The relationship between the characters Cesario/Viola, Olivia and Sebastian allows dramatic irony to form. This is because Viola thinks that her brother Sebastian is dead, however the audience know that he survived the shipwreck and is alive. Though when Sebastian meets Olivia, the theme, Mistaken - Identity, comes into the play permitting more dramatic irony to form, this new use of dramatic irony makes the play more humorous.
Another use of dramatic irony that creates humour in the play is when Olivia is supposedly so madly in love with Cesario that she goes and begs Sebastian to get married, thinking its Cesario. This is another case of mistaken identity.
A further use of mistaken identity and dramatic irony is when Antonio mistakes Cesario for Sebastian in a fight. Cesario does not recognise him and is confused when Antonio asks for his money back. Antonio thinks that Sebastian has betrayed him and says “I snatched one half out of the jaws of death, Relieved him with such sanity of love, And to his image, which methought did promise most venerable worth, did I devotion.” Viola realises that her brother might be alive, “He names Sebastian; I my brother know….”
The character Orsino and Cesario create humour for the audience: this is because during the Elizabethan times the audience would have watched the play as a man loving a man. The scenes that the two characters are in are extremely humorous because the audience know a lot more than the characters, making it even more comical. Furthermore, the characters relationship creates tension, as the audience want to know if there is a future between them. The playwright uses this tension to make the play more interesting and makes you want to find out what is happening.
In Twelfth Night there are many sub-plots which all meet up with the main-plot an example of this is Malvolio and the trick letter from Olivia. This can be linked to dramatic irony because the audience will know that the letter is a fake and that it is from Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian who are all taking revenge on Malvolio for placing himself in a higher status than Sir Toby and threatening Maria.
Maria is planning to write a letter on some aspects of Malvolio’s personality such as, “The devil a puritan that he is… Time- Pleaser…an affectioned ass… Cons state without book and utters it by great swarths… best persuaded of himself…” This contains a great deal of dramatic irony and is very comical too, as we can see how vain Malvolio is thinking that Olivia will ever love him.
The box hedge scene where Malvolio finds the letter is very comical as he is acting out him being a higher status than Sir Toby and Sir Toby bowing down to him, “I extend my hand to him thus; quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of control.” Dramatic irony is being used here because Malvolio does not know that he is being watched!
However the joke seems to go a bit too far as soon Malvolio thinks that he has gone mad and thinks that Olivia has betrayed him, however the audience know that a trick was being played on him so he is not going mad and the Olivia has not betrayed him as she does not know what is going on.
An Elizabethan audience would have found these scenes really humorous because Malvolio is supposed to be a puritan; however he is not acting like one.
Another theme that arises quite often in the play is Madness. Madness creates a funny atmosphere; it also reflects the idea of Twelfth Night- everything being turned around. The language also reflects madness, “This is midsummer madness” (Olivia) act 3 scene 4, “My masters are you mad?” (Malvolio) act 2 scene 3.
Twelfth Night ends in Denouement, this means that the whole plot unravels in the end. So Orsino goes of with Viola, Sebastian goes of with Olivia and Maria goes of with Sir Toby. However the only character out of them whose love seems to be the truest is Viola’s. This is because Viola stuck to loving Orsino all throughout the play, but Orsino goes from Olivia to Viola and Olivia goes from Cesario to Sebastian.
The unhappy character at the end of the play is Malvolio for the reason that he realises that people had been playing a trick on him and his last line before he leaves the stage is, “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!” This shows that even though everyone will be happy he will come back to ruin it and get them back for what they did to him.
Humour also comes across through the characters awareness or unawareness of the characters such as Viola not knowing that her brother is alive and visa versa.
Overall, Shakespeare has used the themes of Mistaken Identity, Love, Madness and Mayhem to create a comical play, with the aid of dramatic irony. By creating so much humour in the play it makes the audience feel the tension in the play and more involved in the play.