Twelfth Night on the Twelfth Night

Happy New Year! I’ve taken up a resolution this year to do more of what I love – so here I am! I’m committing to reading more by participating in the 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge (aiming for 60 books, though I hope to exceed that by a lot!) and by joining the Shakespeare 2020 Project. I’m also returning to my bookstagram and blogging about books. So let’s go!

My first book of the year was the first book of the Shakespeare 2020 Project: Twelfth Night. It’s a play I’ve read and seen many times before, so it’s a great place to start.

Performances

My first experience with Twelfth Night was in my Shakespeare course in high school. After reading it with my class, we went to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to see it performed, and it’s still the coolest performance I’ve ever seen – it took place in a SWIMMING POOL!

After that, I read it again in my Early British Literature course in college. I loved reading it in that setting – my professor for that class completely changed the way I think about reading and writing. So, understandably, I loved the way we dove into the play. I ended up writing my final paper for that class comparing Emlia from Othello and Feste from Twelfth Night as the two unexpected geniuses of their respective plays. But we can talk more about that another time (unless you really want to read the lengthy essay).

I’ve seen three other productions performed live: one fairly traditional abridged performance of it in 2016 and a rock cacophony version done by the Royal Shakespeare Company, both at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and then a jazzy production of it in 2017 outdoors at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

I’ve also seen a few film versions of the story. The classic one is from 1996, starring Imogen Stubbs as Viola, Toby Stephens as Orsino, and Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia. The incredible Ben Kingsley plays Feste, but my favorite character has to be Imelda Staunton (Professor Umbridge) as Maria. But the best known remake of Twelfth Night has to be She’s the Man (2006) with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum, and the tarantula named Malvolio.

The Story

In case you haven’t invested yourself into this play as thoroughly as I have, here’s a breakdown of the story. Spoilers ahead!

• A shipwreck separates a pair of twins, Viola and Sebastian, and each thinks the other is dead.
• Viola arrives in Illyria and disguises herself as a man so that she can serve Duke Orsino, who is in love with the Lady Olivia.
• Olivia’s brother recently died, and she refuses to love any man since she is in mourning.
• Orsino asks his page Cesario (AKA Viola) to court Olivia for him since Cesario is young and passionate – Cesario’s please on Orsino’s behalf will certainly be well received by Olivia.
• Olivia receives Cesario’s message too well and falls in love with Cesario himself. In the meantime, Cesario (Viola) finds herself in love with the Duke she’s serving. Let the love triangle commence.
• In the background, Olivia’s lady, Maria, gets mixed up with Olivia’s drunk uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and his friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, all of whom like to party too riotously for the likings of Malvolio, the butler.
• Maria, Toby and Andrew play a prank on Malvolio to make him think that Olivia is in love with him – which would mean, if they married, that he would really be in charge of the household. He falls for it completely.
• When Malvolio confronts Olivia, claiming to accept the love she gives him, the whole household believes him to be mad. Maria and Co. lock Malvolio in a dark room and send a priest to exorcise the madness from him. It all goes too far, and the pranksters regret what they’ve done.
• To mix things up further, Sir Andrew has only been at Olivia’s house because Sir Toby made him believe that Olivia might fall for him. Andrew sees that Olivia loves Orsino’s page (Cesario/Viola) more than she’ll ever love him, so he must duel Cesario to win the lady’s affection.
• When confronted, Cesario does his/her best to refuse the fight, but then a man named Antonio steps in to fight in Cesario’s place, believing him to truly be Sebastian, Viola’s lost brother. Antonio had rescued Sebastian from the shipwreck three months ago, and they have traveled to Illyria together, but are briefly separated when Antonio steps in to fight on his “friend’s” behalf. Guards of Illyria seize Antonio for wrongs he’s done in the past, and when he asks Cesario for his money back to bail himself out, Cesario refuses – since he was never given Antonio’s money.
• Are you confused yet? The players themselves are far more confused when Sebastian himself walks into the mess and runs into Olivia. She begs for his love yet again, thinking he’s Cesario – but it’s the first time Sebastian has heard it.  Sebastian thinks he must be dreaming, and agrees to run off to marry Olivia.
• Finally, Orsino himself comes to confront Olivia about his love for her, Cesario in tow. Olivia asks Cesario why he has betrayed her and returned to Orsino after they’ve just been married. Orsino is shocked, as is Cesario, so Olivia calls in the priest to prove what she’s saying is true. Toby and Andrew enter, bleeding because they’ve tried to fight Cesario again, but this time, it’s Sebastian, who defended himself while not understanding the attack.
• As Sebastian enters, all is revealed: Olivia married the wrong person but is happy, Antonio no longer feels betrayed, and Cesario is able to reveal his true identity. Upon realizing that his servant was a woman all along, Orsino decides that he’s really in love with Viola – after the five minutes he’s had to recognize this new identity.

Some Thoughts

As much as I love parts of this play, the more I engage with it, the more questions I have. First, a common question: why does the severe bullying scene with Malvolio in the dark have to be so cruel? What purpose does it serve in the larger scope of the play? I sincerely don’t have an answer for this one.

Moreover, what’s the point of Toby and Andrew at all? I can understand how these characters often (negatively) influence Maria, which links the “downstairs” people to those “upstairs” (in Downton terms), but they don’t really add much to the overarching narrative other than more confusion. Is that the point? Perhaps. They give another reason for bewilderment at the final reveal, but is there more?

With that in mind, what’s the deal with Antonio? I appreciate that he’s so generous, but why? The scene when he’s taken by the officers breaks my heart far more than any of Orsino’s crying over love. Is Antonio meant to show the deeper consequences of these misunderstandings? Is there something more going on that we’re not privy to?

Another thought from this play – one that’s often questioned by first-time audiences – is about Orsino’s immediate change at the end of the play. I feel like I have firmer footing with this idea, but I’d love to hear more thoughts on it. My understanding of it is that Orsino never really loved Olivia. For one thing, he never sees her himself throughout the entire play until the very last moments. Really, Orsino is in love with the idea of pining over love more than he is in love with the woman herself. So, when Cesario, his confidante and partner, is revealed to be Viola, he realizes that he truly has loved his page in a deeper way than he ever loved Olivia.

And finally, why is it called Twelfth Night? The Feast of the Epiphany (when the magi meet Jesus) occurs on the twelfth day of Christmas – so if you’ve always been wondering about that carol, now you know! But the play isn’t set at that time. Really, nothing indicates anything abut that time of year at all except for a song Sir Toby sings a single line of. In Shakespeare’s day, this feast was a raucous celebration, kind of like Mardi Gras. Some scholars believe the title is meant to encourage audiences to think of the chaos of that party scene, which may link to a feeling of being disconnected from the truths and responsibilities of the real world. In that way, Illyria is like a foreign world for both Viola and Sebastian. And when the twins arrive in the city, everything that was set in its ways in Illyria changes, too. Do you think that connection is too much of a stretch, or do you agree with it?

I’d love to hear what you think about the play – and if you have possible answers to any of these questions! Leave your thoughts in the comments below!