Twelfth Night was penned circa 1602, in the middle of Shakespeare’s career. It is considered by many to be his greatest comedy. As with all of Shakespeare’s best plays he has managed to combine the tragic and the comic to great effect in Twelfth Night.
What is Twelfth Night?
The title of the play comes from the twelve days of Christmas festival which were known for their wild and riotous shenanigans. The last of these days in particular was renowned for its hedonistic abandon.
Elizabethan 'Twelfth Night' celebrations would be heavily centred on a ‘Lord of Misrule’ who would call for entertainment, drinking and dancing. It is not difficult to see how this influenced Shakespeare while writing the play.
Themes of The Play
Cross-dressing and mistaken identity is often used to great effect in Shakespeare’s plays. For an Elizabethan audience there is a additional layer to this humour. In England, during this period, women were excluded from acting, so the roles of women were played by young men or boys.Therefore, it is worth remembering, an Elizabethan audience is witnessing a boy playing a woman disguised as a man.
Shakespeare often uses twins in his plays. Having fathered twins himself, it seems that he was particularly fascinated by the relationship between them, and the possibility of confusion with identical twins.
The play takes great joy in music containing one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines “If music be the food of love play on” and it is filled with songs, mostly sung by the ‘fool’ Feste.
Synopsis
Twelfth Night takes place in the fictionally kingdom of Illyria. Two women, Viola and Olivia are both mourning the death of their brother. Viola and her twin brother, Sebastian, are separated during a ship wreck and both believe the other to be dead.
Viola disguises herself as a young man to serve in the Count Orsino’s court. Orsino carries a burning passion for Olivia, but she has sworn celibacy for seven years, to grieve the death of her brother.
Orsino is unwilling to take no for an answer and sends Viola, dressed as Cesario, to woo her in his place. However, Orsino’s plans are thwarted when Olivia falls for Viola. Meanwhile, the love triangle becomes more humorous as Viola is falling for Orsino.
The subplot consists of the domestic conflict between Malvolio and Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch and his companion Sir Andrew, who sees himself as another suitor for Olivia. Read more about this aspect of the play in an article at Suite 101's British Fiction page.
Modern Views of Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is a staple of English Literature classes, possible because the comedy is so appealing. Revision material for the play can be found at Twelfthnightsite.co.uk. The play remains one of Shakespeare’s most frequently performed works; between professional and amateur productions it is rarely off the stage.
The play was transformed for the big screen by Trevor Nunn in 1996. This production starred, Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Kingsley and Imogen Stubbs. More recently, the play was adapted for the teenage movie-goer, in 2006 film She’s The Man.
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