1. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
Lecturer:
Audrey Tinkham

2. Twelfth Night
Performed on February 2, 1602 at the Middle Temple (written possibly as early as 1599); usually dated 1600 or 1601.

3. Twelfth Night of Christmas
The Twelfth Night of Christmas is January 6, the Feast of Epiphany (Christian Feast of the Magi).
In Renaissance times, Twelfth Night was the last day of Christmas revels.
The purpose of allowing social roles to be turned upside down was to "channel potentially destructive insubordination into playacting and thereby promote harmony" (Bevington 326).

4. Themes Saturnalian release and the carnival pursuit of love and mirth
Friendship and marriage
Social mobility
“Will” or Desire
Illusion vs. “reality”
Twin characters & twin issues

5. Main Plot Count Orsino & Olivia Viola/Cesario & Count Orsino
Antonio & Sebastian (III.iii)
Olivia & Sebastian

6. Sub-Plot
Maria & Sir Toby
Sir Andrew & Olivia
Malvolio
Festes

7. Carnivale: Inversions of Order
Viola posing as a young man:
I.iv.24-34
I.v Why does Olivia fall in love with Cesario instead of Orsino?
III.iv
Malvolio “courting” Olivia & his gender reversal:
II.v.34
II.v.85-93,

8. Carnivale: Inversions of Order
Feste’s role as the wise man:
I.v.31-69
III.i.1-36
V.i.9-21
Sir Toby & Sir Andrew reveling in/to excess: II.iii.1-14
Maria “posing” as Olivia: II.iii

9. Carnivale: Inversions of Order
Olivia courting and “marrying” Cesario:
V.i.144-8
Maria marrying Sir Toby

10. “What You Will” What kind of man is Orsino? II.iv.73-8
Viola and Orsino on love & gender:
II.iv.29-41
II.iv
What kind of man is Malvolio?
II.iii
II.iii
V.i.378

11. Questions for Conjecture
Why is it okay for Viola to marry a nobleman, but it’s not okay for Malvolio to marry a noblewoman? (Consider the names, “Viola” and “Malvolio.”)
Viola withholds her identity until she can “give birth” to herself at the most opportune moment: I.ii.41-4, What does this tell us about her as a key figure in the play?
What does the play’s sub-title refer to?
Have Malvolio and Olivia been sexually intimate? II.v.87-96

12. Twins? Viola and Sebastian Cesario and Malvolio Viola and Maria
Malvolio and Orsino

13. Shakespeare in Performance
To think about:
Characterization: E.g., how should Viola be played? Malvolio? Maria?
Staging: focus especially on the scenes between Orsino & Cesario and on the ending.

14. Sources
Bevington, David, ed. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Bristol, Michael D. “The Festival Agon: The Politics of Carnival.” Twelfth Night. Ed. R. S. White. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1996.
Callaghan, Dympna. “‘And all is semblative a woman’s part’: Body Politics and Twelfth Night. Ed. R. S. White. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1996.
Malcolmson, Cristina. “‘What You Will’: Social Mobility and Gender in Twelfth Night.” Ed. R. S. White. New York: St. Martin’s P, 1996.