Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s uncle, is a hard-drinking partygoer whose joie de vivre and high spirits stand in stark opposition to the character of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s play. But he is no fool. Although Sir Toby speaks highly of Sir Andrew, claiming he can speak many languages, we quickly learn that Sir Andrew is an ill-educated fool who would rather spend his time watching bear-baiting than mastering ‘tongues’ or languages. It becomes clear that
Twelfth Night
An Interesting Character Study: Olivia from Twelfth Night
The character of Olivia in Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night; or, What You Will is one of his more complex comic heroines, because of the inner conflict raging within the character after she falls in love with what she thinks is a young servant named Cesario (but is in fact a young woman named Viola in disguise).
As Kenneth McLeish and Stephen Unwin have noted, the character of Olivia is both the double and the opposite of Viola.
An Interesting Character Study: Malvolio from Twelfth Night
Malvolio, Olivia’s steward in Twelfth Night, is self-important, pompous, and even a little puritanical (he is accused of being a ‘puritan’ by the other characters). But he is also alienated. Indeed, his alienation from the other characters – from Olivia’s affections and favours which he so craves, and from Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Fabian and their drunken and riotous antics – is his saving grace, and what prevents him from being an insufferable bore. We take delight in laughing at him when he dons yellow stockings and makes a fool of himself, believing his mistress wants him to dress in such a ridiculous fashion; but Shakespeare encourages to laugh as much at Malvolio’s human frailty and
A Summary and Analysis of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Of all Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night is perhaps the most perfect: the most technically and structurally accomplished, the most unified in terms of its wordplay and themes and characters, and the most profound. Beneath all of the cross-dressing and mistaken identities, Twelfth Night probes some deep truths about the nature of love.
A Short Analysis of Feste’s Song from Twelfth Night: ‘The rain it raineth every day’
This song, from one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, is sung by the Clown or Fool character, Feste, at the end of Twelfth Night. Some critics have expressed doubts over Shakespeare’s authorship of the song, which may have been written by Robert Armin (who played the fool characters in the original productions of many of Shakespeare’s plays) or may be an earlier song that predates the play. It uses wind and rain as symbols of life’s hardships, and thus concludes the poem on a somewhat bittersweet note. All revels and festivities – such as those enjoyed at Twelfth Night – are short-lived intervals in life’s daily grind (‘the rain it raineth every day’, after all). The song is also the only good poem we know that features the word ‘toss-pots’.
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.