Words, Identity, Sexuality, Imagination, Madness Twelfth Night

Opening questions What are the issues/conflicts/problems of the play that are brought up in Act I? Literally: Who can get what they want & who can’t? Why? What/who blocks desire? Metaphorical or bigger issues: What determines identify? To what extent is it dependent on class and gender, and to what extent is it dependent upon attire and/or disguises? How is romantic love depicted in the play? What is Shakespeare saying about romance? Twelfth Night is traditionally a festival when everything is turned upside down, topsy –turvy. How does this happen in the play?

Themes Identity – depends upon interplay between perception and “truth” (but what is “true”? Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to imagine himself as a successful suitor Olivia tries to get Cesario to be her lover Sword fight is a faked fight between a coward and a young woman (3.4.276+) Viola in two categories at once – “poor monster” both male & female and neither (2.2.34-35) Power of language to alter reality Power of self-deception (3.1.145-9) What you will, will being “carnal appetite” or sexual urge Imagination: see especially Malvolio’s imagination of himself as so important and beloved, which Maria’s note only plays into (2.4.44+) Being a puppetmaster (Maria like Iago) Madness

The Anxiety about Attire  Sumptuary laws were enacted in England during this time These made it a CRIME to wear certain clothes e.g. a woman wearing a man’s clothing. Driving force behind the laws is a fear within society about the role of identity Can people jump out of their proper spot in the Chain of Being in the right clothes? Theaters were often running up against this problem because women couldn’t act on stage so boys played their parts. When audiences saw Viola dressed as Cesario, it was a double disguise. Boy acts the part of a girl, who is dressed as a boy in the fiction

The Semiotics of Clothing and Disguise Symbols signify meaning Order results from an agreed upon meaning for a symbol: signifier = signified Disorder would result from disagreement on what a symbol means: signifier = ? Of course, disorder, anxiety, and social contradiction is the stuff of comedy

Semiotics and Sumptuary Laws Signifier (sign) Signified

Similarly, Signifier Signified pants MAN

Contradictions However, England was full of problematic symbols

What does this mean for Twelfth Night? Olivia confuses the signifier (clothes) for the signified, (man) and accept a substitute with the same clothes as if it were the same. What if she actually liked Viola, the woman? (does she really think Sebastian is identical?) Orsino doesn’t seem to care if he gets a substitute woman or man/woman. Viola never really puts on the ”correct” clothing at the end. Maybe Orsino really wants the man, Cesario? Things are still pretty darned topsy-turvy at the end Perhaps this says something about marriage or gender . . .

Then we have Malvolio Sir Toby, Maria and the Fool torture him What does he do to deserve it? They call him a Puritan for disapproving of their all-night drinking binges. Do they cross the line? How do you read his last lines, humorously or tragically?