Twelfth Night How does Shakespeare view Social Classes in Twelfth Night? Support your answer with evidence from the text

Social Classes Upper Class: Lower Class: Shallow Intelligent Hedonistic Undisciplined Careless Lower Class: Intelligent

Upper CLASS Shallow Hedonistic Undisciplined Careless

Shallow P: The upper class is presented as shallow E: The evidence is the fact that Sir Andrew is repeatedly unable to keep up with Sir Toby and Maria’s banter and how he fails to demonstrate his mentioned abilities professionally E: This shows that Sir Andrew is unable to understand the bare basics of French, although he claims himself as a sophisticated ‘master of the arts’. Furthermore, Sir Toby claims that Sir Andrew is fluent in 3 languages. This thus shows that the upper class exaggerates about their own people of their own class to appear professional. L: Therefore, we could see that the upper class is presented as shallow.

Hedonistic P: The upper class is presented to be hedonistic. E: The evidence is the fact that Sir Toby ignores his social status and fills himself up with alcohol on a daily basis. He goes home at ‘ill hours’, so much that even Maria advises him against drinking. He also states that as long as he has a mouth and there is enough drink in Illyria, he will continue engaging in his social vice. E: This shows how careless he is about anything around him. He only thinks about drinking and never takes his duty to protect the country at any point of time seriously. He, as well as Sir Andrew, challenges the common perception of people of the upper class. Although they are knights, they do not portray themselves as one. Sir Toby indulgence himself in drinking. L: Therefore, the upper class is presented as hedonistic.

Undisciplined P: Shakespeare portrays Sir Toby as undisciplined E: This can be supported by the way Sir Toby dresses and his preference for dressing and from the quote , “ I’ll confine myself finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in and so be these boots too.” E: This shows that Sir Toby devotes himself to drinking and drinking. He only cares about himself and does not care about people’s expectation of someone from an upper class like him. He does not care about his appearance, as long as he is dressed well enough for drinking , he will. P: As someone from an upper class , he should know how to bring and present himself well . I think that Sir Toby should know better than to not care about his appearance, being from the upper class. L: Therefore Sir Toby who is from the upper class is undisciplined.

Careless P: The upper class is presented to be careless. E: An example would be Sir Toby’s preference for dressing. ‘I’ll confine myself no finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in and so be these boots too’. E: This shows that he does not care about his outlook and appearance much opposed to how the common stereotypes, in which the upper class look smart and care about their outlooks. P: Sir Toby ought to be less careless with his clothes which he feels is only fit for drinking. The clothes he wears are to show that he is a knight, not a drunk. L: Therefore, Sir Toby from the upper class is presented as careless

Lower Class Smart/Intelligent

Smart P: Shakespeare portrays Maria as smart. E: When Sir Andrew asked Maria ‘do you think you have fools in hand’, Maria replies ‘Sir, I have not you by th’ hand’. This tells us that Maria is indirectly calling Sir Andrew fool by saying that he was the ‘fool’ in their conversation. E: Maria is smart and witty enough to trick Sir Andrew. She is from a lower class but she has the ability and intelligence to show herself as smarter than Sir Andrew.

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