“I shall ask for my kinsman Toby”
Malvolio goes on to show more self-love when he opens the letter. He immediately takes the letters “M.O.A.I” to signify him, since all the letters are in his name.
“It would bow to me, for every one of these letters are in my name!”
It is not made clear what these letters were intended to mean, but what is clear to the audience is how quickly Malvolio centres them on himself.
The letter is signed “The fortunate unhappy”. This oxymoron used by Shakespeare adds an extra touch of comedy to the scene as it is clear to everyone except for Malvolio that the letter is a fake.
It is scenes like this which ensure that Malvolio is disliked by the audience, making it entertaining when other characters such as Mary play tricks on him:
“Observe him, for the love of mockery, for I know this letter will make a complete idiot of him”
Malvolio, who is a servant and therefore lower in the hierarchy than Olivia or her uncle, often looks down on Sir Toby as if he is better than him. At one point, Malvolio finds Sir Toby, drinking and singing in the middle of the night and asks;
“Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?”
This is obviously one of the reasons that Sir Toby dislikes Malvolio and enjoys playing tricks on him, but is also an example of the hierarchy being turned upside down. This is something which Shakespeare’s audiences would have associated with twelfth night, a time of misrule and abandonment of the rules, of fun and confusion. These are all highlighted throughout the play, meaning that the audience would have been able to connect the title of the play to the events in it, something today’s audience would find harder to do. Audiences would have gone into the theatre expecting a humorous plot filled with confusion, something Shakespeare manages to live up to.
Shakespeare’s audiences would have been a cross-section of society, visiting the playhouses, very likely to dislike the puritans, who did not approve of the theatres and wanted to close them down. I think that Shakespeare uses Malvolio to represent Puritanism, a character who has very traditional values and doesn’t join in with the fun and games. I think this association also would have made it easier to laugh at Malvolio when he is picked on by the other characters and locked up unfairly by Olivia. She thinks he is suffering from “midsummer madness” when he goes to her in cross-gartered yellow stockings instead of his usual dark clothes and exclaims;
“Let this fellow be looked to”
The audience know at this point that Malvolio is not mad, that he has been tricked, but what is most entertaining about this scene is Malvolio’s total confidence that Olivia knows what he is talking about when he quotes from the letter:
“Be not afraid of greatness”
At this point, Maria is the only one on stage to share the joke with the audience (another example of dramatic irony). Malvolio has no idea he is being made to look such a fool.
Twelfth Night, like many other Shakespeare comedies, has both a main plot and a sub plot. The main plot is the story of Viola/Cesario, Orsino and Olivia and their love-triangle. Viola/Cesario outlines this for the audience after visiting Olivia for the first time:
“My master loves her dearly;
And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;
And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.”
This is an important speech as it ensures that the audience is clear about the somewhat confusing situation between the three main characters.
This plot is based on the different types of love, confusion and how love can be confusing.
The scenes narrating the different stories are comparatively short. This ensures that the audience doesn’t tire of any of the characters and stays entertained throughout.
The sub plot is based more on comedy and misrule. Sir Toby Belch, Maria, Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio are the main characters in the sub plot. They play tricks on each other and seem to enjoy themselves more than the other, more serious characters do. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste often drink and sing together.
“Three merry men be we!”
Shakespeare created these two distinct plots to build up the element of contrast running throughout the play. One main difference in the language is that the more serious characters in the main plot speak mainly in verse;
“Away before me to sweet beds of flowers!
Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers”
Whereas the humorous characters often speak in prose;
“I had rather than forty shillings I had such a leg, and so sweet a breath to sing, as the fool has.”
This means that the audience can relate better to the characters who talk in prose as this is the way they would speak themselves. The prose also makes the characters more likeable and easy to agree with.
Shakespeare made this difference between the two plots deliberately distinct. The verse used by the three main characters shows an air of importance and dignity, something lacked by the other characters. The only exception to this is Malvolio, who definitely thinks himself important and dignified, yet he talks in prose.
“Go off, I discard you. Let me enjoy my private. Go off”
This is as if Shakespeare is not granting Malvolio the importance to speak in verse, as if Shakespeare is mocking him, for he too would have hated the puritans and all that they represented. It also accentuates the contrast between the two plots.
The sub plot is very effective as it creates a bit of humorous relief between the complicated relationships of the three main characters. It is cleverly integrated into the script so the audience doesn’t have to concentrate for too long and doesn’t get bored. The sexual innuendo between Sir Toby and Maria is funny to watch develop, Sir Toby says at one point to Sir Andrew;
“She’s a beagle true bred, and one that adores me – what o’ that?”
As is Malvolio’s and Sir Andrew’s love for Olivia. Sir Andrew exclaims;
“If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out”
Dramatic irony is used at regular intervals throughout the play. The audience always knows more than the characters themselves do, creating an atmosphere where the audience are keen for the characters to discover things which they already know, keeping them entertained. There is also irony used in regards to particular characters:
E.g. Malvolio, a very serious character, being used in the cross-garter scene (a very humorous one). This accentuates the theme of opposites and rules being abolished and creates irony. Another example is using Viola, the most honest character in the play, to fool everyone by having her in disguise. This means that there are very few characters that the audience can completely trust in the play.
There is a lot of confusion used in the play; making it interesting, hard to follow at times and always entertaining for the audience. There are many examples; Viola’s disguise, love triangles and (particularly at the end), characters changing who they love quickly.
The ending of the play is very effective. Shakespeare manages to combine the two plots for the first time by creating a humorous sense of confusion between the main characters as they discover the secrets about each other, e.g. when Olivia finds out that who she married was in fact Sebastian
“So comes it, lady you have been mistook”
something which until then had only been a part of the sub plot. This is satisfying and entertaining for the audience as the characters find out the things which they had had hidden from them. This coming together and the ending of the chaos is also symbolic as it represents the end of the holiday season as the rules come back into place and everything returns to normal.
