1. Twelfth Night
A Quick Intro

2. Alternate Title
What You Will

3. What is “twelfth night”?
Last night of Christmas celebrations that were popular in Elizabethan times (Jan. 6)
Also known in the church calendar as Epiphany, the Feast of the Magi (the day the Wise Men visited baby Jesus)
This holy day, however, covers over a Pagan mid-winter holiday, Saturnalia, which became the medieval “Feast of Fools”
A day given to fun, disguises, and pranks

4. “Feast of Fools”
A holiday celebrated as a festival in which everything is turned upside down – a theme explored in the play.

5. Setting: Illyria City of Illyria Known to Shakespeare
as an actual region
off the coast of the
Adriatic Sea
(present day Albania)

6. Illyria is ideal for many of the plot developments, themes, imagery, etc. that arise in the play:

7. Distant Land
It acted as a generically exotic setting for a play full of romance and intrigue

8. Shipwreck
Situated off the coast, offered preconditions for a shipwreck
Illyria would have been associated with piracy in the Elizabethan mind

9. Illusion
The word “Illyria” brings forth associations like “illusion” or the “illusory”

10. What is the play about? Illusion Deception Disguises Madness Love
Concerned with the extraordinary things we’ll do in the name of love

11. The Play
Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked in a violent storm off the coast of Illyria and lose contact, with each thinking the other is dead
Viola disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and becomes a page in the service of Duke Orsino

12. Comedy
Features a female protagonist who disguises herself as a young man
In Shakespeare’s day, all parts were played by men, so the actor playing Viola would be a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man – which was very amusing to the audience at the time

13. Characters Viola “Cesario”
A young aristocratic woman who decides to disguise herself as a man to get a job as a servant after being involved in a ship wreck
Olivia
A beautiful countess who is in mourning after the deaths of her father and brother

14. Characters Duke Orsino
A handsome nobleman who loves Olivia and loves the idea of being in love
Malvolio
Olivia’s headservant, haughty and self-righteous, also in love with Olivia

15. Characters
Sebastian
Viola’s twin brother, believed to have died in the shipwreck
Antonio
Rescues Sebastian and is extremely fond of him

16. Characters Sir Toby Belch Olivia’s uncle, rowdy and a heavy drinker
Sir Andrew Aguecheek
A friend of Sir Toby’s, thinks he is really great but it actually an idiot, wants to court Olivia

17. Characters Maria Olivia’s servant, very clever and daring
Feste the Clown (Fool)
The court jester in Olivia’s household, very wise

18. Characters