Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

Twelfth Night

Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night is an Elizabethan situation comedy. Each character has a problem to solve, and each one finds a different way to attempt to solve it. For most of the characters their difficulties revolve around members of the opposite sex. By the time the play has been completed, it is the female characters who have accomplished their goals to the satisfaction of all the parties involved. Olivia, Viola and Maria all demonstrate their ability to accomplish their romantic goals far better than the men in the play can on their own.

Orsino, a man of high birth, believes himself passionately in love with Olivia. He believes his love to be the most passionate, most sincere and most ardent of any man alive. The fact the Olivia does not return his affection has no effect on his emotions, and as it turns out, he is more in love with the notion of love than with Olivia. When another admirable woman comes along, he is able to develop real feelings for her instead of wallowing in an obsessive, unrequited love. However, it takes a woman -- Viola -- to bring this about.

Viola is the survivor of a shipwreck cast on the shore of the island of Illyria while traveling with her twin brother, Sebastian, who looks remarkably like her for a young man. She fears her brother has drowned, and even if he has not, is not present to help protect her in this unknown place. Calling herself "Cesario," she disguises herself as a young man for her own protection and enters Orsini's service. While this would be an odd contrivance today, it shows Viola to be a level-headed young woman who can take care of herself in an emergency.

Olivia, the original object of Orsino's affections, is like him in some ways. Rather than loving obsessively, she has chosen to grieve obsessively, declaring that she will be in mourning over her brother's death for seven years. This changes when Orsino sends Cesario to plead Orsino's love for Olivia, because Olivia then falls in love with Cesario.

Maria, who is Olivia's servant, may be the boldest of the three women discussed. In spite of her inferior status compared to others she interacts with, she is not intimidated. She recognizes that Sir Toby drinks too much, and spots Malvolio as a troublemaker. When he threatens to say things critical of Maria to Olivia, Maria decides it is time to act, and plans a practical joke. Malvolio, who is also a servant, imagines that Olivia will marry him and elevate him to nobility. Maria plays on Malvolio's excessive admiration of himself and forges a love letter telling him how to win Olivia's heart: to dress ridiculously and insult all of those around him. In this forgery she describes the intended recipient's traits in glowing terms, including "the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expression of his eye, forehead, and complexion..." (Act II:iii, lines 170-177). Maria knows that Malvolio will see himself in the flattering words, and follow the instructions, which tell him to act in ridiculous ways. Maria has no trouble gaining the assistance of Sir Toby, who develops great admiration for Maria over this joke. Sir Toby dislikes Malvolio's pomposity and values a good laugh. He says of the servant, "I could marry this wench for this device..." (Act II:v, line 201).

Throughout the play, it is these three women who deal best with the issue of self-deception. Orsino has deceived himself into believing that he loves Olivia beyond all reason and as the greatest love of all time, but when a more realistic love comes along in the form of Viola, easily switches his affections. Viola, by comparison, remains steadfast in her love for him. She goes so far as to recognize that if it is Olivia he wants, to see him happy he will try to help him attain her affections. She says, "I'll do my best / To woo your lady: [Aside] yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife." (Act I:v, line 40) While Olivia overestimates the amount of time she should grieve for her brother, her feelings of grief are real. Because they are genuine feelings, they can be assuaged, as when the Fool comforts her by pointing out that since she believes him to be in heaven, it might be time to rejoice for him now instead of continuing in grief. Maria may be the one who sees past self-deceptions the most clearly. She sees Malvolio for the schemer he is, capitalizes on that trait, and wins for herself what Malvolio wanted: a marriage that elevates her class status. Maria does not fool herself about her husband-to-be, recognizing that he has flaws -- he drinks too much. However, laughter is important to both of them, and they see a kindred spirit in each other that allows them to cross class lines.

Viola uses deception to her advantage to keep herself safe in a potentially dangerous situation -- a woman alone in an unknown land. Viola's subterfuge suggests a possible weakness in Olivia's character, as she is easily able to shift her affection from "Cesario" to Sebastian, but the implication is that Viola and Sebastian are similar in character and personality as well as in physical appearance, and it seems an easy shift. Nevertheless, Olivia gets what she needs out of life at the time: a path out of her self-imposed and extreme level of grieving for her brother, and the love of a man who will love her as she is and not because he has fallen in love with the idea of being in love.