Olivia And The Fool In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Improved Essays
William Shakespeare had a talent for making characters that are able to be interpreted many different ways, whether in relationships, or just alone. This is shown very well in his famous play, Twelfth Night. As a comedy written for the twelfth night festivities that are celebrated around the Christmas season, it is expected to have very well liked characters to keep those watching, entertained. It succeeds in doing just that, and also succeeds in have very deep, almost tragic moments. These diverse and well-rounded characters who go through so much in such a little amount of time, all have so many different interpretations that add to the play and make it even more amazing. Two very important characters who can both be interpreted in different ways, are the aristocrat, Olivia and the fool, Feste. While separately seen as complex characters with complex interpretations, Olivia and Feste’s relationship is rarely even considered by those analyzing the play. The most obvious ways to take their relationship, are whether it is romantic or either purely a friendship. Both of these rely on how their characters are acted and fleshed out, not just how they interact. One interpretation of Feste and Olivia’s relationship is that they’re purely good friends, nothing more, nothing less. Throughout the play, the fool is shown to …show more content…
While their relationship is constantly being overlooked and not seen as important as some of the other ones in the play, their relationship is actually very important for the overall structure. Olivia and Feste have a bond that is shown through text and subtext, between Feste’s relationship with Malvolio, the songs he sings, and how Olivia interacts with him. While them being in love is the stronger interpretation, it must be swept under the rug, due to the differences between their class, and Olivia’s rising love for

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The Twelfth Night or What you will is a play written by William Shakespeare in about 1601-02. It is a comedy which focuses around the romantic relationships of the twins Viola and Sebastian and their love interests Orsino and Olivia on the island of Illyria. The play has a comedic twist by including an element of crossdressing, which in turn brings much confusion to the romantic relationships of the characters. The Twelfth Night was written during the renaissance, which was a time of excess; in both the arts, beauty and frivolity. Shakespeare explores these areas of excess in the first monologue of the play by the Duke and throughout the course of the play.…

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The nature of love influences people to make rash and impulsive decisions. The affections that are created by these decisions might feel satisfying, but the reactions towards the decisions can seem unreasonable. There are benefits and disadvantages when it comes to being in love. The affections that one feels might be satisfying, but the reactions towards these affections can seem unreasonable. William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night explores the idea about people performing irrational actions when in love.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the Twelfth Night he’s a handsome, rich Bachelor who is very poetic and is honestly just in love with love. His first line in the play shows how he feels about love, “If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting (1.1.1) His passion for love echoes to Voila and she begins to fall in love with him, which doesn’t work in her favor because he thinks she’s a man. He is head over heels in love with Olivia which bring him and Viola closer in the attempts that Viola might help Olivia fall in love with him. This leaves Viola caught in the middle of a love triangle, but not in the way she would like. Gacefully she helps Olivia with the grieving of her father and brother and shows Orisno what love is really like, not the fantasy’s that he developed in this head about Olivia.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Olivia In Twelfth Night

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Twelfth Night, a play by William Shakespeare, is about a love triangle between Duke Orsino, Viola, and the Countess Olivia where Orsino is trying to woo Olivia, who refuses his advances because she is mourning the death of her brother; Viola is in love with Orsino, but can’t show her affection since she is disguised as a man; and Olivia is in love with Viola disguised as Cesario. After all sorts of different complications getting in between their love for each other, Olivia marries Viola’s brother, Sebastian who was believed to be dead, and Viola and Orsino marry each other. I usually don’t enjoy reading plays, but Twelfth Night is an exception. It is witty, funny, and has a wonderful romantic plot despite its hard-to-follow Shakespearean…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night alludes to a variety of themes that commonly include false identity, role-playing, and love. The general plot of the play could be described as a cross-dressing comedy about a woman, Viola, who tries to gain the attention and love of a Duke, Orsino, with obstacles along the way, including Olivia, the Duke’s love interest. The themes mentioned are developed and sometimes scrutinized by the play’s characters, such as Orsino, Olivia, and Feste the clown. In particular, the progression of the beginning of III, i expand upon the themes through a conversation between Viola and Feste, also referred to as Clown. Through a quick reading of this part of the scene, a reader might view the conversation as further characterization…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shakespeare addresses the positive and negative qualities of humanity through his play Twelfth Night. Although, the audience can see the characters mocking negative human behaviour by showing the fickle nature of love, characters choosing immoral decisions, and the corrupt behavior that is present in this play. Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night utilizes characters, such as Olivia, Maria, and Sir Toby to show the negativity of human behaviour. Olivia demonstrates the fickle nature of love through her unrealistic act of falling in love within minutes. Sir Toby displays a negative human quality of his immoral behaviour and decision making by carelessly using others for his own needs.…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gender In Twelfth Night

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages

    While in Shakespeare’s time, the question as to how gender is performed also played into the idea that all roles were played by men, this play is universal because people of all backgrounds experience the excitement of finding genuine human connection. In the text, Olivia is depicted by Orsino as a cold and unresponsive maiden, however, while she is uninterested in Orsino, her true motivation for rejecting his lust is her fear of getting hurt. Olivia has recently lost her brother, whom she adored, and the fear of losing someone else whom she loves is too much to bear. Coupled with this fear, her realization that Orsino’s love is not genuine leads her to reject his advances, and remain distant, both literally and figuratively. Through the text, it is evident that during this speech Olivia begins to feel connected to Viola.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Foolishness of Love in Twelfth Night Love plays a big role in everyone’s life. In most cases, affection is a wonderful thing that unites people together. But on occasion, love can be mad and crazy. Four hundred and fifteen years ago, William Shakespeare wrote the comedic play, Twelfth Night, in which the central theme of love was discussed. Twelfth Night is a comedic play in which humour is seen through the foolishness of love demonstrated by the characters: Olivia, Antonio, and Sebastian.…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy with unrequited love being one of the main focal points of the play. Despite the fact that resolutions are sought resulting in the play ending happily, where after much confusion, lovers come together, Shakespeare heavily focuses on when love does not work out as one may wish and the heartache it can bring. He shows the lengths characters will go to, for the ones they love even though it may bring them pain. This idea is brought to life Trevor Nunn’s 1996 film adaption of Shakespeare’s, “Twelfth Night.”…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The love of Olivia to Viola, Viola and Orsino, Orsino to Olivia, and humorously enough, the love that Toby and Maria find. All these characters share a common goal: capture the love they desperately, and irrevocably want. While some may have more direct approach, others find it in the end, in an almost fairy tale ending. Love is a mysterious, lecherous being,…

    • 1936 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shakespeare repeatedly challenges social structure through twisting traditional gender roles in Twelfth Night with the twin characters, Viola and Sebastian. Shakespeare has complicated the gender roles between Viola and Sebastian by cloaking Viola as male, not only through her dialogue (and Sebastian’s as well) but through her persona. Shakespeare chooses this idea in his writing to flow the characterization of these two perplexing individuals who washed up on shore and focused on their arrival to Illyria. From the beginning of Twelfth Night when Viola discovers Illyria to when Sebastian is rescued by an intrigued sailor and brought to Illyria, both characters use expression in their dialogue that don’t fit their gender stereotypes to exaggerate…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the play, one of the main themes is unrequited love. This always means that some would end up being unhappy as the person they love does not love them back. We see this between Sir Andrew and Olivia. Sir Andrew loves Olivia, ‘here comes the countess, heaven walks on earth’. However, Olivia does not love Sir Andrew as she loves Cesario.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Twelfth Night, a complex love story. The events of the play may seem predictable, but there are many plot twists. Backstabbing, being one, can be very unpleasant at times. People can be spontaneous while backstabbing. This can effect a variety of different types of love seen in the play, Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    These types of characters in the Twelfth Night are only characters of a higher social class. Sir Toby, a noble, actually marries Maria, a servant, even though they are in different social classes. Olivia, a noble, openly seeks out Cesario, a messenger to Olivia, even though they too are also in different social classes. Olivia never cared about the love messages that Cesario was telling her from Orsino as she states towards Cesario that “… I love thee so that, (despite) all thy pride, (neither) wit no reason can my passion hide” (Shakespeare 1111). In the story, it seems that it is more approved upon if a higher class character tries to be with a lower class character then it would be if it was vice versa.…

    • 1342 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, explores the effects of deception and trickery. Shakespeare’s characters are unaware the world they see is an illusion. Shakespeare sets the stage for a comedic adventure through Illyria starring conspiracy and intrigue. Niccolò Machiavelli, on the other hand, is attempting to shed light on how politics works in the world through The Prince. Machiavelli presents disturbing truths about the behavior of humanity, thus earning himself sinister notoriety.…

    • 1200 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays