Orsino is the first character introduced to the play. He is the Duke of Illyria and therefore the most powerful character implemented into Shakespeare’s play. Upon his arrival to the story, he immediately disguises his ignorance of love by speaking in poetics form to deceive the audience and the characters around him. “If music be the food of love, play on” is promptly contrasted when he says “Enough, no more; ‘Tis not so sweet as it was before”. This contradiction implicates his ignorance of what love is really about. We later find out he is talking about his infatuation for Olivia which he believes to be true love. From this we can see that he is actually self-deluded into thinking that he truly loves Olivia. This is a self-deception by itself that Orsino creates for himself.
Olivia, as part of her mourning vowed that no man would see her face "till seven years' heat". But regardless of this, falls in love with Cesario, which shows that her resolution is short-lived and the audience is left to question her sincerity as her mourning leads to excessive grief, self- dramatization and self-pity. We can see this from her speech that Valentine made to Orsino regarding Olivia, “The element itself, till seven years’ heat, /Shall not behold her face at ample view, / But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk, / And water once a day her chamber round/ With eye-offending brine; all this to season/ A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh/ And lasting, in her sad remembrance.”. We can see that that this speech on what Olivia does is exaggerated, as she wants the whole world to know that she is mourning for her dead brother. This act of over-indulgence of love shown for her brother leads to self-dramatization of her own self. From this act of grieving for her brother we can see that she is being very emotional here, expressing her emotions excessively. This tells us that this act of mourning for her dead brother also leads to excessive grief being shown out to others. We can also see that this leads to self-pity. We can see this by the tears she cries from the lines “eye-offending brine” that she wallows in self-pity as she is only crying to get attention from others so that others would pity her. Olivia’s love is demonstrated through the external in this sense it is simply by her tears. There appears a lack of sincerity or genuine love in her actions. In fact, she appears to be self-absorbed. Her mourning draws more attention to her than to her brother. Olivia only gets pity from others, which in addition is considered as getting self-pity from others like the count Orsino. This clearly shows us that she deceives herself into believing that she is virtuous in her deed of mourning. It is also an act of deception as she also deceives everyone else around her into thinking that she is noble as she acts to be. It is in fact all pretence. Moreover, Olivia’s impulsive and reckless love for ‘Caesario’ is ironically as misjudged and misguided as Orsino’s love for her. We can see that Olivia fell in love with ‘Caesario’ impulsively and recklessly from the quote, “Not too fast! soft, soft”. From this quote, we can see that she fears that she’s falling in love too fast and gets carried away by her love for ‘Caesario’ which shows how fast she actually has fallen in love with ‘Caesario’. It is ironically misjudged and misguided as Orsino’s love for her. We can see this the fact that since Orsino’s love for her is superficial and Olivia’s love for ‘Caesario’ is also as superficial as Orsino’s is for her. We can see this as she is carried away by her emotions. We can see this from the quote, “I do I know not what, and fear to find/ Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.”. This quote tells us that she is carried away by what she feels and what she sees but by not her mind. From all this we can see that she deceives herself into thinking that she is in true love with ‘Caesario’ as she is deluded from reality that she is actually infatuated by ‘Caesario’. This is yet another act of self-deception shown by Olivia.
Another act of self-deception is Malvolio’s. Malvolio is disillusioned about his authority and power over people. We also see him being deluded, thinking that Olivia loves him. He thinks he is as powerful as the countess Olivia even when he is just a servant serving Olivia himself and bosses people lower than him around. In the play Malvolio’s self-love is one of the most extreme and unpleasant kind, resulting in overweening pride and self-delusion. The quote, “wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools’ zanies.” We can see that Malvolio thinks that he is clever than most wise men, thus being arrogant and this leads to showing us that he has overweening pride of himself. He also called Feste a “barren rascal”. This shows that Malvolio sees himself as a very witty person as he called Feste a witless person by calling him a “barren rascal”. Another quote, “Maria once told me that she did affect me; and I have heard herself come thus near, that should she fancy, it should be one of my complexion.” shows us Malvoilo is thinking himself handsome and noble enough for “she” who is Olivia. Malvolio is blind as he deceives himself just to suit the outlook of the situation. Another example is when in the play he twists ‘Olivia's’ words in the letter around to make it sound like she admires his yellow cross-gartered stockings, when Olivia really despises them. His extreme egotism provides comedy for the audience, and a ground for his deception over the letter, as he also believes mistakenly that Olivia loves him and may marry him. This shows once again his deceptively high opinion of himself; that he thinks he may marry into the upper class of society despite being only a steward. His belief of Olivia's love for him, even before he has the letter leaves him vulnerable to be deceived by Maria's letter, as he does not find it surprising that Olivia would be in love with him. He creates illusionary ideas of himself being high and mighty, full of power, that he is deluded into thinking that Olivia loves him. This shows us of his self-deceptive act.
Yet another act of self-deception is of Sir Andrew’s. Sir Andrew Aquecheek is as a clumsy coward of a knight. However Aguecheek’s past is a mystery to the audience, and we have a sense that there is much more depth to Aguecheek than what meets the eye when he says, “Someone loved me once too”. This shows that Aguecheek has disguised himself to be a clumsy and immature man when in reality he has feelings too, and has a more sensitive side to his character. He also disguises himself to be a brave knight by challenging ‘Cesario’ to a fight as he feels this would win Olivia’s heart. However, as seen through his letter, Aguecheek is a coward who could not hurt anyone. We can see this from what he wrote in the letter, “…and God have mercy on one of our souls. He may have mercy upon mine,..” and from this we can tell that he could not hurt anyone. Aguecheek provides humor by his supposedly threatening letter. The fact he ends this letter by calling ‘Cesario’ “Thy friend”, shows him to be a nice but gullible man. He is gullible to Sir Toby’s instructions and the direction Sir Toby leads him into. Also, Aquecheek deceives himself into believing that Olivia loves him due to the fact that Sir Toby told him a half-truth. We know this from the quote, “She’ll none o’ th’ Count; she’ll not match above her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit. I have heard her swear’t. Tut, there’s life in’t, man. Sir Toby told Sir Andrew a half-truth about Olivia liking men having lower wealth, age and intellect than her but he did not mention to Sir Andrew about the fact that the countess Olivia is not willing to see any man as she is in mourning for her late brother and in fact had encouraged him to go after Olivia by telling him that its not a hopeless cause for him to still stay in Illyria and get Olivia. Due to this, Sir Andrew changed his mind from wanting to leave Illyria into staying there so as to try to woo Olivia and get her for himself. From this we can see that he is deluded into thinking that Olivia would love him and so he stays in Illyria to try to get her.
The mastermind behind the gulling of Malvolio has also disguised aspects of Maria’s personality. The others see Maria as just the maid of Olivia, but as the play moves on we as an audience, and the characters of the play learn that Maria is cunning and more intelligent than what she lets everyone believe. She deceives everyone by masterminding the gulling of Malvolio. She also has self-deceit along with Sir Toby Belch as both have hidden feelings for each other, which they refuse to acknowledge. We know of this because by the end of the play, the two get married. Looking at their relationship throughout the play, Maria is the mother figure who takes care and guides Sir Toby Belch. “Ay, but you must confine yourself with the modest limits of order”. From this quote, we can see that she cares about his actions, behaviour and habits of drinking beyond moderation. By doing so she plays the mother figure for Sir Toby and in a way she also plays the role of a caring wife. So, we gain knowledge that she is not fulfilling the mother role more, but more the role of a wife. Sir Toby Belch is also a scheming character within the play as he deceives Sir Andrew Aguecheek into challenging ‘Cesario’ to a fight for his own personal entertainment, as both Aguecheek and ‘Cesario’ are seen as cowards; thus Sir Toby creating his own sub-plot.
There are also hints given that Sir Toby only wants Sir Andrew around for his money; he says, "I have been dear to him, lad, some two thousand strong or so". This is one of the deepest levels of deception in the play. If it is true then the entire friendship of these two characters is based on a deception. This is a serious issue, which contrasts with the comic theme of the play. This deception is never actually specified, only hinted at.
Even Sebastian shows an act of self-deception. Sebastian believes that his sister, Viola is perished in the shipwreck. This is an act of self-deception. We can see this from the quote, “…breach of the sea was my sister drowned.”. From this we know that Sebastian thinks that his sister, Viola, is dead. By thinking that she is dead he was deceiving himself to believing it to be a fact when actually Viola had survived the shipwreck.
Feste is similarly guilty of self-deception. Feste uses his language to disguise aspects of his character. However, contrasting the stance of Orsino, Feste shows his wit and intelligent by smugly playing on words and with the medium of music. An example of Feste’s clever play on words was during the conversation he had with Viola who was at the time disguised as Cesario. We can see this from the quote, “…send thee a beard”. Although everyone had been fooled by Viola in convincing them that the ‘Cesario’ character is real, Feste (who is the fool) hints that he may know Cesario’s true identity. Feste himself does not describe himself as Olivia’s fool “but her corruptor of words”. Indeed it can be viewed that he is only paid to be the fool, to act like a madman with wit; and in actual fact he is the most sane character and intelligent in the play. He shows his intelligence by irrelevantly expressing his words in another language, “cucus, non facit monachum:”. Feste is the only character wrapped up in all the plots but yet keeps an outside perspective of each by showing no emotion in his speech or actions. But in light of this, his emotions are brought to the surface when he entertains people with his music. The realization that Feste has the most knowledge of love, or what real love is, begins to seep through as he sings. “What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter, Present mirth hath present laughter:” Unlike Orsino who believes that everything will work out okay when you fall in love, Feste believes that the future is always uncertain. We can see this from the quote, “What’s to come is still unsure”, which displays his insecurity about life. He also concretes his perspective that love should not wait as we will not be young forever; “Youth’s a stuff will not endure”. Although his character does not show emotions whilst playing his role in each plot; his music, which varies from melancholy ballads to contemplative, express that there is much more to Feste than meets the eye. Feste’s past is shrouded in mystery, and elements of his past still live in his music. “And we’ll strive to please you everyday” ends the play. Regardless of his past that he disguises through music, Feste feels that his duty now is to make people laugh. He expresses with this idea that our duty in life is to be happy and to make others happy, something he harassed Olivia about in Act1 as she mourned her brother’s death. Despite many features of Feste’s character that show his has much more depth than what we are led to believe; he also uses disguise and deceit to concrete his role as a fool, a clown who provides humor and entertainment for the audience. “Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic”.Upon learning of Sir Toby and Maria’s gulling of Malvolio, Feste decides to join in the fun. He does this by pretending to be someone else when visiting Malvolio, to further his torture and suffering. Malvolio and Feste’s turbulent past had been briefly documented when in Act 1 Malvolio says “I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal”. It’s interesting to take into account that Feste is supposed to be the fool of the play, but he doesn’t setup the humorous gulling of Malvolio and fails to provide the entertainment and humor Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek bring to the play. Instead Feste takes part of the humor only with revenge on his mind and not to provide humor, and relies only on quick plays on words to supply humor. This could be Feste disguising that he is not comfortable with his role in life as playing the role of the fool. This disguise can be taken as a self-deception on Feste’s part.
Shakespeare explores the theme of deception and self-deception in Twelfth Night by creating its characters to use deception in disguise to create comedy in the play, which is one of the major themes of the play, Twelfth Night. The characters go to the extremes of deception by deceiving everyone and even deceiving their own selves just to get what they want which is the love that they desire. From this we can even sometimes associate deception with their madness to get what they want.
