Twelfth Night Fool

William Shakespeare’s plays “Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” are completely opposite plays. However, there are many connections that can be made between the two. Seeing as “Hamlet” is a dark tragedy and “Twelfth Night” is a romantic comedy, both seem to have romantic twists to them developed by the hindering of the truth of one’s appearance. These are shown through major themes, such as deceit through disguises, complex love triangles, and varying opinions of marriage.

    It is not unusual that the fool should be a prominent figure and make an important contribution in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that either escape reality or live a dream. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses.

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” Was said in act 1 scene 5 by Feste the fool of the play, Twelfth Night. In the Twelfth Night Shakespeare demonstrates several comedic elements in minor and major ways. Three of the major elements will be covered today. Clever word play, mistaken identities, and plot twists.

“better a witty fool, than a foolish wit” (1.5.327). Here, Shakespeare uses Feste to articulate his

In Twelfth Night, the fools are the ones that control the comedy and humor in the play. They assist in the make believe game and fool around with characters who "evade reality or rather realize a dream". In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses. They create the confusion through humor and it all works out in the end to make William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a comical play of his time and today. In Twelfth Night, the clown and the fools are the ones who combine humor and wit to make the comedy work, just like in many comical plays in today’s society. Modern audiences would laugh from the foolery caused by these characters while the comic truth is unwinding to build up this comedy.

through his vanity is easily fooled into thinking it is he who she loves although

“This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; and to do that well craves a kind of wit. He must observe thire mood on whom he jests, the quality of the person, and the time, and, like the haggard, cheque at every feather that comes before his eye.” - Viola, 3.1.60 - 65. Because Fest is a fool, many people he meets assume he is truly an unintelligent fool. However in reality Fest is one of the most clever characters in the play. This also directly relates to the office as Jim, who is like Fest, does not appear to be of high intelligence, while in reality he is very

Patients with middle to later stages of Alzheimer’s often have spouses or children who are deceased. But these patients’ failing memories will often lead them to believe his/her loved ones are alive and well. When a patient continually asks a nurse to see their husband or wife, nurses will use a technique called therapeutic lying to reassure the patient by telling him/her that the personhas gone to visit a relative. Telling the person that he/she is dead only brings immense sadness, and patients who have an even shorter term memory will not remember the previous day’s events. Every day it is discovered that the loved one has died. This is extremely emotionally tolling both on the nurses and the patients and lying seems like a kinder option. A situation such as this one would be deception to gain something but is helping the person being lied to. In William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night, one main characters, Viola, wakes up on the shores of Illyria after a shipwreck in which her brother has presumably died. She formulates a plan to work for the Duke, Orsino who is hopelessly in love with the sought-after Olivia. This causes many complications when Olivia falls in love with Viola’s male character and Viola falls in love with Orsino. people can agree that using deception for harm is unethical. However, using deception to gain something creates a controversy. Society can help determine these ethical gray areas whether through law, or behavior that society accepts. Something

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the main story told is of the battle between silliness (Feste, Maria, romance, pranks, and drama) and seriousness (Malvolio, dourness, rules, and stresses of life). One facet of this is gender – the main protagonist Viola presents as male for most of the play. Shakespeare, whether intentionally or not, has shown prime examples of projected identity based on sex, gender roles, and the power associated with each sex. These messages were revolutionary at the time, and only in recent decades are people really beginning to examine them, but Shakespeare has been known to slip messages into his works that were far ahead of his time. Shakespeare uses Viola’s identity as a character in relation to gender roles and gender itself, and Olivia’s relationship with her.

Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night” provides a great deal of insight into gender roles, gender identities, and desire in Elizabethan society. In Shakespearean times, women, and to a much lesser extent, men, were subject to a variety of arbitrary limitations based solely on gender. For example, women could not become actresses, and were practically required to have guardians and protectors. Additionally, both men and women were strictly held to separate sets of explicit standards, expectations and values. These roles that people of each gender were held to were very important to developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Those who violated these norms would have generally been looked down upon, or even insulted, especially by

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.”-Malvolio act III, Scene V. Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy entailing the life of Viola post-shipwreck in Illyria, during this play she assumes that she has lost her brother, Sebastian. In order to make a living, she disguises herself as a man and becomes a servant for the Duke, Orsino. In the end, Orsino and Viola marry, and all are united -living happily ever after. One important character to the development of the subplot of the play is Malvolio, he is the antagonist and without him, the storyline would be rather flat. Malvolio is an underappreciated character, who is vital to the story as he provides a contrast to the other servants, is the central cause of the conflict in the sublot, and teaches readers that arrogance is one’s greatest downfalls.

In William Shakespeare’s comedy play Twelfth Night, a love triangle between the characters Viola dressed as Cesario, Orsino the Duke, and Olivia runs rampant throughout the storyline. This conflict comes to a head in Act 5 Scene 1 lines (in my copy) 109 through 147. This is the first, and only, time during the play that the audience sees all three characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, together. In this climaxing scene, it is apparent that Orsino is distraught with more than friendly feelings for his manservant Cesario, and that Olivia is in love not with Cesario, but with Viola under male clothing.

Romance has been a theme in literature for years and years. It has recognized many hardships, it has recognized many happily-ever-afters as well. In Shakespeare 's play, Twelfth Night, there are many profound and overpowering themes of love that float around throughout a majority of the play. Most of the main characters find love near the end of the play; however, a few are not so lucky. Although this is a comedy, Shakespeare utilized comedic plans and tricks to make characters fall in love; however, some get left to feel the burden of deteriorated love.

Throughout William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste exemplifies the role of a jester and fool, but thoroughly demonstrates to his audience that there is more to him than the other characters might see. Feste is often degraded by his fellow associates, and deemed inferior to others because they view him for his “lack of wits,” but very few of them realize that Feste is anything but a fool. Feste is Olivia's personal and professional fool, and is therefore given the license to kill (with words). In the first scene that Feste is introduced to the reader, he is immediately stereotyped for being the usual joker, and he even plays along with the part that others reckon him to play. In this scene, Feste wittily

entertain as an allowed fool. Feste can speak however he likes to anyone and everyone, including a well respected person such as Olivia. It seems that he almost reverses the roles. He talks down to people that have higher “ranks” than he. At one point, Feste says to Olivia “Do you not hear fellows? Take away the lady,” making everyone else seem as they are the fool.