Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

🎭✨“O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.”✨🎭

One of Shakespeare’s underrated plays, ‘Twelfth Night’ is a typical romp where the confusion ensues when Viola disguises as a Cesario following a shipwreck, leading her to believe her brother Sebastian has drowned. Viola initially tries to ask for a job from Olivia, who is mourning for her dead brother and whom Orsino (a nobleman) is pinning over, but since Olivia wishes to not see anyone, Viola disguises herself as a man to find work and finally lands a job with Orsino. Thus, confusion and comedy begin.

A love triangle is formed- Orsino so starts favouring Cesario and makes him deliver his love letters to Olivia. Viola begins to fall for Orsino but cannot reveal them since to Orsino, she’s Cesario. And on the other hand, Olivia finds herself falling for Cesario. Everyone involved in this situation becomes melancholic. There are other characters involved such Malvolio, the head servant of Olivia’s household; Feste, the fool who narrates jokes; Maria, Olivia’s waiting-lady, Olivia’s uncle Sir Toby and Antonio, who rescues Sebastian and develops feelings for him.

The subplots and the main plots merge resulting in an entertaining confusion. By the conclusion of the play, everything is revealed and it ends on a happy note.

‘Twelfth Night’ by Shakespeare deals with themes such as triviality of love, gender roles and deception by simply employing the costumes and clothing to evoke comedy. Shakespeare’s female characters aren’t docile and dream to be in the public sphere dominated by men. This can be seen in ‘Macbeth’ with Lady Macbeth who is power-hungry; in ‘Othello’, Desdemona is bound by her societal standards but dreams big; in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, Juliet fights for her love. In ‘Twelfth Night’, Viola, although under the disguise of a man, manages to accomplish every task given to her by Orsino; Maria successfully undercuts Malvolio’s plans and Olivia takes control of her household and she “lets” Sir Toby stay with her.

Cleverly playing with gender roles, Shakespeare raises a question in the readers’ (or in the viewers’) minds- are gender roles necessary? He has also represented queerness through Antonio who passionately falls for Sebastian so much so he is willing to go to Orsino, who is his enemy, and face him to help Sebastian.

Although, it may be a little difficult for many people to read since Shakespeare wrote in Old English and his plays were penned using blank verse. But it is very easy to read Shakespeare once one gets a hang of it.

I remember enjoying and laughing when I was reading the play by myself for the first time. I wasn’t my first Shakespeare play, so I was quite familiar with the language. I could easily read it in one sitting. An easy read, Twelfth Night is unique and unlike his other comedies and it becomes a must-read.

There are recordings of the play, put up by various theatre productions, on Youtube. You can check them out.