1. Twelfth Night or What You Will
Literature Notes

2. William Shakespeare’s plays fit into two general categories: comedies and tragedies.
Twelfth Night is a comedy. While Shakespeare’s tragedies usually end in death, his comedies often end in marriage.
Twelfth Night deals with universal themes that are relevant even in modern society.

3. One of the main themes in Twelfth Night is Love
One of the main themes in Twelfth Night is Love. It appears in many forms in the play, just like in society.
Duke Orsino Olivia
Andrew Aguecheek Olivia
Olivia Cesario
Viola Duke Orsino
Toby Maria
Malvolio Self
Love

4. Duke Olivia: Orsino is in love with love: the emotions of love, the romance, the beauty, and how it makes him feel.
Andrew Olivia: In love with position. He is interested in Olivia’s status, her wealth and standing in the community. As a man with wealth and position, he seeks a woman of equal or higher standing.
Olivia Cesario: Love at first sight. Olivia has no knowledge of the real person she “loves.” She falls in love just by seeing him (her) a single time.
ViolaDuke: Unachievable love. Despite the depth of her feelings, Viola’s love for the Duke is unattainable, out of reach, denied her because situations prevent her from acting on her feelings.

5. Toby Maria: Lust. In contrast to Orsino’s romantic ideas of love, Toby’s “love” for Maria is crude and carnal.
Malvolio Malvolio: Self love or conceit. He is constantly admiring himself and imagining others adoring him. His “love” for Olivia is based on his own self-interest.

6. Two other interwoven themes in Twelfth Night are Social Classes and the Role of Women in Elizabethan society.
While in Shakespeare’s time women were the “underclass” to men, in this play the women have all the power and more intelligence than the men.
Viola and Maria are the most clever characters in the play, whereas Toby and Andrew are bumbling fools for the most part.
The Duke is made powerless by his infatuation with Olivia.
Malvolio is at the mercy of characters who he deems to be “below him,” although they are actually of a higher social class than he.

7. Viola’s “gender bending” would be considered in- appropriate behavior for Elizabethan women, but doing so allows her to outsmart the others and get what he wants.
Coincidentally, during Shakespeare’s life a very powerful, confident woman was at the helm of his country: Queen Elizabeth.
Feste, or the Clown, in this play does not fit the mold of his name or expected social class as he is very wise.