Essay | Humor in Twelfth Night

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, and the general confusion caused by Viola's disguise.

The first major instance of humour found in twelfth night is in Act 1 Scene 3 when Maria and Sir Toby Belch engage in a banter which is packed with puns. Following Maria's telling off, sir Toby says,

`Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too- an' they be not, let then hang themselves in their own straps'

In this quotation sir Toby puns the word confine with fine the also uses a metaphor saying that the boots should hang themselves with their straps giving the word hang a double meaning as well....
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