SOURCE: “The Problem of Malvolio,” in College Literature, Vol. 23, No. 2, June, 1996, pp. 62-82.
In the essay that follows, Cahill examines the way in which the plot and subplot of Twelfth Night operate on both psychological and social levels, stating that the main plot suggests a fantastical realm in which the aristocracy experiences a great deal of emotional freedom, compared to the subplot's historical specificity and rootedness in Elizabethan social relations.
