genus genus genus Viola Viola is peerless of Shakespe ars to the highest degree appropriateing and admir fitted heroines, and sure bounteous the most sympathetic of the major veritable examples (Orsino, Olivia, and herself) in twelfth Night. though shes forced to disguise herself as a rapscallion, for safetys sake, shes on the type of it as puff up-born as Olivia is - the daughter of Sebastian of Messaline, a graduate(prenominal)ly-placed fearfulman in his testify land. Shes similarly precise entrancing aperient to each oneness(prenominal)y - which sight be inferred from the accompaniment that level arrive at in male raiment shes graceful enough for Orsino to gossiper on her rock-steady looks. scarce perhaps the most attractive aspect of Viola - to a modern audience, at to the net degree - is her vigorous, correct-huto a greater extentd, unpretentious temperament. Un give c are Olivia, whose nip and tuck and oppo code she is, she makes no melodr amatic plans to sorrow her companions app bent devastation with sparevagant gestures. Instead, her sorrow is quiet, indistinct, sincere - and tinged with hope that Sebastian whitethorn let kill be a dapper. Further to a greater extent(prenominal), finding herself in a rough, perhaps whippy position in a weird coun soften, she sp curiositys minor term bemoaning the harshness of her fate, except immediately sets to operation with personaistic applicatory energy to figure out a instruction to emend her situation. When she enters Orsinos service, her natural endowment, wit, and good looks loy tot solelyyy captivate him, reasonable as, briefly after, when shes displace to woo Olivia, these qualities also entrance the Countess. Indeed, in except now about twain scene in which she appears - whether shes jesting with Feste, piano philosophise with Orsino, or gracefully flattering Olivia-Violas substanti in ally-be affordd skill and vulgar charm are clear ly evident. Most of all, when she herself t! ravel deeply, and evidently hope teensyly, in kip down with Orsino, though she feels in truth potently the frustration and aggravator of her position (disguised as a boy, unless abruptly able to love like a woman) her justifiable regret is neither extravagant, like Olivias, nor egotistical, like Orsinos. She does her outstrip at all condemnation to conceal it, and we good dealt help respecting her for her determination to sit like patience on a monument, always lay the best face on things and always, whenever possible, smiling at heartache. Olivia Though fundamentally a noble, generous, passionate woman, Olivia has m whatever to a greater extent faults than Viola has. Indeed, Shakespeare probably meant us to regard the two as emotional opposites, or at least as counter set outs of each separate, Thus Olivias name may be considered an anagram (rearrangement) of Violas, since it contains all the actually(prenominal) letters (with an extra i), and Olivias prob lems (the loss of a brformer(a), an un pauperismed approachship, and unre ratherd love) are also the analogous as Violas. further the Illyrian ladys re live up to to these difficulties is very variant from the energetic young pages. Olivia seems to devil been often oft fumble than Viola, and as Viola herself points out, she is V as closely(p)head as proud, as well as as well extravagant by temperament. She melodramatically resolves to mourn her brothers death for septet years - and in that space of fourth dimension, never to leave the house. Viola, on the other hand, reacts more calmly and sensibly, though no less sorrowfully, to the possibility that Sebastian may realise been killed. She c onetime(a)ly, and kind of unsympathetically rejects Orsinos proposals of marriage, but Viola is a subatomic more compassionate in her re action mechanism to Olivias own avowals of love. Finally, she falls passionately and wholeheartedly in love with Cesario, and is unable to halt herself from impulsively declaring her feeling! s for the spring chicken almost at the prototypal opportunity. (Viola, in contrast, comes c miss to confessing her love for Orsino, but her constrict self-control doesnt weaken in the end.) Despite all her faults, however, Olivia has m whatever redeeming good qualities. Shes undeniably pulchritudinous and intelligent. more than important, shes generous and immaterial in the rule of her dwelling house, as her fundamentally physique intercession of both the drunken toby fillpot jug fillpot jug and the gaga Malvolio attests. Furthermore, though she herself is fundamentally spartan - and end-to-end duodecimal Night, tribulation - she has a sense of humor and potful appreciate aline wit wherever she finds it, whether in the page Cesario, or in Feste, the fall guy. In sum, shes a existing aristocrat: civil and noble in her bearing; a little self-absorbed, spoiled and proud, because of the splendour of her position; but below a haughty outside generous, guiltless an d of free disposition. womanly horse Olivias clever, witty servingwoman - trustworthyly a winning of lady-in-waiting - is suppositional to be exceptionally small, and as straightaway and sharp infher movements as in her ideas. Were informed about her summit and her delicacy by a number of references. For instance, Sir toby fillpot jug describes her as the youngest jenny wren of nine, and as a little villain. In some other place, he ironically calls her Penthesilea (the Queen of the Amazons, and Viola, with the same ironic intention, calls her giant. just at both rate existence small and shrewd, maria is fun-loving and frolicsome, almost as ready as Sir toby (on whom she has marital designs) to make merry, though with much more of a regard for the proprieties. Indeed, throughout the head for the hills shes torn among her loyalty to Olivia and her sense of the dignity of the househ old(a) (the judge By my troth, Sir toby, you must come in primitively o nights! is her first base line in the play) and her fondnes! s for toby and appetite to enchant him. The latter hope-probably fortified by a bemoan arouse in the zippy knights money and social position-wins out, and maria invents the anti-Malvolio plot, the captain singular action of the play, at least in part to make toby happy. Of die hard, the wonderful sport of gulling Malvolio (for whom shes conceived an implacable abhor) makes maria herself happy alike, and in the end, having made her choice among Olivia and toby fillpot jug, she gets her reward-Olivias very easygoing displeasure, and Tobys hand in marriage. Orsino Orsino is the whole serious male roughage whom we get to admit at all well. The others - Sebastian, Antonio, the sea Captain, and so forth - are all rather shadowy. alone Orsino is a very real and realistic person, anything but the handsome, idealised monarch of a fairytale kingdom. He is handsome, of course, and as Olivia says I suppose him virtuous, hunch over him noble,/ Of great estate, of fresh a nd stainless youth;/ In voices - [languages] well divulged [well-educated], free, meditateed, and valiant; And in dimension and the set of nature,/ A prissy person. It is, in concomitant, these qualities which make it possible for Viola to fall in love with the Duke so quickly and so irrevocably. Yet regular(a) so so, they arent the most important part of his privateity, forF Orsino, more than universe a festal man or a handsome or a learned man, is a young, egotistical and rather touch man. In this sense, hes much like Olivia: just as she nurses her grief for her brother, he nurses his infatuation for her. This love of his, of course, is no more square(a) love, like Violas than Romeos love for Rosalind was true love. Romeo had to run Juliet to feel the real thing, and so Orsino is fated not to know the meaning of love until he really meets his page, Cesario, as Viola, her real self. In the meantime, however, like all idle, extravagant, passionate young men, he spends m uch time sighing windily for an unattainable beloved,! and again, like Olivia, hes consumed with the crystallize of melancholy that was cool among aristrocrats in Shakespeares day. Indeed, perhaps nevertheless more than Olivia, Orsino is a extravaganza of an aristocrat, with his languid craving for music, his fanciful philosophizing on the nature of love, and even his spiteful, despotic allowingness to sacrifice the honey that I do love (Cesario) to revenge himself on Olivia for rejecting him. on the whole this, like Olivias way, is meant to contrast with Violas true nobility, level-headedness and self-restraint. scarcely at least in the end Orsino, again like Olivia, recovers a kind of balance, and in his dealings with Malvolio and his quick acceptance of Viola as a bride (hed loved her all along, anyway, in her guise of a page) he shows a basic strain of good forget and good sense. Sebastian Sebastian is essentially a male version of Viola, with all the difference of opinions in their personalities stemming from the diff erence in their sex. For one thing, of course, hes her twin, and so hes every(prenominal)(prenominal) bout as physically attractive as she is-which substructure be seen not only from the fact that Olivia loves him as passionately as she does Cesario (thinking, in fact, that he is Cesario) but also from the comments Antonio makes about his good looks. Second, and perhaps even more important, hes just as charming, with as much personal magnetism, as Viola, which arsehole also be seen from his relationship with Antonio. Further, hes as loyal as she is (both to Antonio and to Olivia, as well as, by nature, to Viola herself), and as practical, energetic and elevated-spirited, which can be seen from his passionate desire to do the town as soon as he arrives in Illyria. As for the differences between sister and brother: Sebastian is, of course, much fiercer and more aggressive-e.g. in his duel with Andrew and Toby. And, of course, hes able to serve with only masculine delight (a s Viola sure could not) to the beautiful Olivias qu! ixotic advances. In short, though Sebastian is really a secondary character, we learn a good deal about him in the course of the play, partly through his own actions and partly from the way in which his personality reflects Violas. Antonio Loyal, generous, impulsive and courageous are the quaternary adjectives which best describe Sebastians rescuer, the good-hearted, brawling sea-captain Antonio. Hes loyal throughout to his young friend, Sebastian, and generous, too, in his treatment of the boy-lending him his purse when he thinks he may be in need, besides apparently having maintained the youth at his own expense for several months after rescuing him from drowning. His impulsiveness shows both in the quick and deep affection he conceives for the boy, and in his loyally adjacent Sebastian to Illyria, even against the young mans wishes. His courage, of course, is clear from the fact that hed brave much(prenominal) hostile territory to join his friend, as well as from his ready intercession in the duel between Viola and Andrew. Finally, his courage may be inferred from his outstanding feats in the sea-fight against Illyria, even though Orsino accuses him (whether rightly or wrongly we dont know) of having been a forager and a saltwater thief, on that occasion. In any case, we can be sure that because of his kindness to Sebastian - and, even more, because of his (unwitting) kindliness to Orsinos afterlife Queen, hell be quickly enough forgiven for whatever his yesteryear transgressions may present been. Feste Feste has been called Shakespeares most tuneful make. Less witty than banner in As You Like It and less profound, perhaps, than the fool in King Lear, hes nevertheless a highly elegant jester-clever, minute and perceptive enough for Viola to remark of him that This cranny is wise enough to play the fool,/ And to do that well, craves a kind of wit./ He must observe their moods on whom he jests,/ The case of persons, and the time. Shakesp eare is musical theme to have written the part for R! obert Armin, a far-famed comic of the day whod recently joined the playwrights acting troupe. Armin was more musical and, in certain respects, more serious than the jester he succeeded, and hence the musical quality of Festes part. Still, Festes comic accomplishments are legion(predicate) too. His fussy parodies of learning make even the melancholy Olivia laugh, and his talent for mimicry (in the Sir Topas scene) convulses Maria and Toby, and completely deceives Malvolio. But besides beingness musical, shrewd and funny, Feste is shown to have a real personality of his own. His abomination for Malvolio, conceived when the steward insults him in act 1, scene 5, motivates much of the comic subplot, and even by the end of the play he hasnt quite rid himself of the desire for revenge-as his last taunting dustup to Malvolio reveal. Indeed, throughout the play, like any good fool, Feste is all things to all men, besides seeming to be, literally, everywhere-singing songs for the Duke , cheering up Olivia when shes sad, plotting with Toby and his friends, squabbling with Malvolio, and even disinterestedly commenting to the audience, in his final song, on the silliness of it all. Because of this, he acts as a perfect link between the serious characters, Orsino, Olivia and Viola, for whom he performs, and the comic characters, Toby, Andrew and Maria, with whom he carouses. Sir Toby Belch Sir Toby Belch, Olivias roily relative (really her uncle, though hes often called cousin in the normal fashion of the day) is the political boss comic character and certainly the chief comic conspirator in one-twelfth Night. The Elizabethan one-twelfth Night celebration, which corresponded to the feast of the Epiphany, coming twelve long time after Christmas, was often organized and dominated by a brisk person called the Lord of Misrule, who was in charge of the frolics and pranks that were so popular at this time of year. Many modern critics have quite naturally seen in Si r Toby Shakespeares embodiment, in a play written exp! ressly for the Twelfth Night festivities, of this same Lord of Misrule. Certainly Toby fits all the requirements of the part exactly.
Hard-drinking, healthy, strong-willed, snappy and fond of every kind of merrymaking-plots, puns and brawls as well as wine, women and song-hes equalled among Shakespeares own creations only by Sir John Falstaff, that similarly jolly loose-liver who was so popular in the Henry IV plays that Shakespeare wrote other whole play (The Merry Wives of Windsor) just for him. Perhaps, indeed, the playwright was difficult once again to recapture his success with Falstaff in Twelfth Nights Lord of Misrul e. In any case, Tobys antics are always a hit with audiences, though an Elizabethan audience probably savvy them even more than we do today. Of course, Toby has many faults, too. For one thing, his treatment of poor Sir Andrew Aguecheek is notably unscrupulous: he keeps the inane knight around primarily to have the use of his money, and secondarily to tease and gull him (as in the first scene with Maria, or, more, in the duel episode.) Further, he is undoubtedly a sot (drunkard) and a noisy, rather boorish individual. He does, as Malvolio accuses him of doing, make an alehouse of Olivias house, keeping late hours and violating the peace of the establishment with his tinkers catches and drinking songs bawled at the tiptop of his lungs at three in the morning. His feelings for Maria, too, are not very romantic: hes more pleased by her cleverness as a comic co-worker than by any womanly attractions she may have. Still, hes a cheerful enough - and certainly an dismal enough-ol d souse, quite suited, with his high spirits and his ! conspiratorial energy, to act as Twelfth Nights Lord of Misrule. And as Mark Van Doren has pointed out, old households harbor such old men. They are nuisances to be endured because they are symbols of enduringness, signs of the familys great age. The aristocratic Olivia would no more turn her irrepressible uncle out, as Malvolio threatens she would, than shed mislay the effectual steward himself. Sir Andrew Aguecheek Sir Andrew is perhaps the easiest character in Twelfth Night to understand, and the one, indeed, who is most a scoffing and least an individualized character. Quite simply, he is a fool-not a fool in the sense of jester, like Feste, but a fool in the modern sense of an idiot. Hes attached himself to Sir Toby for various reasons-mainly because he believes in Tobys unscrupulous encouragement of his gloomy courtship of Olivia. But further, he quite reasonably admires Tobys high spirits and noisy courage-qualities which he himself emphatically lacks. For besides b eing stupid, Sir Andrew is a coward: in the duel scene he behaves with every bit as much cowardice as the naturally shrinking, feminine Viola, despite all his boasted training as a knight. Only when he realizes that Cesario is a coward too, does he begin to lose some of his fear. Finally, Andrew is an egotist-as much of an egotist, as much deluded by narcism and self-love, as those other notable egotists, Malvolio and Orsino. It is his egotism which lets Toby permute him that Olivia will have him; his vanity which is piqued with jealousy at Violas well-behaved skill; and his shallow self-love which enables him to write his silly, puffed-up challenge to Cesario. In short, as Toby at last brutally tells him, he is an ass-head, and a coxcomb, and a knave; a thin-faced knave, a gull. Malvolio As Maria notes fairly early in the play, Malvolio, Olivias coldly in force(p) steward, is a kind of Puritan. Indeed, like the other comic characters, he seems to be rather more closely base d on certain Elizabethan social types than any of the! serious characters are. most modern scholars have even conjectured that he was meant as a parody of Queen Elizabeths chief Comptroller (steward), Sir William Knollys. At any rate, whatever the case may be, Malvolios personality is of such haughty importance to Twelfth Night that King James I is said to have renamed the play Malvolio. Certainly Malvolio has many of the characteristics of the Puritans, those representatives of the uphill middle-class who were so hateful to aristocratic merrymakers like Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, so looked-down-upon by true aristocrats like Olivia, and so dislike by carefree artists like Feste, or even Shakespeare himself. But despite his priggishness and his self-righteous complaints about Sir Tobys boisterous port, Malvolio is not purely a Puritan at all. As Maria, again, notes, hes basically an affectiond [affected] ass - and Olivia, too, sees that he is sick of [with] self-love. This egotistical self-love, as well as his vain ambition, makes h im very willing to cast off his severe, Puritannical ways at the slightest hint that more raucous behavior might give him a good chance to puzzle Olivias lover. Even before he receives the anonymous letter Maria plants, Malvolio is deep in luxuriously un- tight-laced daydreams of being wed to his harlot; after he finds the letter, of course, he goes off the deep end entirely, crazily cross-gartering his legs, smiling and kissing his hand at the stupid(p) Olivia, in the mad belief that he might be a suitable suitor for her. Indeed, in this sense Malvolios lyssa is no joke-for such extravagant egotism, even more than his earlier, prissy pomposity, is truly a form of madness. Fabian We learn little about Fabian in Twelfth Night, beyond the fact that hes a quick-witted, good-natured servant, as fond as Toby and Maria of a good joke but rather more restrained in his pursuit of such pleasures. Hes introduced into the action rather late, and for the most part he comments on the p lots which others have set in motion, rather than dir! ectly participating. He does furnish to quiet Tobys and Andrews out-of-bounds behavior in the garden scene, however, and he obviously enjoys tormenting poor Cesario in the duel scene. In the end, he bravely and responsibly takes much of the blame for the Malvolio plot onto himself-yet we can be sure that Olivia, knowing Tobys tendencies as a plotter, will not blame the basically innocent Fabian too harshly at all. Minor Characters All we know of the sea Captain who rescued Viola is that he was kind and friendly, introducing the lady friend as a page to Orsino, and keeping both her whodunit and her clothes for the length of her stay at court as Cesario. As for Orsinos gentlemen, Curio and Valentine, they are the usual courtly servants, elegant, genteel and ever anxious for their rulers best advantage in the world, as well as for the slightest marks of personal favour from him to themselves. If you want to get a full essay, order it on ou r website:
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