Fools In Twelfth Night

In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, we are presented with various characters and plots which supply the play with comedic elements. The comedy of Twelfth Night predominantly stems from the ‘foolish’ characters and the scenarios they are involved in. Traditionally a fool is defined as ‘a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person’, ‘a person who is duped or imposed on’, or ‘a jester or clown, especially one retained in a royal or noble household’. (1) In Twelfth Night it is clear that at least one definition is relevant to almost every character, and this is why comedy is dependent upon the fool.

Almost every character in Twelfth Night is portrayed as a fool in some sense, and there are two main categories of fools, the ‘Natural
Fool’ and the ‘Artificial Fool’ under which many of the characters lie. The professional fool is Feste who serves as a practiced jester to Olivia therefore, his character is somewhat labelled for him and hence can be seen as an ‘artificial fool’. Feste’s artificiality perhaps brands him less as a character than a function because he provides the role of an exposition character rather than a participatory one; he has strength in making observations as “He must observe their mood on whom he jests,…This is a practice/As full of labour as a wise man’s art.” The fact that he is potentially the least foolish character and has more wit than those of a more credible status reflects the title ‘Twelfth Night’, a name commonly given to the Christian Feast of the Epiphany where everything was deemed to be turned on its head. On such an occasion, known as the ‘Feast of Fools’, the clergy in the cathedral towns would elect a boy chorister to be their ‘king for the day’. (2) It is evident that Feste plays a distinctive role in Twelfth Night through his use of wit and cunning, giving a philosophical perspective on events, language and other characters.

Still, Feste is not the only character that is subject to foolery, as he and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that ‘evade reality or rather realize a dream.’(3) In relation to this, the character of Viola could also be perceived as an artificial fool as she takes on perhaps the most complex role in the play, a male portraying a female portraying a male. Viola’s disguise becomes a central theme in creating the comic confusion in Illyria, it can be seen when Olivia asks “Are you a comedian?”, to which Viola replies “No my profound heart; and yet, by the very fangs of malice, I swear, I am not that I play.”(Act 1, Scene 5) This quote could perhaps be seen as deceiving as Shakespeare has wittingly made reference to Viola’s disguise in ‘I am not that I play’, which has a literal meaning. This particular scene provides comedy through foolishness as Olivia has taken a liking to Viola who has been sent on Orsino’s behalf. A similar scenario takes place in Much Ado About Nothing, another play by William Shakespeare; in Act One the character of Don Pedro has an idea to disguise himself as Claudio in order to woo Hero. Mistaken identity here causes problems for both Don Pedro and Claudio. (4) However, with Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night, clearly Shakespeare has placed this scene carefully in a sequence; this has been done to juxtapose the succeeding scene to create dramatic irony and to also maintain the comic tone. This is why the scene is immediately preceded by the appearance of Sebastian, permitting the audience to gain pleasure out of Viola’s predicament in the knowledge of there being a solution. The theme of mistaken and multiple identities in Twelfth Night is again used by Feste, this forms an interesting theory that only those with enough wit and intellect, in this case the artificial fools Viola and Feste, are able to take on two personas. In Act Four Scene Two, Feste takes on the role of Sir Topas as he catechises Malvolio on Pythagoras’s theory of the ‘transmigration of souls’ called, metempsychosis.(5) When Malvolio asserts “I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art”, Feste responds, “But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in your wits than a fool’ Although the actions of Feste are somewhat cruel, his ability to switch seamlessly within the same sentence from his own voice to that of Sir Topas’s, shows linguistic dexterity; therefore, there is an aspect of comedy within this, the audience knowing that Feste is Sir Topas.

Twelfth Night also delivers comedy through the fooled characters. Malvolio, the steward in Countess Olivia’s household, is usually the focus of many cruel schemes. However, it is Malvolio’s own pomposity that sets him up for his humiliation as the audience knows that those mocking Malvolio, such as Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian are doing it out of spite. The consequence of his gullibility is seen in Act Three Scene Four however, it is initiated once Malvolio has read the letter handwritten by Maria as Olivia, who did not have any knowledge of the attempt to make Malvolio look foolish. Malvolio’s vocal response to the letter conveys his excitement to his cruel gulling in Act Two Scene Five as “I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me…I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on.” This quote implies the moral, puritanical façade is possibly just an act, and that his dreams of being with Olivia have been satisfied by this letter. For an audience, this particular scene contains a tremendous amount of comedy, since we are able to forecast that Malvolio is most definitely going to make a fool of himself by following through the letter’s directions and wear cross-gartered yellow stockings in order to please Olivia. However, there is also a sense of pathos in this situation as we know that Malvolio’s dreams will never materialise.

Earlier in the scene however, Malvolio reveals that his dreams are not only vain, but extremely crude.
The comic effect of Maria’s trick is amplified for the audience by what Malvolio instantly betrays about himself. Before reading Maria’s letter, the uptight steward who has scolded other characters for spoiling their ‘appetite’ for love, demonstrates sensuality as he envisions himself married to Olivia “in my branched velvet gown, having come from a day-bed, where I have left Olivia sleeping”. Malvolio’s smugness at his high social status is humorously suggestive, “wind up my watch, or play with my – some rich jewel”. As Malvolio aspires ‘To be Count Malvolio!’, the letters in this prestigious title appear in his account of Olivia’s handwriting – “her very C’s, her U’s, and her T’s, and thus makes she her great P’s” – which is a joke at his own expense. It could also be argued that his bawdy behaviour continues to expose his desires for a physical relationship with Olivia, punning on the word ‘cut’ as reference to the female genitalia, and the homophonic link of ‘P’s’ to ‘pees’ which is a synonym of urinates. By extending the joke further, Shakespeare makes the oblivious Sir Andrew spell it out yet again, “Her c’s, her u’s and her t’s: why that?”. Evidently, Malvolio is not the only victim of foolery but Sir Andrew is as well through is slow uptake of the
joke.

On the other hand, the comedy in the Twelfth Night is not entirely dependent on the Fool and in reference to the play’s subtitle ‘What You Will’; it is down to audience interpretation and understanding as to where the comedy originates from. The use of pun on the word ‘Will’ in itself is comedic as Shakespeare is essentially using his name as a play on words. This could also be relevant to the play’s characters that ‘will’ indeed reinvent themselves in order to explore new prospects: Viola as Cesario, Olivia as a married woman, Malvolio as Count, Orsino finally overcoming his self-proclaimed masochistic character and Sir Andrew as a fierce dueller. Therefore, in this way it is not ‘the Fool’ who provides the comedy but the way in which the audience has seen the characters identities change which stimulates the comedic elements of the play.

In conclusion, the functions of the fool/fools in Twelfth Night are extremely significant because they provide both black comedy in instances such as Malvolio being locked away, schadenfreude is frequently used around Malvolio such as the letter trick, and the use of wordplay and puns by Feste. It is clear that the majority of the characters in Twelfth Night are fools in some sense, and although it could considerably be down to audience interpretation as to how the fool provides comedy, without characters such as Maria, Feste and Malvolio the comedy of the play would not develop or be as apparent.