Twelfth Night: Which is more engaging – the main plot or the sub-plot? Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night‚” is considered the last of the true comedies‚ his final light-hearted play before the venture into the darker‚ more sombre tragedies. As with many of his comedies‚ the basis of the story is the two intertwined love plots‚ which are sometimes separate‚ and occasionally come together and directly affect each other. This considered‚ questions have been raised as to whether it should be classed
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Question: Explore and debate the function of the Fool Feste within this dramatic comedy. To what extent does he offer honest insight to both the characters and the audience? Feste does offer honest insight to both the characters and the audience because he is a very perceptive character who can see people for who they really are. In Act One‚ Scene Five‚ Feste gives an insight to what is happening between Sir Toby and Maria; “if Sir Toby would leave drinking‚ thou wert as witty as a piece of Eve’s
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Folly Essay – Twelfth Night For my essay I have chosen to write about Malvolio. He is Princess Olivia head steward and confidant. In this play Malvolio proves to be an extremely complex character. As straight edged as he tries to be‚ Malvolio has definitely been stuck by several folly’s. Just as Feste stated in the play‚ “Folly is like the sun‚ it shines everywhere.” Folly operates in a way that the person it affects still believes they are acting with reason and logic. This theme is
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Act 3 begins with an interesting conversation between Viola (Cesario) and Fool (Feste). In The Twelfth Night‚ Feste is portrayed as a clown who is skilled at wordplay. In the conversation‚ however‚ Viola figured out that Feste is not just a folly clown and his behavior is based on the deep wisdom. Viola says of him “This fellow’s 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; And‚ like the
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The overall ending of Twelfth Night is subversive‚ from Malvolio’s uncomfortable promises of revenge to Viola still in her Cesario attire after the grand unveiling of her identity. Feste’s song highlights these ambiguities: it is the only epilogue song with the exception of Love’s Labours Lost which is not celebratory (the latter being overshadowed by death). Feste’s lyrics emphasise the uselessness of material possessions when faced with the onslaught of time‚ and comes directly after Orsino’s professed
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William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet. He was broadly known as " the greatest writer in the English language." Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night near the middle of his career and wrote it to entertain people because it was near Christmas time when the first production of the play was first performed. Shakespeare’s intention in writing this play was to present a Romantic comedy that explored the theme of love‚ music‚ and beauty. He successfully completed this play and used many literary
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The sub-plot of Twelfth Night‚ the gulling of Malvolio by Sir Toby Belch‚ Maria‚ Feste‚ and Aguecheek‚ is justly famous as one of Shakespeare’s funniest experiments in New Comedy‚ that is‚ in a style of comedy which is basically quite different from the pastoral romantic style of the main plot. The basis for the sub-plot is one of the oldest and most popular subjects for New Comedy - the unmasking of the hypocrite‚ a satiric exposure of apparent virtue so as to humiliate the hypocrite and make him
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Soliloquy Analysis Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a comedy of love and betrayal. This play was written in verse which adds a metrical pattern which consists of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse). At the start of the trumpets Duke Orsino enters wanting to be loved by Countess Olivia. However‚ she refuses to be seen for seven years because she misses her father and brother. Meanwhile‚ after a shipwreck‚ Viola is found a survivor. Viola disguises herself as a man with the name
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BACKGROUND LECTURE ON TWELFTH NIGHT The following information is based upon my taped lecture on this play. Although this text version is not the same as the taped lecture‚ it does contain the same information. All references are based on the Signet paperback edition which you should consult in conjunction with this lecture. Twelfth Night was probably written in 1601 and first performed in January of 1602. We know this because the play is mentioned that year in the diary of a
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The book of Judges is the sequel to Joshua. It is the seventh book of the Old Testament. It recounts stories and events from the death of the hebrew leader and prophet Joshua to the birth of the hebrew Samuel. That is roughly‚ from the end of the Israelite conquest of Canan in the 13th Century B.C to the beginning of the monarchy in the 11 th century B.C. It tells about the hebrews from Joshua’s Death to the time of Samuel. It was written in about 550 BC‚ on tablets named the Ras Shamra tablets
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