How Does Shakespeare Use Deception In Twelfth Night

“Confusion and deception are key elements of comedy.” How does Shakespeare present these ideas in Twelfth Night?
Confusion and deception are two key elements that occur often in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and they seem to go hand in hand with one another- where one occurs the other is slowly behind. As in most comedies, Twelfth Night celebrates different forms of confusion and deception in order to make the play more entertaining and comical Shakespeare incorporates the confusion and deception throughout the play.
The overt example of confusion and deception is present through the character of Viola and this is the origin of much of the confusion in the play, in Elizabethan times, it was considered ―wicked‖ for women to appear on stage, so
adolescent boys played all of the female characters, creating humour in the multiplicity of disguise found in a female character who for a while pretends to be a man so the audience would have found real confusion in Viola’s part. Viola is a female, who puts on the clothing of a man and makes everyone believe she is male, Viola must disguise herself as a man in order to survive; you realise this when she says, “For such disguise as haply shall become
The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke.
Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him”
This deception causes great sexual confusion, as a bizarre love triangle occurs in which viola is in love with Orsino, who loves Olivia- who loves ‘Cesario’ the male identity that viola assumes. The first time that this is evident is in Act I, Scene IV, where Cesario, really Viola is sent by her master, Orsino, to win the love of Countess Olivia for him. At first it seems as if nothing is out of the ordinary, but Cesario complicates the situation with his last words of the scene. Cesario indicates that he will do his best to win over the lady, but then in an aside says
“Whoo’er I woo, myself would be his wife.”
This dramatic irony of the play not only entertains the audience but provides a great deal of comedy because she cannot proclaim her love for him because, for one thing, she is pretending to be a boy, and for another thing, she is pretending to be his servant, and servants of course could not marry the nobility, Viola 's deception soon turns into a dilemma, while falling in love with Orsino; she innocently becomes the object of affection of Olivia, the woman she is supposed to help fall in love with Orsino.

There are many different types of deception presented by Shakespeare besides the obvious one. one of them being the Feste who contributes towards the humorous entertainment of this play through his numerous puns and jokes. He is a source of laughter, not because we are humoured by his "foolery"; for he proves to be no fool at all. Feste uses ignorance to disguise his knowledge thus deceiving many of the nobility as what Feste possesses could get any common person in trouble with the nobility. Though Feste deceives many of the characters he does not deceive them all. an example of this happens in Act 3 scene 1, when Feste talks with Viola – Viola says “This fellow is wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time…”
This quote shows you that Viola has stumbled on to that Feste’s knowledge and his ability to easily deceive the nobility without them realising what he is actually doing. Innocence is also part of Feste’s deception; he uses his innocence to make his intelligence invisible. Many times Feste pretends to be oblivious to the true meaning behind words. This way people would think him simple or stupid and be less careful about the things they told him assuming he would not understand them anyway. Adding to the deception and confusion of the play, Feste, dresses up as Sir Topas, the curate and visits the imprisoned Malvolio with Maria and Sir Toby. There he uses comedy of cruelty to abuse Malvolio who is still unaware that he is actually talking to the clown and not the real Sir Topas. Feste (disguised as Sir Topas) calls Malvolio a "lunatic”, "Satan" an Elizabethan audience may find this more humorous than a modern day audience due to different cultural views; Elizabethan audiences commonly watched hangings of people or bear fights for entertainment, so they might of found this cruelty towards Malvolio amusing and also he is frequently called a "puritan" by the other characters- Maria says “the devil a Puritan that he is” referring to Malvolio. Puritans themselves were very unpopular at the time because many of them believed that all pleasures were sinful, so they strongly opposed to the theatre.

Not only do the characters deceive each other, but many of them are also self-deceived.
Toby and Maria set up a ruse for Malvolio in the letter. However, it is Malvolio’s self-deception that allows the small prank to work. In the letter Maria (managing to deceive Malvolio into believing her handwriting is in fact Olivia’s) never outright named Malvolio as the man about whom she is writing. It is Malvolio’s own self pride and overinflated ego that allows him to convince himself that the letter must be about him. The audience is very aware of this, as he reads the letter much of the joke is centred on the fact that he is given a tiny crumb of a clue. Everyone except Malvolio understands that a match with Olivia is impossible, not only because Malvolio is her steward, but also because he is neither "generous, guiltless [nor] of free disposition". Orsino is also another character who is self-deluded. Duke Orsino’s has deceived himself into believing that he is in love with the countess Olivia
This causes confusions and problems for himself and the countess Olivia. Orsino thinks he is genuinely in love with Olivia, and worships her, even though he has never had an actual conversation with her. He sees her from far and announces 'the noblest that I have. O, mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence. That instant was I turned into a hart '’. . In this line, which happens in the first act shows us how Orsino is a passionate for love but he does not
realize that he is in love with the idea of being in love, and that Olivia is just someone to symbolise that.

In conclusion Shakespeare presents confusion and deception through a range of different characters techniques, and even through the title ‘Twelfth Night’.
Twelfth Night is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. It was originally a Catholic holiday but, prior to Shakespeare 's play, had become a day of revelry. Servants often dressed up as their masters. The masquerading that is a frequent part of an Epiphany celebration is of course captured in Viola 's plan to disguise herself as a man. Almost all the in the play are either taken in by another characters disguise or a deception regarding their own identity. The confusions that unravel in amongst it give the audience an urge to want to read on. I think Shakespeare presented these to show that things really are not always what they seem to be, plus to show the consequences of deception. Hence, nearly every character at some points conceals reality behind some type of deception, leading to various consequences. Furthermore, the deception and confusion presented throughout this story makes each character develop an identity with either showing cleverness or madness, while it also makes each character realize the principles towards obtaining love and
truth.
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Bibliography
Websites;
Twelfth Night- Quotes and notes- Online (Date accessed 5th Dec) http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tn/ Twelfth Night- Quotes and notes- Online (Date accessed 5th Dec) http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/ Books;