1. Twelfth Night Major Themes Knight Al-Ghoraibi

2. Major Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Themes in Twelfth Night: – Desire & Love – Ambition – Carpe Diem – Appearance & Reality Knight Al-Ghoraibi

3. Desire &Love True love sees the soul True love requires recognition of the noble inner qualities of the beloved as well as the outward qualities. Duke Orsino thinks he loves Olivia. But it soon becomes apparent that he loves her primarily for her beauty, not her nobility of soul. In other words, he is infatuated with her looks and charm. However, he gradually falls in love with Viola after her inner qualities emerge while she is disguised as a man. His love for her is not complete until she doffs her disguise and reveals that she is a beautiful woman. Orsino then loves her heart, soul, and body—that is, spiritually and physically. Olivia's love for Sebastian evolves in a similar way. She begins by admiring Sebastian's noble qualities as mirrored by his twin sister Viola, disguised as the male messenger Cesario. But her love is incomplete until Sebastian arrives with the same noble qualities of Viola—but in a male body. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

4. Desire &Love Shakespeare pokes fun at Orsino’s flowery love poetry, making it clear that Orsino is more in love with being in love than with his supposed beloveds. At the same time, by showing the details of the intricate rules that govern how nobles engage in courtship, Shakespeare examines how characters play the “game” of love. Love is painful and not always achieved: Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Many of the characters seem to view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or, rather, from the pangs of unrequited love. Malvolio, who has pursued Olivia, must ultimately face the realization that he is a fool, socially unworthy of his noble mistress. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

5. Desire &Love Love (brotherly and romantic) is foolish at times: For example, Olivia goes to ridiculous lengths to mourn her dead brother, then falls in love with Viola disguised as a man. Malvolio, meanwhile, behaves idiotically to woo Olivia. Love ultimately triumphs: Despite all the obstacles they face, people in love eventually unite through persistence. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

6. Ambition The theme of social ambition can be seen in the character of Malvolio, the steward, who proves to have great ambitions and is willing to do anything to rise out of his social class. Malvolio’s antagonist, Maria, is able to increase her social standing by marrying Sir Toby. But it seems that Maria’s success may be due to her willingness to accept and promote the anarchy that Sir Toby and the others embrace. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

7. Carpe diem Carpe diem (seize the day): Feste chides his employer, Olivia, for continuing to mourn for her brother long after he is dead. He realizes that one of the main purposes of life is to live. In a song he sings for Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, he sums up his philosophy: What is love? 'tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter; What's to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty; Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth's a stuff will not endure. (2.3.23) Knight Al-Ghoraibi

8. Appearance & Reality Appearances and first impressions can be deceiving. – Outward appearances and first impressions mislead the main characters in one way or another—until the truth surfaces in Act V. Viola’s costume Love between characters Malvolio’s arrogance Twins Knight Al-Ghoraibi

9. Motifs Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes. Motifs used in Twelfth Night: – Letters, Messages & Tokens – Madness – Deception, Disguise & Performance – Mistaken Identity Knight Al-Ghoraibi

10. Letters, Messages & Tokens Messages can convey important information, but they also create miscommunication and confusion Twelfth Night features a great variety of messages sent from one character to another. – Maria’s letter to Malvolio – Sir Andrew’s letter demanding a duel with Cesario But letters are not the only kind of messages that characters use. Individuals can be sent in the place of letters. – Orsino sends Cesario, for instance, to deliver messages to Olivia. Objects can function as messages between people as well: – Olivia sends Malvolio after Cesario with a ring Knight Al-Ghoraibi

11. Madness Orsino talks about the faculty of love producing multiple changing images of the beloved. Olivia remarks at certain points that desire for Cesario is making her mad. These examples of madness are mostly metaphorical: madness becomes a way for characters to express the intensity of their romantic feelings. No one is truly insane in Twelfth Night, yet a number of characters are accused of being mad, and a current of insanity or silliness runs through the action of the play. – After Sir Toby and Maria dupe Malvolio into believing that Olivia loves him, Malvolio behaves so bizarrely that he is assumed to be mad and is locked away in a dark room. Malvolio himself knows that he is sane, and he accuses everyone around him of being mad. – When Antonio encounters Viola (disguised as Cesario), he mistakes her for Sebastian, and his angry insistence that she recognize him leads people to assume that he is mad. All of these incidents feed into the general atmosphere of the play, in which normal life is thrown upside down, and everyone must confront a reality that is somehow fractured. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

12. Deception, Disguise & Performance Many characters in Twelfth Night wear disguises, beginning with Viola, who puts on male attire and makes everyone else believe that she is a man. Other characters in disguise include: – Malvolio, who puts on crossed garters and yellow stockings in the hope of winning Olivia – Feste, who dresses up as a priest—Sir Topas—when he speaks to Malvolio after the steward has been locked in a dark room. Viola puts on new clothes to change her gender, while Feste and Malvolio put on new garments either to impersonate a nobleman (Feste) or in the hopes of becoming a nobleman (Malvolio). Through these disguises, the play raises questions about what makes us who we are, compelling the audience to wonder if things like gender and class are set in stone, or if they can be altered with a change of clothing. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

13. Deception, Disguise & Performance More subtly, Orsino’s rather clichéd lovesickness for Olivia and Olivia’s just-as-clichéd response as the unattainable mourning woman bring into question the extent to which these characters are just playing these roles, rather than truly feeling the emotions they claim to be experiencing. Through the constant performance and role-playing of his characters, Shakespeare reminds us that we, like the characters, may play roles in our own lives and be susceptible to the role playing of others. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

14. Mistaken Identity The instances of mistaken identity are related to the prevalence of disguises in the play, as Viola’s male clothing leads to her being mistaken for her brother, Sebastian, and vice versa. – Sebastian is mistaken for Viola (or rather, Cesario) by Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, and then by Olivia, who promptly marries him. – Antonio mistakes Viola for Sebastian, and thinks that his friend has betrayed him when Viola claims to not know him. These cases of mistaken identity, common in Shakespeare’s comedies, create the tangled situation that can be resolved only when Viola and Sebastian appear together, helping everyone to understand what has happened. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

15. Symbols Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. Symbols used in Twelfth Night: – Olivia’s gifts – Darkness of Malvolio’s Prison – Changes of clothing Knight Al-Ghoraibi

16. Olivia’s Gifts When Olivia wants to let Cesario know that she loves him, she sends him a ring by way of Malvolio. Later, when she mistakes Sebastian for Cesario, she gives him a precious pearl. In each case, the jewel serves as a token of her love. Olivia might be trying to buy the love she cannot win. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

17. Changes of Clothing Clothes are powerful in Twelfth Night. They can symbolize changes in gender – Viola puts on male clothes to be taken for a male They also symbolize class distinctions suggesting that clothes have a power that transcends their physical function. – When Malvolio fantasizes about becoming a nobleman, he imagines the new clothes that he will have. – When Feste impersonates Sir Topas, he puts on a nobleman’s garb Knight Al-Ghoraibi

18. The Darkness of Malvolio’s Prison When Sir Toby and Maria pretend that Malvolio is mad, they confine him in a pitch- black chamber. Darkness becomes a symbol of his supposed insanity, as they tell him that the room is filled with light and his inability to see is a sign of his madness. Malvolio reverses the symbolism when he says “I say this house is as dark as ignorance, though ignorance were as dark as hell” (IV.ii.40–42). In other words, the darkness—meaning madness—is not in the room with him, but outside, with Sir Toby and Feste and Maria, who have unjustly imprisoned him. Knight Al-Ghoraibi

19. Sample Questions 1.Disguises and changes of clothing are central to the plot of Twelfth Night. Which characters in the play spend time in disguise, and how is this important to the theme? 2.How is romantic love depicted in the play? What points does Shakespeare seem to be making about romance? 3.Discuss Malvolio’s situation and desires. Who is he and what does he want from life? Is he successful? Knight Al-Ghoraibi

20. Sample Questions 4.Compare Orsino and Olivia, and discuss how their attitudes about strong emotions are similar or different. What does Shakespeare suggest about the nature of love and other powerful feelings in his portrayal of these two characters? 5.Identify the following quotes: (You should be able to tell me who said the quote, who were they talking to & what it is about.) Knight Al-Ghoraibi

21. Quotations 1. “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall. O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more, ’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.” Knight Al-Ghoraibi

22. 2. "Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as happily shall become The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke." Knight Al-Ghoraibi

23. Quotations 3. “I will be proud, I will read politic authors, I will baffle Sir Toby, I will wash off gross acquaintance, I will be point-device the very man. I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise my leg, being cross-gartered, and in this she manifests herself to my love, and with a kind of injunction drives to these habits of her liking. I thank my stars, I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on.” Knight Al-Ghoraibi