. Clown mistakes Sebastian for Cesario and
informs the Countess. There standing Andrew also mistakes him for Cesario, attacks him and in
return gets lusty blows. Olivia comes and stop this fight. Olivia immediately takes Sebastian and
made him to plight his troth to her before a priest. Sebastian is confused but still accept it.

Malvolio acting foolishly comes before the countess and she takes him mad and order to put him
in the dark room. There the Clown disguises himself as priest, go to pestered Malvolio. Malvolio
by writing a letter is able to free himself.

There is another confusion about marriage between Sebastian and Olivia, Duke thinks that it is
Cesario who has married Olivia but the appearance of Sebastian solves everything and then
Cesario reveals his identity as Viola. When Orsino sees this, he falls in love with her. Antonio
also comes to know that he had taken Viola as Sebastian.
Plot of the Play

Shakespeare in his comedies generally writes a complex action, actually made up of separate
actions. His two or more or more separate actions are harmonizes into an organic whole in a very
masterly way. Usually in his comedies there exists two plots; Main plot is mainly serious or
tragic and the subplot is comic which results in immense variety and appeal of his work. Twelfth
Night is no exception in this regard. In the given play the main plot deals with Orsino-Olivia-
Viola love tringle while the subplot deals with the ‘Gulling of Malvolio’.

At the background there is a story of Viola-Sebastian who are shipwrecked and separated at the
opening of the play and after facing various difficulties and going through many adventures, they
are reunited happily. The main as well as the sub-plot is full of complications. In main plot, the
disguise of Viola creates ambiguities and complications and at the sub-plot the foolish lovy story
of Andrew gives rise to a duel which leads the situation to more complexity.

The Serious Main Plot:

The serious or main plot is a love story by the tact and charming look of shipwrecked youth, she
soon wins the confidence of the Duke but at the same time she unfortunately falls in love with
his master. Her case is pitiful because dressed as male, she cannot expresses her love. Further
complication arises when Cesario has been sent to Olivia for message and there Olivia falls in
love with Cesario. Thus Viola loves the Duke but is unable to express her love: The Duke loves
Olivia who herself love Viola. All this mischief is caused by the disguise of Viola that is why she
feels helpless we notice this helplessness in the given lines uttered by her;

O time Thou must untangle this, not I

It is too hard for me to untie

Her prayers are heard and her brother Sebastian comes and Olivia taking him Cesario, marries
him and it leads to the marriage to the Duke and Viola.

The Comic Sub-plot:

Its comic sub-plot consists of the ‘gulling of Malvolio’. Malvolio is sick of self-love. His
misbelief about himself leads him toward being a tool of fun. Actually Malvolio suffers from
Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He is always against the activities of the other characters and
thus he rebukes them all. This behavior of Malvolio leads him towards worst circumstances and
other characters, specially Maria made a plan of revenge. Malvolio is such a fool that he is easily
trapped and considered by Olivia as mad and thus she orders to send him to prison. This scene
adds a hearty laugh to the play.

Interconnection between the Plots:

There are various characters who contribute to both main and sub plot and they play a role of
interlinking the plots. Olivia plays role both in main and subplot. Clown is another important
character who link the plots by singing songs to Orsino and befooling Malvolio.

Organic Wholeness:

Despite of its immense variety, this comedy is an organic whole in itself. It also bears a number
of absurdities but still these minor flaws does not make much difference.

Major Themes of the Play

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night has some important lessons which are given below;

Melancholy: In Renaissance times, melancholy was considered as a sickness which was

thought to arise from unrequited love or narcissistic self-love. Many characters in Twelfth Night
suffers from Love-Melancholy such as Orsino, who exhibits many symptoms like interest in
music and songs and inactivity etc. Where there is emphasis on melancholy, there a light shows
the painfulness of love. The play also satirizes the excessive way of exaggerating things such as
Olivia break her oath of not showing her face for seven years, when she notices Cesario. The
case with exaggerated love of Orsino, when he finds Viola in her real face, he falls in love with
her.

Desire and Love: Almost every character of the play encounter one or other form of love and
desire. Love triangle is best example in this regard. Shakespeare somehow pokes fun at these
characters and shows that Orsino is more in love with being in love than his supposed beloveds.
Shakespeare further makes fun of the idealized romantic love by proving that the devotion is
more constant than that of romantic bonds.

Madness: For expressing their romantic feelings some characters like Orsino and Olivia talk in
a way which presents them mad. The trick which was planned against Malvolio compels
everyone on thinking that he actually is mad.

Dress-change and Disguise: The whole play is based on disguise and it plays an important
role in developing the plot. Every character is somehow disguised. Viola is dressed as a page boy
to Duke Orsino, Feste the Clown changes his identity by changing his clothes and even
characters like Orsino and Olivia are just dramatizing their love in a disguised way.

Class and Social Standing: Twelfth Night is a picture gallery of that very society where we
meet almost each and every character. On one hand characters like Malvolio obsessed with
status and others characters of belonging to various classes give a true picture of the society. In
character of viola we see that how difficult it was for a lonely woman to survive in that very
society.

Picture Gallery of Characters

Viola:

In Twelfth Night there are two major female characters and one of them is Viola. It would be
appropriate to give her the title of heroine because mostly the fortunes of other characters are
connected to her.

She has charming look and enchanting beauty. There are various allusions to her beauty. Maria
calls her ‘fair’. The Duke speaks of her as;

Diana’s lip

Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe

Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound,

And all is semblative a woman’s part.

She has sympathetic nature, she feel pity for Olivia when she comes to know that Olivia has
fallen in love with her.

What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breath.

She at the same time is courageous enough to face difficult situation of survival.

Olivia: Olivia is more complex character than that of Viola. We at first look of her consider her
to be proud but soon she fell into the feet of a page. She is so affectionate with her brother that
she takes a vow and in a very little time she breaks the vow also.

She is from noble class and thus she bears self-respect and honorable character. The captain
when talks her about, names her ‘a virtuous maid’.

She could sacrifice anything for her love with Cesario when she says;

What shall you ask of me that I’ll deny,

That honor saved, any upon asking give.

She inspires devotion and keep sympathy for others. She rebukes people for their mistakes but
never want to offend them, she just want every problem to be solved in a humble way. Simply
saying she is kind and considerate.

She is a good administrator as she can ‘sway her house, commands her followers’.

Orsino: The Duke is also an elegant and virtuous character. His character can be concluded
from the statements given by other characters about him. The Captain speaks about him as ‘A
noble duke, in nature as in name.’ Olivia in her words presents his picture as;

I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,

Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth:

Despite his nobility, the character is not much admirable because of his moody, self-centered and
changeable nature. His hyperbolic love changes from Olivia to Viola in a moment. He is
sentimentalist and aggressive, when he comes to know that Cesario has married Olivia, he
becomes angry and says that he will torture and kill him.
Besides the above mentioned characters, there are many more characters like Feste: The Master
of Wit and Wisdom, fond of music, alone and friendless, mirror of truth. Malvolio, an arrogant
and foolish puritan. The sub role of the play is handed over to Sir Toby Belch, fond of drinking
and music, Andrew Aguecheek, a coward drunker Knight, Maria the clever maid, and many
more.

Bibliography
Malik, Prof Munawar Ali. Twelfth Night. Lahore: New Kitab Mahal, 2016-17. 470. English.

Tilak, DR Raghukul. "Study Guide Twelfth Night." Meerut: Famous Products, 2005. 188. English.