A close, critical analysis of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' with regard to relating a particular extract to the play as a whole through the play's key themes

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Coursework: English and English Literature        

Shakespeare: ‘Twelfth Night’

Write a close critical analysis of your chosen fragment of text, exploring its importance within the play as a whole.

In your answer, you should:

  • Analyse the language and dramatic impact of your fragment
  • Relate the fragment to the play as a whole
  • Suggest how the play reflects the world in which it was first performed.

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
 And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
 He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
 The quality of persons, and the time,
 Not, like the haggard, check at every feather
 That comes before his eye. This is a practise
 As full of labour as a wise man's art
 For folly that he wisely shows is fit;
 But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit.

These lines – and indeed Act Three Scene One itself - is taken from almost exactly the middle of the play. Many of the characters’ secrets are beginning to come out – or are at least suspected. Viola is troubled by her love for Orsino, and it is possible that this is something that Feste explores earlier in the scene. Orsino however is still stuck deeply in the throes of his romantic love, but below the surface there are hints that he is confused by Viola and his feelings for her. Viola also inspires confusion - or at least infatuation - in the mind of Olivia, who has fallen deeply in love with Orsino’s young servant. Sebastian has not yet arrived, and the play’s subplot is really coming into being – with Malvolio having just received the letter dropped for him by Mariah, much to the amusement of Sirs Andrew and Toby.

The extract itself is taken from the end of the scene; Feste has just exited and Viola - alone on stage - delivers her lines of blank verse as a soliloquy to the audience. The speech at first seems to refer to her recent and uncomfortable encounter with Feste, but also reflects on other ideas including the two key themes of the play. Moreover, when actually delivered in a production, in my opinion the actress could interpret these lines in a variety of different ways and subsequently speak to mean different things. However, it seems to me that the long vowel sounds (occurring especially regularly in the last three lines) lend themselves particularly to a reflective manner of speaking. The actress would draw them out – portraying Viola’s pondering of the revelations she has worked out after her encounter with Feste, as was done in the school production of the play.

The opening line, ‘This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,’ is a play on the proverbial statement ‘No man can play the fool as well as the wise man,’ and perhaps also ‘He is not wise who cannot play the fool.’

Firstly, here Viola is looking back at Feste - she was confused by the encounter, but understands how intelligent he actually is. It also sets the theme of the passage – the wit of fools and the folly of wise men – an effectively confusing way to end a scene in which ‘foolery’ has been the main theme. Interestingly, this confused content creates a distinct contrast to the solid blank verse – which also happens to be in almost perfect iambic pentameter, but does however gain an extra syllable on the first, fifth, and sixth lines. This changing rhythm adds to the general theme of madness in the play as well as demonstrating further Viola’s confusion. In particular, the broken rhythm of the lines might show how conflicting emotions – primarily love - could crack her self-control.

After this, Viola’s speech continues to elaborate on her comparison between wise men and fools, and her analysis of Feste. The next few lines seem to be her description of what Feste does, and how clever and sensitive he must be to actually is to do this – how he ‘must observe their mood on whom he jests, the quality of persons.’ In my opinion, this could also be interpreted as her realisation of how he has read her - that he has worked out all her secrets and she knows this. There are several hints at this earlier in the scene. After this, the next phrase seems to be more of the same, ‘Not, like the haggard, check at every feather that comes before his eye’ is another acknowledgement of the skill of Feste, but possibly also indication that she sees certain predatory attributes in him. The ‘haggard’ refers to a wild hawk that will seize on any prey it sees – Feste apparently must not do this. Earlier in the scene he hardly treated her respectfully and she could well feel resentful, as if she had been his ‘prey.’ Finally she might also have, possibly subconsciously - but in my opinion more likely not - aimed this phrase at herself in a moment of ironic self-deprecation referring to her suddenly and, perhaps, irrationally falling for Orsino. She does not really understand her love and is telling herself that she is the one that must not ‘check at every feather.’ Moreover, on the surface, Shakespeare’s use of a hawk as a simile to demonstrate Viola’s point would have been very easy to relate to and understand by his audience, as hawking was still a favourite pastime of the Elizabethan upper class.

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The next line returns back to the theme of fools and wise men: ‘This is a practice as full of labour as a wise mans art’ declares Feste’s fooling to be equal to any ‘wise man’s’ profession – and possibly even an acceptable alternative to such a job - as well as declaring how difficult it is. However, in the final phrase, Viola arrives at her conclusion that the Feste’s ‘profession’ is more worthwhile, cleverer and far more sensible than following the path of a ‘wise man’ – as for wise men to act foolishly would be wrong – ...

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