Twelfth Night Foolishness

Even though Feste role is to be a licensed fool, his main role is to play the wise man in the play the Twelfth Night, which makes him a wise fool. Feste makes the personalities and secrets of the characters oblivious. People would assume that he is a fool because of his title, yet it made it oblivious to everyone that he is very wise and that he used this potential throughout the story. Furthermore, he sees traits in characters that the audience and the characters cannot see during the play. He points Olivia excessive mourning over her deceased brother is foolish, the’s Duke’s true moodiness, and Malvolio foolishness of loving himself too much. The things was oblique to audience as well as the characters, but not oblique to Feste. In addition,
He proved that mourning over her lost brother that is supposedly in heaven makes her the real fool and not him. By him proving this, it shows how truly wise he is and that he can pull out the fool in others. Norman N. Holland agrees with this statement. He believes that “this opening dialogue” of Feste showing Olivia’s true foolishness “establishes Feste’s role in the play” (Holland 129). In other words, Herman believes that what Feste did to make Olivia see the clearer pictures shows his true purpose in the play as being a wise man and not the licensed fool he is disguised as. In addition, Feste is “more intelligent than anyone else in play” (Holland 129), which also states Feste true objective in the play. To be a fool, you are most likely not smart and basically foolish, yet he shows a paradox and proves that fools can be wise too. Furthermore, being more intelligent than the other characters, Feste confirms that his title do not define his reason of being in the play. Lastly, Feste knows that “the fool is supposed to teach others a comic perspective on things they take too seriously” (Holland 129). Shakespeare uses Feste to reveal the foolish act of Olivia’s grief. He continues to reveal foolish acts on other characters such as