"The Twelfth Night" or "What you Will" is one of Shakespeare's most famous comedies. It deals with mistaken identity and true love. The play is indicative of plays of the time in which male and female characters often played or posed as the opposite sex. The characters are found out in the most comedic ways and all is well that ends well.
Twelfth Night, Or, What You Will
by William Shakespeare
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in 1564, William Shakespeare was a glove maker’s son who later became the most famous of British ...
Read more
The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of English writers and one of the most extraordinary creators in human history.The ...
Read more
Considered by critics, scholars, and the theater-going public the most important dramatist in the history of English literature, William Shakespeare occupies a unique position in the pantheon of great...
Read more
"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer, in English or ...
Read more
William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays. With the partial exception of the Sonnets (1609), quarried since the early nineteenth century for autobiographical secrets allegedly ...
Read more
Biography Essay"He was not of an age, but for all time." So wrote Ben Jonson in his dedicatory verses to the memory of William Shakespeare in 1623, and so we continue to affirm today. No other writer,...
Read more
In all of Shakespeare's plays, there is a definitive style present, a style he perfected. From his very first play (The Comedy of Errors) to his very last (The Tempest), he uses unique symbolism and d...
Read more
True Love, does it really exist? This has been a universally contradicted question since the dawn of Mankind. For eons humans have believed, yet ironically there have been no scientific proofs of such...
Read more
In the midst of a male-dominant society - sixteenth century Elizabethan England - Shakespeare portrays women with strengths at least equal to those of men. By so doing, he opens the door for them ...
Read more
Generosity and courtesy are both traits that are difficult to refuse. Because generous and courteous people earn respect through their actions, successful relationships often result. In William Shak...
Read more
The distinguished philosopher Nietzsche in many ways summaries life and existence accurately with his statement "there is no feast without cruelty." This is seen to be the case in William Shakespeare'...
Read more
Soliloquy means a dramatic form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or herself, or revealing his or her thoughts without addressing a listener. In the play Twelfth Night, known as the m...
Read more
Feste is a jester, clown or fool who moves between the homes of Olivia and Orsino. During the Renaissance, monarchs and some noble families had fools or clowns in their households as entertainers- to ...
Read more
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou...
In William Shakespeare's play of Twelfth Night love is one of the main themes and therefore imagery of love accompanies it. As the characters fall in...
Read more
Twelfth Night is a typical Elizabethan style of romantic comedy that Shakespeare has developed with great success. Disguised characters and remote settings are typical features of plays such as these....
Read more
Like many other playwrights, Shakespeare used disguises in appearances to create conflicts among characters, make them seem confused and ridiculous to bring out audience's laughter. In his comedy "Twe...
Read more
Twelfth night starts off with Orsino, Duke of Illyria, talking to Curio about his love for Olivia. He compares his love to two different things: Music and the sea. He is telling his friends about how...
Read more
In a book on Twelfth Night, Dr. Leslie Hotson suggested that the play was written to compliment an Italian nobleman, Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano, in a court entertainment given for him on Tw...
Read more
Women are the weaker sex; they say one thing but mean another, they are indecisive about what they want, they over annalise things, and they flock to the bathroom like lemmings. The play "Twelfth N...
Read more
I do not believe that I was lead into such trickery by people that were supposedly my friends. They made me look like such an idiot in front of the one whom I love. I am going to get them all back i...
Read more
William Shakespeare, arguably the most important writer in all of English
Literature, is certainly the most influential playwright of the English Renaissance. Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon i...
Read more
Self love and false love are revealed in Shakespeare's play `Twelfth Night." Shakespeare exposes love through emotional exaggeration, by which he raises his imaginary world above that of the ordinar...
Read more
William Shakespeare is the most well-known British author in the history of literature. He has covered almost every genre in his plays, including tragedy, horror, historic fiction, fantasy, romance, a...
Read more
The first act of Twelfth Night plays a significant role in introducing the main characters, main conflict, main plot, a little about the sub-plot, the theme of love and the nature of topsy-turvy . W...
Read more
Twelfth Night contains excellent examples of many types of people. The greatest illustration is the many dynamic characters. A dynamic character is a person in a story, or play, that changes his origi...
Read more
The play Twelfth Night is set in a Elizabethan country household in a place called Illyria. Illyria is a fictional place. Although the setting felt familiar to the audience, the name Illyria gave it...
Read more
Hello, my name is Viola, now being a wife of the noble Duke of Illyria, Orsino . I married him on a day which was filled with surprise and jubilant . First, Olivia, thinking that I were a man ( I w...
Read more
Deceit is a main theme in Twelfth Night, since most of the characters in the play are engaged in either deceiving themselves or in deliberately, or accidentally deceiving others.
After losing her...
Read more
The nature of the medium of theatre means that everything portrayed by Shakespeare is an illusion 'played upon a stage'; the play is a fantastical arena where appearance is not limited by the constrai...
Read more
Paradise: state or place of perfect happiness, heaven, innocence.
Illyria- a name that sounds like it should belong in a book by C.S Lewis, the place where Shakespeare's `Twelfth Night' is set, full ...
Read more
The Role of Gender and Appearance in Twelfth Night
In some cases appearance and gender can tell everything about what kind of a person someone is. Gender plays an important role in Twelfth Night beca...
Read more
In Act 2 scene 5 the mood is very lighthearted and is full of theatrical comedy, we find Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and their friend Fabian hidden away as they await Malvolio to stumble upon the letter supp...
Read more
Love has become very dominate in society today because love has come to conquer everything. Types of love in society are, romantic love, this is the love between lovers, then familial love, which come...
Read more
Like most fairy tales that commence with "Once upon a time," William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy where a basic conflict is eventually resolved so that all the protagonists live "h...
Read more
The Play Twelfth Night or, What you will by William Shakespeare was written in 1601. The play takes place in Illyria and is a comedy written in the spirit of the celebration of the Twelve Nights of C...
Read more
In Twelfth Night we see different types of humour. There is the witty word play exchanged by Viola and Feste, the bawdy humour of Sir Toby, the foolishness of Sir Andrew, self-importance of Malvolio, ...
Read more
The content of this essay is about how Shakespeare portrays Malvolio and the methods he uses to do this. It also mentions how Shakespeare intends the audience to react to Malvolio at different stages ...
Read more
Many people wear masks to disguise their feelings, either intentionally or subconsciously, and in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the characters do just that. Viola, a twin who seems to have lost...
Read more
Filled with self-consciousness, love, and overconfidence, the characters from Twelfth Night hide their true selves, weaknesses, and feelings. The disguises that they have put on are to conceal their ...
Read more
In the Shakespearean play Twelfth Night there appears the character Malvolio who is seen as a social `reject' whom a `trick' is played upon later in the play. Shakespeare portrays Malvolio as a charac...
Read more
Twelfth Night, a love comedy is one of Shakespeare's most amazing plays. Shakespeare analyses human nature, particularly our ability to love through the creation of the imaginary land, Illyria and man...
Read more
Act three scene four, the central scene of the play is one of the two longest scenes in the entire play. In this scene, the main plot and sub plot merged together. We can see all characters are on the...
Read more
Comedy means something farcical that can make people laugh. It is usually done for the purpose of entertainment. Throughout the whole play, Shakespeare creates comic effects to amuse his audience. In...
Read more
While hard work and sacrifice can be greatly rewarded, selfishness and conceitedness are not. Twelfth Night, a play by William Shakespeare, features two characters, Malvolio and Viola, who serve thei...
Read more
Feste is Olivia's professional jester, or fool. He receives payment to entertain, sing, and make satirical observations. This license allows him to freely speak his opinion. In Shakespeare's Twelft...
Read more
Examine the Presentation of Orsino and his love in the play.
Orsino, Duke of Illyria has a prominent and pivotal role in Twelfth Night. Illyria his kingdom reflects aspects of Orsino's character and ...
Read more
1. Title: Twelfth Night or What You Will
Author: William Shakespeare
Author's date: 1564-1616
Date of first performance: 1623, in the First Folio
Period of play: Elizabethan
Awards: /
Ma...
Read more
"The thinker dies, but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction. Men are mortal, but ideas are immortal." This famous quote by William Lippman means that though all the great men are mortal bu...
Read more
OLIVIA UNIFIES
In the play Twelfth Night, Olivia is the character who unites the three separate plots. She is involved in the love triangle between Viola and Duke Orsino. Olivia is the cause of Malvo...
Read more
In every play, it is inevitable that the characteristics of some characters strongly parallel each other and Twelfth Night is no exception. The two characters, Orsino and Olivia, are stunningly simi...
Read more
."..Self-proclaimed wits are usually not witty at all and it is this lack of self-knowledge that makes them fools," states Ben Knisley in his essay, "The Role of the Fool: Feste's Significance." If th...
Read more
How much sympathy do you feel for Malvolio"
Malvolio is an incredibly negative person thought the play, he is not liked by anyone and he is very bossy and proud. This makes it exceptionally hard for...
Read more
Love is a category of itself, and it can only be justified by a person's actions and words. In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, love is unavoidable. Each character experiences love. Shakespeare i...
Read more
Shakespeare's romantic comedy, "Twelfth Night," was about a confusingly, twisted love triangle. A nobleman, Orsino, is very much in love with Lady Olivia. He sends his messenger, Cesario, to give Ol...
Read more
In William Shakespeare's comedic play, Twelfth Night, a recurring theme is deception. The characters in the play used deception for a variety of purposes. Viola's use of deception involves her dis...
Read more
CRITICAL EVALUATION SEAN DONAGHY
TASK: In what ways does "Twelfth Night" exhibit the features of a typical Shakespearian comedy?
Four hundred years ago, one William Shakesp...
Read more
The theme of love is very strong in Twelfth Night, and this can be seen as soon as the play begins. The love throughout the play is shown is many different forms; love for a family member, love for an...
Read more
In act 2 scene 5 Shakespeare presents Malvolio's character as very gullible this is because, Malvolio starts to read the letter (from lines 80 onwards) and even though he knows that Olivia has not fal...
Read more
In "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare, Malvolio plays Olivia's steward. He is a very strict steward and seems to always be with Olivia. Most of the characters in the play dislike him as they find ...
Read more
Deception is a powerful device, but its use may have unintended and undesirable outcomes. In Twelfth Night, this is evinced by the numerous complications caused by Viola's physical disguise, as well a...
Read more
The theme of illusion plays an important role throughout William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, especially since the play is a fantasy, and things are often illusions and rarely what they seem to be. On...
Read more
Malvolio has been considered by some to be the darkest character in the play. In what ways do you think he is dark? Discuss it in terms of his character, experiences and what he adds to the play.
Ma...
Read more
Malvolio in William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" was never a likable character due to his pride and rudeness. He never hid his disdain for the others and went as far as threatening to get them into t...
Read more
Orsino was not noble in "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare. We only catch glimpses that he has redeeming qualities. However, I agree to a large extent that Olivia is essentially good and noble.
...
Read more
The word `fool' has various meanings. Most of the time it means clown but it can mean someone who professionally counterfeits folly for the entertainment of others, someone who is made to appear a foo...
Read more
In Act I Scene 3 of "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare, we meet another group of characters: Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew. The way Maria uses wordplay on Sir Andrew, Sir Toby poking fun at him a...
Read more
Twelfth Night Book Notes is a free study guide on Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Browse the summary below:
Author Biography / Context of the Work
One-Page Plot Summary
 ...
Read more
Twelfth Night, Or, What You Will
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night