Malvolio's name means "bad desires" or "bad intentions."; his name seems to reflect his personality. In Act I Scene V Malvolio is portrayed as a conceited, imperious man. Even Olivia accuses him of being “sick of self love”, this means he is he is proud and believes himself better then the rest. There is a bitter unpleasantness to him. However we can still tell there is a certain amount of respect they have for each other as she still asks his opinion about Feste she says “what think you of this fool, Malvolio” , this means she values his opinions. On the other hand she is telling him he is too serious and needs to relax: “take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets”. She then carries on to say to him “and taste with a distempered appetite” So even Olivia believes he is ruining all the fun. When Malvolio tells Olivia someone has come to see her, He asks “what is to be said to him lady? He’s fortified beyond denial” There is a slightly jealous tone in his voice here and he seems obsequious and sycophantic towards his mistress.
Malvolio initially seems to be a minor character, and his humiliation seems little more than an amusing subplot to the Viola-Olivia-Orsino- love triangle. But he becomes more interesting as the play progresses. When we first meet Malvolio, he seems to be a simple type—a puritan, a stiff and proper servant who likes nothing better than to spoil other people’s fun. We first meet Malvolio in Act one scene 5,he immediately attracts our attention because of how out of place he seems. In a comic play filled with ridiculous characters, Malvolio is serious and sour, with distaste for amusement and laughter of any kind, as we see in his reaction to Feste. As the play goes on, the conflict between his temperament and that of the other characters—especially Sir Toby and Sir Andrew—comes out into the open, with extreme consequences. It is this sour, fun-despising side that earns him the enmity of the zany, drunken Sir Toby and the clever Maria, who together engineer his downfall. It begins to infuriate them to the extent they show “schadenfreude” towards Malvolio, they use sadistic and violent images describing what they would like to do to him. Sir Andrew says he would like to “pistol him” while Sir Toby expresses how he would enjoy “a stone bow to him in the eye!”. For them Malvolio is the embodiment of order and sobriety. However as they are so drunk and disorderly we do not really take what they say seriously, we also perhaps sympathise with Malvolio as he is head servant and it is therefore his duty to keep everyone at bay.
In Act II Scene V the trick is played on Malvolio. It is funny because the audience know exactly what is going on, where as Malvolio believes the trick completely and unsuspectingly. Malvolio has remarkable ambition he honestly believes that he can marry Olivia, despite being a mere servant and becoming “Count Malvolio”. At this point in the play we believe the letter is just fun, it has not yet become serious and at this point of time is suitable to the ‘crime’. When he finds the forged letter from Olivia (actually penned by Maria) that seems to offer hope to his ambitions, Malvolio undergoes a transformation—from a stiff and wooden embodiment of prudish respectability into an personification of the power of idealism. He is ridiculous in these scenes, as he capers around in the yellow stockings and crossed garters that he thinks will please Olivia, but he also becomes pitiable.
In Act 3 Scene 4 Malvolio goes to see Olivia wearing stockings and cross garters. At first Maria prepares Olivia for his coming in a somewhat sly manner. She pretends she too is baffled by his behavior and tells her mistress that “he is sure possessed”. At this point the joke is still funny for the audience as we cringe at Malvolio stupidity. Malvolio’s naïveté is amusing as he thinks Olivia is joking with him, even though she genuinely doesn’t understand what is going on. Sir Toby and the others treat Malvolio in a condescending way they speak of him as if he weren’t present “QUOTATION”
Our pity for Malvolio only increases when the vindictive Maria and Toby confine him to a dark room in Act 4. As he desperately protests that he is not mad, Malvolio begins to seem more of a victim than a victimiser. He indisputably begins to think he is insane when he is visited by Feste disguised as a priest. We also see in this scene that Feste is not a gibbering fool as he appears to be in the rest of the play but in fact very clever. It is as if the unfortunate servant must be sacrificed so that the rest of the characters can indulge in the hearty spirit that classifies Twelfth Night. As he is sacrificed, Malvolio begins to earn our respect. He has a second change of character here he seems sorry and even praises Feste now that he needs his help! He says to Feste “I will live to be thankful to thee for’t”. However the minute he is out he goes back to his old ways.
Malvolio must be content with this self-knowledge, because the play allows Malvolio no real compensation for his sufferings. At the close of the play, he is brought out of the darkness into a celebration in which he has no part, and where no one seems willing to offer him a real apology. “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you,” he snarls, stalking out of the festivities .His exit strikes a jarring note in an otherwise joyful comedy. Malvolio has no real place in the anarchic world of Twelfth Night, except to suggest that, even in the best of worlds, someone must suffer while everyone else is happy.
I agree with Olivia that Malvolio has been “most notoriously abused”. He was locked up like a criminal and worse still made to think he was going crazy. He was simply doing his job, although he may have needed to ‘loosen up a little’.
