Through out the play Malvolio is stated to be a puritan, and at the time of the play, 1669, puritans were disliked and unappreciated by regular theatregoers as puritans were strictly against theatre and entertainment, and an out-style lifestyle as they very strict Christians. William Shakespeare was a play that loved theatres and writing plays and as the puritans hated theatre, Shakespeare wrote this play to get back at the puritans. The audience to this play would have definitely had a out-style lifestyle and therefore would have obviously hated the puritans, so I would think that this play appealed to the audience because it was digging at something they hated and because the play was nearly a comedy the audience would have loved the chance of laughing at Malvolio.
In the play twelfth night Malvolio is stereotyped to be ‘an empty character’ just for the fact that he is a puritan. Also in other Shakespearean plays, like ‘The Merchant Of Venice’ shylock is also stereo typed to be full of greed just for the fact that he was a Jew, Also in Nazi Germany times. German writers who wrote books at the time also stereotyped Jews to be evil and ‘inferior race’ just for the fact that they were Jews. So gathering from this information I am satisfied to claim that characters from many novels and plays are generally stereotyped to be of a character other that themselves just for the fact that they are from a particular race or have a particular belief.
Towards the end of the play Malvolio gets badly mistreated. I think this made a huge impact on the audience of the Shakespearean times. I think that they would have loved the chance to see him suffer, because as I explained earlier Shakespearean time audience hated puritans and would have loved to get a chance to laugh at him, therefore he would not be mistreated from a Shakespearean time audience. However for modern audience, this type of mistreatment would make the audience feel very sympathetic towards the protagonist, therefore he would definitely get claimed to be mistreated to a modern audience. I do agree that Malvolio is a vain and pompous character, from a personal point of view, but what has happened to him simply destroyed his dignity and personality and that was definitely did not go unnoticed by the audience, and that is why the audience feel sympathetic towards Malvolio. As I mentioned earlier, what Malvolio got was too much than what he deserved. By this Olivia is shocked and also feels sorry, she then quotes. “Poor fool! How have they baffled thee?”(5.1).
He also takes pride in his physical appearance "should she fancy, it would be one of my completion" which tells us that he thinks he is a person who is admired, he is generally happy with himself. When all of this adds up it can be seen he needs to be taught a lesson. The fact that Malvolio shows great self-love and great self-importance made him disliked not only by the audience but also by other characters of the play. Sir Toby (a very drunk character who ‘uses’ people for his own amusement) is the main character against Malvolio as he makes Maria think of a trick to play on Malvolio. This shows sir Toby’s unfair thoughts.
At first I thought that Malvolio was a grumpy old puritan who just liked to annoy people, but after I more closely researched him, I actually found out that he is grumpy and annoying for a reason and this reason is that he is loyal to his lady Olivia and he doesn’t want to upset her in any way and he wants to build up more respect and trust from her. Or he does not want to tarnish the reputation he thinks he has.
Maria is also a character who disliked Malvolio as she was the one thought of a trick to ridicule him. “I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love; wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the ex-pressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated. I can write very like my lady; on a forgotten matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands.” (2.3) This shows the intenseness of Maria’s ‘evil’ thoughts. Maria claims that these actions are to seek revenge on Malvolio. “And on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause for it to work.” However I think that it is the influence that sir Toby has on Maria that forced her into thinking of a trick, from a personal point of view. Now if we look at the play we see why this was a very clever trick, Countess Olivia had just lost her brother and is in mourning and it wrong to smile, at the same time Maria who writes the letter knew that Olivia dislike the colour yellow and detests cross gartering. He is also convinced that he will have greatness thrust upon him. The sudden chance of power and social status which are his dreams seem that can come true and so he acts on the letter.
When Olivia departs the trick is rendered a success as Malvolio 'hath taken the infection of the device' and fallen for it. The audience is reminded of Malvolio's snobbishness, 'go off, I discard you.' This only encourages the kinsmen and servants pretend they believe he is a lunatic, possessed by the devil, 'bewitched' and attempt to convince Malvolio himself that he is mad, 'defy the devil.'
Maria and the others are still treating the joke as a bit of fun but the audience is able to see how it is getting out of control by the change in Malvolio's personality. They have begun to mess with his mind; 'make him believe' and they trick him into thinking he is talking to a priest but it is really Feste. This is probably in revenge to Malvolio's remarks regarding Feste's 'barren' humour. Yet this deception increases sympathy for Malvolio because he doesn't deserve such mistreatment. Feste ridicules Malvolio with his disguise and mocks the steward's earlier behaviour by adopting a pompous character.
Malvolio senses that they are ridiculing him, and getting annoyed he almost stoops to their 'element' by telling them to 'go, hang yourselves all.' The jest now goes one step further out of proportion when the conspirators decide they will imprison Malvolio. This, added to his evident confusion causes the audience to now feel sympathetic towards Malvolio.
