Perspectives on "Twelfth Night"

Perspectives on "Twelfth Night"

by Mary Hatfalvi & Justine Roy

Perspectives on "Twelfth Night"

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Abstract

This project explores various performances of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and how they were received by viewers and critics. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the relationship between "Twelfth Night" and how people perceive the show over time. Our previous experience includes courses on Shakespeare, theater technology, and photography. This milestone serves as our culminating capstone project towards our theater humanities depths.

Introduction

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Section 1: Background

Summary

"Twelfth Night" is a romantic comedy by Shakespeare. After their ship is destroyed by a storm, twins, Viola and Sebastian, are individually rescued and each assume the other drowned. Viola hears of Olivia, the lady whom the Count Orsino is courting. Viola decides that she wants to meet Olivia who also is suffering from the death of her own brother. To do so she devises the plan of serving Orsino disguised as a boy and calling herself Cesario. Orsino has her pursuing Olivia for him as a messenger. Olivia falls in love with Cesario while Viola falls in love with Orsino. Meanwhile, Sebastian decides to go to Count Orsino unaware that his sister is alive. Upon arriving in the city, Sebastian is mistaken by Olivia for Cesario and she promptly marries him. Orsino finds out and, thinking that Sebastian is Cesario, gets extremely upset that his servant acted so wrongly against him. It is not until Viola and Sebastian end up in the same room that the siblings discover the other is alive and disguise of Cesario is abandoned. Olivia ends up happily married to Sebastian while Orsino and Viola become engaged.

Inspiration

Viola and the Countess by Frederick Richard Pickersgill (1859)

There are clear relationships between "Twelfth Night" and other works that Shakespeare was exposed to as well as some new styles.

"Twelfth Night" is considered on of Shakespeare's great comedies and defies many of the prior conventions of comedy that his earlier comedies followed. Comedy was seen as a show that resolved happily. However, "Twelfth Night" despite having a positive ending is also serious and sobering. While Viola and Sebastian are reunited, the tragedy of what had happened to them is still present. In addition, the show does not end on the celebrations of the reunited twins and their relationships with Olivia and Orsino. Instead, the show returns to the shaming of Malvolio ending on a dark note as he promises revenge. Additionally, Shakespeare's focus in the structure of the show defies that of comedies. There are three subplots considered. The typical comedic plot focuses on the antics of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria harassing Malvolio and using his ego to deceive him. This plot is lighthearted and uses traditional styles of comedy such as farce. The second subplot is that between Olivia and Viola. As with the previous plot, a character is deceived and again follows the established comedic style. The third subplot involves Viola and Orsino and strays from comedy. Instead it explores a sentimental relationship between the two characters. Therefore, the logical structure for a comedy would focus on the plot against Malvolio then the relationship between Olivia and Viola and finally just feature the relationship with Orsino. This would satisfy a comedy of a series of carefully planned misfortunes. However, Shakespeare focuses on these plots in the reverse order. His focus is on the developing relationship with Orsino and Viola giving a considerable sincere side to the play. In doing so he defies the typical style of comedy.

Despite the play's differences from traditional comedies, plots within "Twelfth Night" parallel those of other shows. These shows likely acted as inspiration for Shakespeare. One of the inspirations Shakespeare used was another one of his own plays "The Comedy of Errors". "The Comedy of Errors" was written as an adaptation of the story named "The Menaechmi" by the Plautus who lived in the late BC era. This story is about two twin brothers separated and when they are grown both find themselves in the same town and are mistaken for each other. This gives explanation for the plot of mistaking two twin siblings. However where does the gender switching come from?

"Gl’Igannati" (The Deceived) (1537) by the academy of Intronati at Siena was likely the source for the gender triangle complication in Twelfth Night. In summary, Gl’Igannati is about a girl, Lelia (Shakespeare’s version Viola), and her love for Flamminio (Duke Orsino). Lelia's father, a rich man named Virginio, loses his wealth and his young son Fabrizio but saves Lelia. Upon moving to a different city Lelia falls in love with Flamminio. He returns her affection until Lelia leaves with her father on a trip. While Lelia is gone Flamminio falls in love with Isabella, who doesn't want him. When Lelia returns she finds Flamminio no longer wants her so she devises a plan. She disguises herself as a boy called Fabio and becomes Flamminio’s page. A similar situation is played out by Viola disguising herself as Cesario and serving Duke Orsino but being in love with him. "Twelfth Night" has several key differences though that create a new tone. In "Gl’Igannati", Lelia previously was in a relationship with Flamminio and, after being wronged, empowers herself. She embodies a strong heroine. In contrast, Viola does not fall in love with Orsino until after she disguises herself nor is she empowered. In fact, when presented with the issue of the love triangle, she resigns herself and hopes that time will sort the problem out for her. Furthermore, Shakespeare further complicates the show with the two other previously mentioned plots, transforming it into a comedy.

Neither of these inspirations, however, had a character like Malvolio. Malvolio is important since he is the butler that thinks he is high & mighty and is then tricked horribly making him the subject of the key comedic plot. It is assumed that he is Shakespeare’s own invention. The most reasonable explanation for this is found in Dr. Tosh's Article, "The answer lies in something Maria says, after Malvolio has interrupted a late-night party in Olivia’s house. ‘Sometimes he is a kind of puritan,’ she remarks (2.3.125). Today we use the term ‘puritan’ to mean someone who is excessively strict about issues of personal and sexual morality, but it had a more specific meaning in the early seventeenth century. For Shakespeare and his contemporaries, to call someone a ‘puritan’ was to use a disrespectful term for someone with radical religious views. England’s ‘puritans’ were various groups of zealous Protestants who condemned anything that resembled Catholic ritual or tradition. They had many targets for their disapproval: singing, dancing, festive games, rich food, gaudy clothes, long hair – and theatre. Throughout his career, Shakespeare had to contend with extremists who regarded drama as an offence against religion and morality" The character of Malvolio was someone Shakespeare wanted to use to almost 'revenge' puritans about their theatre hatred. Even when Mavolio is abused, in the end of the play Shakespeare then shows the audience that he is human with feelings and that what was done to Malvolio was wrong. This suggests the theme that mistreatment of humans even when they are in the wrong is never alright.

Finally, Shakespeare used his audience, venue and resources as an opportunity to develop his comedy. It is believed that "Twelfth Night" was written to be performed at the Middle Temple for the queen. Shakespeare includes comments by the charaters about their surroundings that describe the venue, breaking the fourth wall. The characters also comment on several occasions on the audience. One example of this is when Malvolio says, "I say, this house is as dark as ignorance" (Shakespeare IV. ii. 46-50). This would play with the audience as it would have been comprised by many of the elite and well educated. Similarly, Shakespeare played with the fact that only men were allowed to act at the time. According to an Article written by Dr. Will Tosh on the inspiration of Twelfth Night, "Shakespeare’s plays were performed at a time when all of the actors were male, with teenage boys becoming the female roles. Shakespeare incorporated this convention into his plays, finding ways to turn what might be regarded as a disadvantage into a dramatic strength. In Twelfth Night, Viola isn’t just a girl dressing as a boy. She’s a boy playing a girl who pretends to be a boy, pursued by a boy playing a woman (Olivia) who ends up seducing a boy playing a boy (Sebastian). Part of the joke is that Viola-as-Caesario looks attractively feminine and irresistibly masculine depending on who is doing the looking: Orsino observes approvingly of his new pageboy’s appearance that ‘all is semblative a woman’s part’ (1.4.33), while Olivia compliments Viola on being ‘a proper man’ (3.1.125)". Shakespeare through this inspiration also seems to suggest that the theme of gender is something based on how you act, rather than something based on what you were born with was a message he wanted to send trough this play.

National Theater

The National Theater's performance of "Twelfth Night" was playful but still grounded in realism. The setting spanned multiple time periods. While the costumes were largely modernized, older elements were brought in. For example, the maids' dresses were of a modern style but had ruffs on them. In the beginning the actors drove out in antique cars indicating yet another time period in the late twentieth century. The interior decorating of Olivia's house was modern. This blending of time periods is consistent with the idea that Shakespeare's plays are considered timeless. The National Theater took several creative liberties with the play. The gender of Fabian, Malvolio and the clown were all switched from male to female. This introduced new relationship dynamics as Malvolia was lesbian unlike Malvolio. Another surprising element introduced was Count Orsino boxing. It is another example of a modern activity being introduced to the show. The casting featured a relatively young cast with all the leads in what appeared to be roughly in their 20s or 30s. Overall, the show appeared to be quite faithful to the original script with only minor alterations being made to adjust for the different genders of characters.

Reviews

look at how this interpretation was received by the public and scholars and why

The Globe

The Globe's performance of "Twelfth Night" had the feel of a spoof in the style of Mel Brooks. The performance was goofy and the performers maintained character though they did not present convincingly realistic people. Instead, the characters were dramatized and occasionally broke the fourth wall. One of the most notable changes made was the introduction of a musical aspect to the show. While the clown sings on occasion in the original script, all of the characters were singing on multiple occasions during the show. This resulted in significant modifications to the script as some lines were removed and some converted into lyrics. Many other lines, however, remained untouched. The show appeared to be set in Scotland in the late 1970s as several of the characters wore kilts and many of the other costumes drew on fashion from that time period such as jumpsuits with bell bottoms. In addition, several songs from that time period were referenced including "We are Family" and "I Will Survive". The casting for the show was older than for the National Theater's performance and appeared to have a decent sized age gap between Olivia and both Orsino and Olivia. In addition, the clown did not have as clear of a role. While the clown in the National Theater's performance had a significant role in the antics and in revealing themes, the clown in this performance was not well defined. He primarily just led the characters in song. Without knowing the play the character of the clown would quite possibly be very confusing.

Reviews

look at how this interpretation was received by the public and scholars and why

Twentieth Century Performance

describe another past interpretation of the show from the twentieth century

Reviews

look at how this interpretation was received by the public and scholars and why

Original Performance

This play was first performed according to J.W Draper, who was a professor of English at West Virginia University in , in January 1601 on 'Twelfth-Night Eve' for the Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Whitehall palace. It was "the Queen's Twelfth Night entertainment to regale 'the living Duke Orsino.'" Virgino Orsino was the Duke of Bracciano at the time of Queen Elizabeth I and she entertained him royally on the twelfth night. However, it is known that the Middle Temple was the place where Shakespeare wanted this play to be performed. Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple opened in February 1602.

The set for the original play saw some parts taking place by the seashore, then in the nearby city. The city, according to J.W Draper, was supposed to be somewhere in Italy specifically Venice and the Venetian colonies in Dalmatia. The dialogue of the play has some Italian wording but also Latin, French and Spanish. The suggestion about the setting and different combination of dialect is that Shakespeare wanted his play to reach across the globe to be performed other places and for it to not just be done in England. The plot, dialogue and costume however was written in Elizabethan style. Shakespeare's original style for this play was comedic and dramatic.

Reviews

Getting review from John Manningham.

Section 2: Deliverable

here we describe our own interpretation of a scene and how we would have it performed

Gallery

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Conclusion

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