Feste is more of the comic truth of the comedy. Although he does not make any profound remarks, he seems to be the wisest person within all the characters in the comedy. To illustrate this, Viola remarks that Feste is wise enough to play the fool. Since he is a licensed fool, his main role in Twelfth Night is to speak the truth. His truthfulness is where the humour lies. In another example he proves Olivia to be a true fool by asking her what she was mourning about. The point Feste tried to make was why should Olivia mourn for a person whose soul is in the most wonderful place, heaven. Feste insinuated that she should not lament her brother’s fate, but rejoice over the new life his soul will lead. The astuteness that Feste possesses adds humour to the play.
With his intellect, Feste adds to the humour of the comedy. He dresses up as Sir Topas, the curate, and visits the imprisoned Malvolio. There he uses his cleverness to abuse Malvolio who is still unaware that he is actually talking to a clown, rather than to the real Sir Topas. Feste (disguised as Sir Topas) calls Malvolio a lunatic, Satan and confuses him by wittingly making him a fool. Throughout the play, Malvolio has been the killjoy. He is Feste's worst nightmare and is the only character to show a negative attitude and a reversed dignity in the play, but in the end is triumphed over by Feste completely.
Maria, Olivia's companion, is another person who seems enthusiastic in playing pranks on other people. In Twelfth Night, she plays the unsuspecting role of a “behind the scenes fool” who feeds ideas to Feste, Sir Andrew & Sir Toby to assist her in her plans. In both incidents, she remains quiet while having the Knights or the Clown carry out her plans.
Part of the humour that lies in this comedy is that Maria's pranks are harsh & cruel, using love and power (status of Olivia) to attack Malvolio, steward of Olivia, by tricking him into believing the Olivia is in love with him. For this, Malvolio's greed for power leads to his imprisonment in a dark cell where he is accused of being mad. She also prepares Feste to disguise as Sir Topas so that he can dupe Malvolio into believing that Feste is the priest. By doing this, she is trying to fool with Malvolio and entertain Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and herself. Overall, Maria helps make Twelfth Night a hilarious comedy, but is not the only one who makes it a droll comedy.
Lastly, Sir Toby Belch plays a comparable role to that of a fool in Twelfth Night. His role is helping with the game of make-believe. He is always trying to convince & encourage the rich Sir Andrew Aguecheek that he has a chance of winning Lady Olivia's love. He is similar to Feste, except he plays the role of a knight and is Olivia's kinsman. His role is similar to a fool because he depicts many pranks of a fool. For instance in Act II scene iii, while he was drunk, he sings along with Feste when Malvolio barges in to shut them up. Whenever there is a prank, Maria invites Sir Toby to participate. One such prank was to assist Maria's fake letter to make Malvolio think Olivia is in love with him. Sir Toby's make-believe scheme works convincingly on Malvolio. Another prank was to accompany the disguised Feste (Sir Topas) into the dark cell where Malvolio was imprisoned. This accompaniment was probably to assure Malvolio that the real Sir Topas is visiting him. Yet it is another make-believe scheme of Sir Toby.
In Twelfth Night, the fools are the ones that control the comedy and humour. They assist in the make believe games and fool around with characters who are not in touch with reality. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses. They create the confusion through humour and it all works out in the end to make William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a deeply satirical, but effectively amusing Elizabethan play.
