how Shakespeare uses disguise to suit his comic purpose

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Discuss with close reference to the play, how Shakespeare uses disguise to suit his comic purpose.

Twelfth Night was written by William Shakespeare in 1600 and was performed at the Royal Palace on the 6th January 1601. Shakespeare’s men who were also known as the Lord Chamberlains men performed it for Queen Elizabeth I. Shakespeare wrote the play for the Queen herself so that on the 6th January, which is the Christian feast of the Epiphany, Twelfth Night, she could celebrate it with some entertainment at court. The play was commissioned to please Elizabeth and was to be shown for her enjoyment. Twelfth night is traditionally about when everything gets turned on its head like masters waiting for their servants and this is what happens in the play.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays were written for comedy, a bit of a laugh and a joke but they all have different types of comic purpose. Shakespeare’s comic purpose in Twelfth Night is all based around the theme of disguise, and the problems it can cause. The disguise plays a big part in the play. This is seen when Viola pretends to be Cesario to work for Orsino in order to find her brother. This disguise plays a big part in the comedy of the play. Orsino says “ Who saw Cesario,ho?” and Viola replies “ On your attendance, my lord here.” This shows us straight away that disguise will play a big part in the play because Olivia is pretending to be a man in a all man household when she is really a lady. However it is not the only type of humour. Humour is everywhere in the play, from Malvolio wearing cross-gartered yellow stockings to Sir Toby Belch mistaking Sebastian for Cesario, (Viola), which ends up in them duelling. Sir Toby says “ Come, sir, I will not let you go. Come, my young soldier, put up you iron: you are well fleshed come on!” However Olivia brakes it up just as they are going to duel.

Twelfth Night is as much about love and revenge as about disguise. We can see this at the end of the play when Orsino marries Viola and Olivia marries Sebastian. At the start of the play however Orsino and Olivia pretend to have love. We know it is pretend love because Olivia does not normally wear black and she vows to wear black for seven years and also Orsino doesn’t normally song love songs but he does, “ O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou” Orsino singing like this shows us that he is not in real love but ion pretend love. It is also seen throughout the whole play for example Sir Toby and Maria’s love. We also see revenge, and quite spiteful revenge. This happens when the Puritan Malvolio is locked up in a dark cell by Sir Toby, Feste, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Fabian just because he tried from stopping them having fun.

Around the time when Shakespeare wrote the play the Puritans were starting to rise to power. Puritans were extreme Protestants who didn’t believe in people enjoying themselves. They wanted Theatres, Ale Houses and lots of other fun things banned. They usually wore brown or grey but not black because black was expensive, and they didn’t believe in spending a lot of money. They believed in a plain way of preaching to God, so they didn’t believe in stained glass windows in churches. They were radicals and religious fanatics that a lot of people didn’t like because they didn’t believe in people having fun. Even though these Puritans were not popular they were starting to get quite a lot of political power and a lot more followers were starting to support the Puritans. Shakespeare however despised of the Puritans because they were trying to close down theatres, and if they had succeeded he would of lost his business. So Malvolio in the context of the play is Shakespeare’s swipe at the Puritans and this is why Sir Toby, Feste, Sir Andrew, Maria and Fabian treat Malvolio so harshly. In the play Malvolio is treated harshly because he is a puritan and we know this because Maria says, “ Marry sir, he is a kind of puritan” talking about Malvolio.

However the play is predominately about people disguising themselves as different people for example Viola changes her appearance to become a boy called Cesario but also people like Sir Andrew who do not change their appearance but pretend to be people they are not, Sir Andrew pretends to be a Noble man when all he really is, is a coward. The way Shakespeare achieves his comedy is by running two plots throughout the play, the main plot and the sub plot. So when these two plots merge he gets the comedy he wants. The main plot is for the main characters and main story lines like Olivia falling in love with Cesario. The sub plot is for different characters with their own agenda through the play like Sir Andrew trying to get with Olivia but not succeeding. So this is his agenda throughout the play as well as being a part of the main plots.

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The main characters in the play play a very important part in the comedy of the play. One of the main characters is Orsino; he is the Duke of Illyria. His main presence in the play is that he is the man that starts the whole love triangle between himself, Olivia and Viola. Orsino seems to love the fact of loving Olivia and keeps sending his servants to her courtyard to try and speak to her, but it does not work because Olivia’s brother and father have just died and she has sworn she won’t see a man or ...

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