Twelfth Night has been described as a play of contrast-light and darkness; humour and seriousness; excess and poverty; appearance and reality. What do you learn about Shakespeare's society, and his idea about society, through these contrast.

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Twelfth Night has been described as a play of contrast-light and darkness; humour and seriousness; excess and poverty; appearance and reality. What do you learn about Shakespeare’s society, and his idea about society, through these contrast.

        William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth night is a play of contrast. Some of the contrast in the play, include humour and seriousness; excess and poverty; appearance and reality. All of these contrasts affect Shakespeare’s audience, because he wanted to appeal to all different classes of the society. This meant he needed different characters that appealed to the different society hierarchy, for example Sir Toby, appealed to the lower middle-class, many of whom loved to drink. Orsino and Olivia appealed to the upper aristocrat, many of whom had power, and beauty. Shakespeare also used his characters to question political issues in Elizabethan times, for example, the puritans questioning excess, that the twelfth night celebration is wrong.

        In Elizabethan times, the twelve days after Christmas, up to 6th of January was a traditional holiday time of festival. During those days, excess was the main theme; drinking and partying all night. However at the end of the holiday festival the winter hardship was to follow.

        The Elizabethan time, was a dangerous time to live in. The amount of power the wealthy had over the poor was immense; the servants couldn’t question their masters. If they did they would lose their job, or be put in prison. Anyone who questioned their master or the people in power could be jailed in the tower of London, sometimes until they died of hunger. Shakespeare thinks society is too strict, which is why he uses Sir Toby to symbolise, freedom to do whatever we like.

        The only people that could get away with questioning their masters were jesters, like Feste, one of Shakespeare’s characters symbolising appearance against reality. Feste spoke to Olivia in any manner he pleased, because they thought his intention was to be comical; but sometimes Feste took advantage of this opportunity to be honest, and no one ever questioned him, except Malvolio a puritan.

        In the 16th century, puritans, like Malvolio wanted to close the theatre, because they believed people shouldn’t have a good time. They also believed excess was greediness, which to them is a sin. Although Shakespeare in this play portrays Malvolio as a bad person, Shakespeare was also questioning the theme of excess, that perhaps it is wrong when it gets out of hand, like Sir Toby’s revenge against Malvolio.

         In the play, some of the serious characters were given humorous lines to contrast their roles. Shakespeare manages to manipulate one of the serious characters in the play, Malvolio, and give him a humorous line, which many people in Shakespearean time would have found very comical. “These be her very c’s, her u’s, and her t’s.” Shakespeare gave Malvolio a very rude line to say, and for a puritan could mean dishonour to their principles. Shakespeare perhaps wanted to convince the audience that not all puritans are extremists. However the audience may not be convinced, due to his tone in the previous scene. “My fortunes having me on your niece, give me this prerogative of speech”. He is full of himself, while dreaming of riches. However a modern director may be convinced of Shakespeare’s intention to make Malvolio a likeable character. So in a modern adaptation of Twelfth night; the director may want to make Malvolio a man with strict principles, yet light-hearted.

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        Wealthy people in Shakespeare’s time often used the people below them. They took advantage of their position as aristocrats. This is not the same for Olivia, who seems to like puns, like Feste. “Give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry”. This shows Olivia’s humorous side, instead of being a snob like most rich people were, in Shakespeare’s time. This possibly made the upper-middle class, and lower-middle class, more comfortable to be around rich people. Shakespeare is showing his poor audience that rich people too, can be comical, and they shouldn’t be judged. However Shakespeare also tries ...

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