‘…O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou …’
Orsino’s love is sexless and idealised; it is a situation of a typical man who is in love with the idea of love itself. Shakespeare uses Twelfth Night as an opportunity to explore theories such as homosexuality. Death was used as a punishment for homosexuals, who were not tolerated in Elizabethan times. Orsino’s adoration to ‘Cesario’ is a prime example:
‘… Diana's lip … Is not more smooth and rubious …’
Orsino believes that everything about ‘Cesario’ is feminine but humorously fails to realise that his servant is of the opposite sex. Orsino, whose name means bear, finally unleashes his bear-like nature:
‘…Kill what I love …’
The realisation that Olivia’s love is directed towards ‘Cesario’ awakens Orsino to the possibility of killing Cesario. Orsino’s change of heart towards the end of the play is another comical moment:
‘…Your master's mistress …’
The audience will feel that they knew this outcome all along. Nonetheless, it is humorous that Orsino’s love of Olivia is not as strong as that to ‘Cesario’.
The character of Viola, whose narrative is filled with dramatic irony, plays a prime role in the play. Her love to Orsino and the disguise as ‘Cesario’ is a vital part of love as well as comedy. For instance, a conversation between Orsino and the disguised Viola shows a comical element of this love:
‘… A little by your favour … Too well what love women to men may owe … they are as true of heart …’
Viola’s love is hugely affected by the inability to reveal her emotions to Orsino fully. Viola hints of this but Orsino’s confused and unsettled responses is an excellent example of dramatic irony serving a humorous situation. Viola, frustrated by the relationship with Orsino, conveys her obsession in a conversation with Feste:
‘… send thee a beard … I am almost sick for one … I would not have it grow on my chin …’
Shakespeare, who constantly reveals Viola’s love for Orsino, is keen to indicate the strength of this. Viola’s statements show heavy traces of dramatic irony as she reveals that the beard would be better suited to Orsino’s chin. Shakespeare uses the metaphoric meaning of the word ‘death’ to great effect. This reply to the Orsino is an outstanding example of the portrayal of love through comedy:
‘… To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die …’
Viola reveals her emotions towards Orsino and this is a serious reply as well as a comical one. Furthermore, the hidden meaning of ‘death’ (orgasm) is put to great use and generates interest in the audience. Viola reveals her sexuality in a
nervous conversation before the sword fight with Sir Andrew:
‘ … A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man …’
In this moment, Shakespeare increases the humour by providing further evidence to the audience of a worthless swordfight. When Viola realises about Sebastian, there is an unusual element of speechlessness from her character:
‘…Thrice-welcome, drowned Viola …’
She is fascinated and her excitement about her brother returning has made her speechless. The wait for the realisation between them is comical.
Arguably, Olivia’s love provides the most comical moments of the love triangle. The dramatic irony displayed by Shakespeare is a key component of comedy and for the tone of the play. A conversation between Viola and her ignorant lover Olivia shows this:
‘… That you do think you are not what you are … If I think so, I think the same of you … Then think you right: I am not what I am …’
It is comical that Olivia’s love is bound to be unsuccessful and that she will be frustrated by love. The conversations between Olivia and Viola are ‘doubly-comical’ as both speakers are male. The audience also realise that it is ‘easier’ for Viola as the actor is back to his true gender. Furthermore, Olivia is impressed by Viola’s quick wit but the countess fails to realise that these replies are due to Viola’s love of Orsino:
‘… Write loyal cantons of contemned love …’
The audience know that Viola is able to use her experience of the situation to impress Olivia with her replies. It is also comical as Viola relates to her ‘failing’ love with regret. Olivia’s commitment of marriage to Sebastian is humorous onstage:
‘…would thou'ldst be ruled by me … Madam, I will … Plight me the full assurance of your faith …’
Olivia thinks that there is an enormous emotional change in ‘Cesario’. The comedy is provided by unrealism of the situation. Olivia is extremely cautious of another change in emotion and she tries to pounce when possible and arranges a wedding. Olivia’s mystification about the character of ‘Cesario’ is comical. Through this, Shakespeare finds an unrealistic but a humorous solution to the problems of the love triangle. Olivia’s constant rejections of Orsino generate interest and anticipation:
‘ … I cannot love him …’
Olivia’s rejections increase the comedy in the issue. Shakespeare also creates this anticipation amongst the crowd to provide an atmosphere in the arena.
Despite many comical moments in the love triangle, the majority of the comedy was provided by the hopeless lovers of Olivia; Malvolio is a prime example of this. His love for Olivia provides a huge element of comedy onstage:
‘…I have left Olivia sleeping …’
The immediate problem for Malvolio is the fact that he and Olivia are different classes of people and therefore his love will fail. The letter, which he memorise, is a vital element of the Malvolio narrative and it leads a rich cocktail of psychological effect:
‘… Some are born great … Some achieve greatness … some have greatness thrust upon them …'
This quoting of the letter is an example of his hopeless belief that Olivia would love him. A conversation between the weirdly dressed Malvolio and Olivia onstage is an example of love and comedy:
‘… What meanest thou by that, Malvolio? …’
Malvolio should realise that Olivia is confused; the audience find Malvolio’s self confidence witty. Yet Shakespeare makes it clear that Malvolio is actually in love with power:
‘…Seven of my people … some rich jewel …’
His self confidence results in a ridiculous reaction to the letter. This, however, is a part of Shakespeare’s ideas to mock the Puritan (enemies of theatre). A conversation between Malvolio and ‘Sir Topas’ (the disguised Feste) reveals this:
‘…Fie, thou dishonest Satan …’
Shakespeare uses Twelfth Night as an opportunity to make the Puritan an enemy of the characters and the audience; this is cruel comedy and is revealed by his comic reversal of feeling towards Feste:
‘…Good fool …’
Malvolio, who was involved in undermining Feste’s character, suddenly uses him as his big hope. The character and the psychological reversal mean that the audience is very much on Feste’s side. Furthermore, a conversation between Malvolio and Olivia shows his weakened role and offers yet more comedy to the audience:
‘…Alas, poor fool …’
Towards the end of the play, Shakespeare makes it clear that the clown is Malvolio rather than Feste. Malvolio also fails to realise the comical elements delivered by the letter. Instead his popularity drops further by his declaration of revenge:
‘…I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you …’
The inability to see humour, fun, truth and mockery is an excellent description of the character of Malvolio.
Another hopeless lover of Olivia is Sir Andrew. The introduction of his love to Olivia itself is humorous:
‘… foolish knight … to be her wooer …’
The description of the character of Sir Andrew immediately reveals that his love is bound to be a failure. An example of Sir Andrew’s hopelessness is his conversation with Maria:
‘… Accost, Sir Andrew, accost … Good Mistress Mary Accost …’
The conversation and Sir Andrew’s failure to impress a servant and this is hugely comical. In this conversation Shakespeare also reveals Sir Andrew’s idiotic tendency to copy other characters. Sir Andrew has a lack of knowledge of his lover Olivia and believes that she will favour him if he wins a swordfight:
‘… a challenge to him … being so excellently ignorant …’
It is clear from the narrative of the play that Olivia is attracted to wit and intelligence rather than strength. Furthermore, Sir Toby points out the blind ignorance of Sir Andrew’s letter to challenge ‘Cesario’. For the audience, this is comical because it is an ironic and a pointless sword fight between a hopeless idiotic man and a woman. Sir Andrew’s stupidity is well publicised by Shakespeare:
‘… broke my head across …’
He believes and sees that ‘Cesario’ is a weak link and ironically ends up fighting Sebastian. Even the prospect of the untalented Sir Andrew facing Sebastian is extremely humorous. Yet, unlike Malvolio, Sir Andrew is clear about his hopes:
‘…I'll ride home to-morrow …’
This lack of self belief undermines his role in the play. However, the character of Sir Andrew is built up as the ordinary man:
‘…I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has …’
The wit in his narrative is increased for the audience because most of them were the ‘ordinary men’.
Despite not being involved in erotic or romantic love in the play, other characters play a pivotal role in the portrayal of comedy through love in the play. Feste, the fool, is an example of this. His songs professionally articulate emotions on stage:
‘… Come away, come away, death … slain by a fair cruel maid …’
Shakespeare uses Feste to describe Orsino’s feelings of suffering and irritation to the audience. Again, some will understand the hidden meaning and others will not; this will generate interest amongst the crowd. In the play, Feste isn’t involved in any romance, but his song to Sir Andrew suggests he had previous experience with love:
‘… O mistress mine … Trip no further … come kiss me, sweet and twenty …’
These words show that Feste wants his lover to return and believes the adoration is for the present and not for the past or future. An element of comedy is provided by the fact that Feste sings this song to Sir Andrew (who later in the scene revealed he was once loved too).
Antonio is another character whose relationship with Sebastian is vital in Twelfth Night:
‘…for my love …’
Antonio’s fondness and desire to help Sebastian shows a different type of love. However, interesting, man to man love messages were common in Elizabethan times. Despite this, Antonio is indeed involved in many humorous moments due to his love, a conversation between Antonio and ‘Cesario’ shows this:
‘… ask you for my purse … What money …’
Mistaken identity is the source of the comedy in this occasion as Antonio asks ‘Cesario’ for his money believing that he was Sebastian. This is comical because of the frustration and anger of Antonio.
Situations raised in Twelfth Night cannot function in real life. Shakespeare uses Fabian to revel this to the audience:
‘… If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction …’
This statement is an example of dramatic irony and answers questions about unrealism raised by the audience. A huge amount of comedy in Twelfth Night is centred on dramatic irony. This is a key component of comedy as it provides a group of people, the audience, with importance and information that characters in the play fail to have. In this play, Shakespeare describes and portrays love through many comical moments. The principal method in Twelfth Night was the involvement of the audience.
Ravi Ramesh: Twelfth Night Essay: February 2008: page of
