‘Excellent, it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off.’
This has a very complicated meaning as the word housewife is pronounces ‘hussif’ which also means prostitute the quote is saying that sir Toby would like to see the prostitute infect Sir Andrew with a venereal disease causing all his hair to fall off. The audience find it funny for two reasons firstly because it contains sexual innuendo and secondly as Sir Toby is blatantly insulting Sir Andrew Aguecheek. The humour in this quotation is brought about as a result of a pun. This case of humour effects the texts as it bring about an ebullient and jolly to the play. The play now seems more adult type as it uses a different type of comedy.
There is a substantial interval in the play before we reach another hilarious encounter. The next hilarious encounter occurs in Act2 scene3 after Malvolio storms in and ruins Sir Toby’s and Sir Andrew’s party like drunken gathering everyone is reasonably livid. Maria is angry and says:
‘Marry sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan.’
Sir Andrew then provides the audience with the humorous part
‘O, if I thought that, I’d beat him like a dog’
This quotation portrays the degrading of the puritan sect which the audience in Shakespearean time would have adored as all virtually hated puritans for one of the main reasons that they tried to close down the globe theatre for religious reasons, so comparing the sect they hate most to an animal would be side-splitting. This humour is very effective as not only does it brings about a prejudice feel to the whole story it also makes the audience consider whether that is where the story is going to end up whether Sir Andrew will end up fighting with Malvolio because he is a puritan.
A very well developed instance of humour is when Malvolio reads the letter supposedly written by Olivia. The humour occurs as a result of a misunderstanding and dramatic irony as the audience already know that the letter is in fact written by Maria. As Malvolio begins to ponder over whether this letter is addressed to him he utters,
‘M.O.A.I. This simulation is not as the former: and yet to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name.’
This would be entertaining for the audience to observe as they know unlike Malvolio’s character that the letter is in fact addressed to him, more humour is later added when Malvolio later adds after reading the letter:
‘I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on’
The quotation immediately create a very funny feel to the play as the audience can just picture the rest of the household peering surprised at Malvolio’s wacky and weird sense of style. This type of humour is effective as it heightens the tension brought along by this situation the audience have now overcome one feeling of tension because they now know how Malvolio will react but there is still one very big apprehension which is how Olivia will react to Malvolio’s moment of madness.
When Malvolio meets Olivia dressed in his ridiculous outfit more humour is added to the text. The effect on the text that this humour has is extremely effective the audience get a taster of what will come next.
‘To bed? Ay, sweetheart, and I’ll come to thee’
This type of misunderstanding is caused by Malvolio taking Olivia’s plea for him to go to bed in the wrong way he thinks that she is asking him to go to bed with her.
Another mirthful section of the text occurs in act4 scene 2 when Feste pretends to be Sir Topaz. The humour is created by a complete misunderstanding as in this quotation Malvolio think that it is well and truly Sir Topaz where are dramatic irony kicks in as the audience know that it is in reality Feste in disguise.
‘Why it hath bay windows transparent as barricades, and the clerestories toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony,’ Here this humour is also caused by dramatic irony as the audience know that it is definitely very dark in the room although Malvolio is being duped in to thinking that it is in fact only him that believes it is pitch black. This give quite a dark feel to the text as although the audience find it hilarious because of Malvolio misunderstanding Feste’s wordplay the audience also feel that perhaps the trick should be coming to an end quickly.
Humour is portrayed in the very short scene- Act 4 scene 3 when Olivia mistakenly marries Sebastian thinking it is Cesario.
‘Plight me the full assurance of your faith’ Says Olivia which is like a proposal. The rest of a play is now affected as the audience know the play is coming to a close because the main misunderstanding of confusion between Sebastian and Cesario has reached a climax. The audience feels extremely tense as the obviously know that sooner or later either Orsino or Olivia will find out what has been taking place but the question is, how?
In the last scene there is not much direct humour but most of the misunderstandings in the play are later understood as a result of this scene.
‘One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!
A natural perspective, that is and is not!’
Orsino is perceptibly puzzled by this misunderstanding of twins who have been mixed up in each others lives. The audience’s impression over all this would be that they find it extremely funny because they have known all along and Orsino’s character has just found out. The text is given a finalising feel as all characters have now worked out the lurking mysteries.
