What makes twelfth night a comedy essay

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Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Shakespearean plays are renown for their combination of comedy and drama that both engage the audience as well as entertains. The song itself is not meant to dampen the mood as the prompt suggests, but instead, serves as segway into a broader message. However, the question arises as to which Viola the Duke Orsino has truly fallen in love with?

Up until this ending scene, 5. The song represents the passage of time despite the pitfalls and successes of life, which is exactly how Shakespeare chooses to end The Twelfth Night play; without question or commentary.

Get Access. Good Essays. Music in Twelfth Night Words 3 Pages. Music in Twelfth Night. Read More. Powerful Essays. William Shakespeare wrote three types of play; tragedy, comedy and history. It is well known that "Twelfth Night" is a comedy, but why?

It's not a tragedy because nobody dies during it. It's not a history because at the time it was not written in the past. It is neither of these so it has to be a comedy-but there has to be more to it; and there is Right from the beginning of the play, humour is obvious to the audience. If not in a direct way then through the gift of music.

In Act One, Orsino calls for music to feed his hunger for love. Music is seen all over the world to portray any emotion someone is feeling at any given time. Happiness, though, is probably the most common emotion shown through music. Orsino loves music and in act one it is apparent to the audience that this is his obsession. In the countess Olivia's household, works Feste, a jester.

He makes jokes and makes people laugh. He is surprised because to him, it was she who wrote the letter, "Remember who commended thy yellow stockings-" It is amusing to think of the most serious man in the world dancing around in bright coloured stockings, laughing and joking and then to be locked away in the dungeon and made to believe himself mad.

Feste pretends to be one, Sir Topas, to trick Malvolio into thinking he is mad. Malvolio believes himself to be going in sane. Explaining the joke is a sure way to kill the humour, but two things that Feste says would make his Elizabethan audience laugh and not us because they were well known at the time.

He replied, "Give me my dog again. Sir Toby deceives his so-called 'friend' because Sir Andrew is incredibly rich and Sir Toby wishes to spend it all on alcohol.

Feste embodies the spirit of misrule in which the play delights and he is the perpetrator of folly — the antithesis of the serious Malvolio who, as a Puritan, scorns merrymaking. However, it is not merely his witty word-play that generates comedy. He also exposes truth to the other characters and the audience: he mocks Orsino's lovelorn behaviour; he challenges Olivia's obsessive mourning and, much to Malvolio's horror, proves her a 'fool' in his witty repartee; and he lays bare Malvolio's hubris by publicly humiliating him.

He thus seems able to see the true nature of those around him, mocking their foibles and flaws, leading to the comic resolution of events. There is also humour in the fact that his role gives him licence to mock his superiors.

Despite his status as jester, he is far wiser than his masters 'wise enough' as Viola says 'to play the fool'.

The truly foolish character in the play is Andrew Aguecheek, whom Shakespeare creates to play the 'gull'. Andrew is frequently depicted as cowardly, incompetent and unintelligent. He is unable to understand the simplest of jokes or metaphors, responding to Sir Toby's 'I smell a device' with the literal 'I have't in my nose, too'. Maria aptly describes him as 'a fool', 'a great quarreller', and one who has the 'gift of a coward'. He is ludicrously led to believe that he could be a potential suitor for Olivia.

In this he proves hopeless, as is evident when he attempts to listen in to Cesario to learn how to woo and thus becomes a parody of the courtly lover. Andrew Aguecheek is a figure of fun central to Sir Toby's revelries and a character whose denigration is amusing for both stage and theatre audiences.

This is a play rich in punning, irony, wordplay and jokes. Language as a source of humour is especially evident in the bawdy dialogue between Maria, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby and in Feste's verbal out manoeuvring of Olivia and Viola. Words are often shown to be slippery and false and communications are frequently misinterpreted, epitomised in Malvolio's misreading of the letter.

Just as appearances cannot be trusted, neither can language. Often the audience is alive to the true meaning of innuendos and equivocating comments when the characters are not. Twelfth Night , the eve of the Epiphany, was, in Shakespeare's time, a traditional festival, a time of misrule when social roles were relaxed, when masters waited on their servants, when men were allowed to dress as women, and women as men.

The Christmas revels were often led by a chosen Lord of Misrule. Twelfth Night reflects these traditions. There is an evident festive mood with boisterous revelry; Sir Toby has dominance over Olivia's household and the austere Malvolio is overthrown. Even the exotic setting of Illyria a name that perhaps recalls the mythical Elysian Fields seems to set up a fantasy world where normal rules do not apply, establishing a sense of liberality.

Moreover, the fact that gender roles are inverted from the moment Viola assumes the guise of Cesario immediately creates a sense of confusion, which is sustained throughout the drama.

Cesario openly confesses 'I am not what I am'; but in this play, it seems, neither is anyone else. Her character is constantly compared to Viola; Olvias self-absorptive, obstinate character again develops through contact ith Cesario.

Particularly noticeable In scenes where feelings are intense, such as Olivia declaration of love for Cesario, Shakespeare balances this seriousness and lightens the atmosphere with rhyming couplets.

This balance of pain and humor to highlight the themes is common throughout the play. For any character to be completely comic or totally dark would detract from the greater intentions of the play.

Each character comes to a certain self-realization, however the discovery is not always a happy one. Malvolios self-discovery is not a pleasant journey nor is the ending happy. This ending that is propitious for some and not for others is another representation of light and shade in Twelfth Night.

If the play was unrestrained in its humor there would be no art in the play. Without art and wit, Twelfth Night would be not only boring in its low comedy but also lacking in any substantial themes or social issues. The fact that the ending is not favorable for everyone, Malvolio s devastated that the women he was sure loved him does not.

Sir Andrew realizes he has been also duped by Sir Andrew and Feste does not appear totally self satisfied. Without these sufferings, the Twelfth Night would be superfluous as a comedy attempting to point out human foibles. Song and music are devices that are particularly imperative to a comedy. In Twelfth Night music emphasizes the mood or balances they scene, controlling and manipulating light, and shade for desired effect. When considering Twelfth Night as a miniature mirror of society ather than a satire, music becomes an integral part of conveying themes.

Moments of comedy are sometimes juxtaposed with serious, somber music. It may well be seen as humorous that these two lonesome drunks care for love rather than the good life hey have chosen. The comedy of the situation is tainted by the slight but penetrating sadness we can see in the two.

Through to the final speech in the play where Feste uses song to speak truthfully about the meanings of the play. Maximum suspense is created by the constant balance, though we as the audience know that as a comedy all will end well Shakespeare combats this as much as possible.