Analysis of Comedy in Act 3 Scene 4 of Twelfth Night

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Analyse the comedy in Act 3 Scene 4 of 'Twelfth Night'

Shakespeare's romantic comedy 'Twelfth Night' involves deception, trickery and love, typical themes in Elizabethan drama. This theme of romance intertwined with comedy is suggested by the title which implies that a play set in the Christmas season is going to be full of love, happiness and celebration. The literary tradition of an Elizabethan comedy would involve many techniques to make the audience laugh, such as a convoluted plot, mistaken identity, disguise, comic characters and verbal humour. 'Twelfth Night' is no exception to this. Its main theme is love but the path to true love is not simple for any of the characters and involves certain 'love triangles', where Orsino thinks he loves Olivia, who loves Cesario (Viola), who is in love with Orsino. Added to all this is the complication of Sir Andrew Aguecheek being spurred on by Sir Toby to woo Olivia and Malvolio having a trick played on him which makes him believe that his mistress, Olivia loves him. Many of these plots and sub-plots come to a head in Act3 Scene 4 in a very comic manner.

Malvolio provides much of the visual humour in this scene. Olivia sends for him on a serious matter, saying:

   ‘Where’s Malvolio? He is sad and civil,

   And suits well for a servant with my fortunes:'

The audience would be full of anticipation at this point as Malvolio has been told in a letter supposedly sent to him by Olivia to smile a lot more, something which is totally against his usual character. When he walks on stage he is wearing yellow cross-gartered stockings which he thinks he has been 'commended to wear'. This would make the audience laugh as it is so different to the Puritan's clothes that he was wearing earlier in the play. It was also mentioned earlier that Olivia despises the colour yellow so her reaction to seeing her steward dressed so comically would add to the humour of the scene.

   Malvolio starts to quote from the letter he received from Maria. He never once suspects that it is not real and truly believes that Olivia could love him, which is where much of the comedy derives from, as he is so confident that Olivia understands what he is talking about when he quotes from the letter. His pride and arrogance that he is ‘worthy’ to marry Olivia is extremely funny. It is also the dramatic irony that makes it humourous, as the audience and most of the characters realise where he is quoting from whereas Olivia doesn’t understand what he is talking about and believes it to be ‘midsummer madness’. It is very entertaining to see Malvolio act in such a way, smiling insanely, as it is a complete contrast between his earlier self, very pompous and arrogant. However, he as he has been told in the letter, he speaks rudely to the other characters and believes himself to be ‘not of (their) element,’ which is funny because actually he is no more important than any of the other servants. It is also the frustration that he shows when people aren’t taking him seriously that makes the audience laugh. It is funny when Malvolio makes his grand exit, as he is acting an extremely bossy and arrogant manner but looks ridiculous so the contrast is comical.  In fact, this whole scene is a contrast to the main theme of love and romance.

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   Another example of visual comedy in Act 3 Scene 4 would come from the 'duel' between Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Viola (as Cesario). Sir Andrew is essentially a figure of fun throughout the play, being described as 'a foolish knight' by Sir Toby and having hair which 'hangs like flax on a distaff’ which would make him look really odd. He has written a challenge to Viola because he thinks 'he' is a rival for Olivia's affection, but when Sir Toby reads it out, it is totally nonsensical. Fabian says of it:

'Very brief and to exceedingly good sense ...

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