Twelfth Night: An Introduction

8th Grade ELA

Shakespeare’s Background

Shakespeare’s Family Life

Born April 23, 1564 (traditionally accepted date, although there’s no way to know for sure)He was the oldest of 8 children. His father, John, was a business man, and his mother, Mary, was the daughter of a small landowner.At age 18, he married Anne Hathaway (age 26). She never left Stratford, even when William went to London around 1601.He had 3 children, Susanna and twins Judith & Hamnet.

Hamnet died at age 11. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.

The Globe Theatre

William Shakespeare’s Career Shakespeare is credited with having written 37 plays

and 154 sonnets. His plays fall into three distinct categories

Comedies: including Comedy of Errors, Taming of the Shrew, and Much ado About Nothing

Histories: a series about English kings include Henry IV, Henry VI, Henry VIII, Richard II, and Richard III

Tragedies: including Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet.

Elizabethan Comedy A genre named for Queen Elizabeth I, the ruling

monarch during Shakespeare’s time. Elizabethan comedies included the following

conventions: A lighthearted tone Mistaken identities Multiple plot lines Frequent use of puns A clever “fool” or servant A conflict between propriety and debauchery Young lovers who overcome obstacles to their relationship A happy ending that includes marriages, reconciliations,

and reunions.

Twelfth NightTwelfth Night, or What You Will

is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601-02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of such an occasion, which was a day of opposites in people’s dress and behavior!

When is Twelfth Night?“The evening of the fifth of January,

preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking.”

- The Oxford DictionaryThe celebration began on Christmas and

continued through Twelfth Night. It was a time of merrymaking, often including practical jokes.

Twelfth Night itself was a day of play performances.

Why celebrate?It is known as the “Feast of Epiphany” or

the “Feast of Misrule.”The term epiphany means “to show” or “to reveal suddenly.”

Religious groups celebrated their savior being revealed.

Look for an epiphany or what might be revealed to characters throughout the novel.

Setting: Kingdom of Illyria, 1600s The setting of Twelfth

Night is important to the play's romantic atmosphere. The actual Illyria is an ancient region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea covering parts of modern Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro. The city state of Ragusa has been proposed as the setting.

Characters of Twelfth Night

Antonio

SEbastian

Viola / CesarioDuke Orsino Lady Olivia

Feste—The Fool??

Maria

MalvolioSir

Toby

Sir Andrew

One of the main themes in Twelfth Night is Love. It appears in many forms in the play, just like in society. Love often resembles madness!

Duke Orsino Olivia Antonio Sebastian

Andrew Olivia Malvolio Olivia

Olivia Cesario (Viola) Viola Duke Orsino

Toby Maria Malvolio himself

Duke Olivia: Orsino is in love with love: the emotions of love, the romance, the beauty, and how it makes him feel.

Andrew Olivia: In love with position. He is interested in Olivia’s status, her wealth and standing in the community. As a man with wealth and position, he seeks a woman of equal or higher standing.

Olivia Cesario (really Viola): Love at first sight. Olivia has no knowledge of the real person she “loves.” She falls in love just by seeing him (her) a single time. (Helps to justify one of the themes of the play: Appearances do not always reflect reality)

ViolaDuke: Unachievable love. Despite the depth of her feelings, Viola’s love for the Duke is unattainable, out of reach, denied her because situations prevent her from acting on her feelings. (Viola’s character also reminds us that ‘role playing’ is sometimes a necessary part of social life.)

Toby Maria: Lust. In contrast to Orsino’s romantic ideas of love, Toby’s “love” for Maria is crude and carnal.

Malvolio Malvolio: Self love or conceit. He is constantly admiring himself and imagining others adoring him. His “love” for Olivia is based on his own self-interest.

Prose vs. Poetry In his plays,

Shakespeare often reverts between prose and poetry for the characters’ dialogue.

How can you tell? This is one of the easiest parts of reading Shakespeare.

The poetry sections, written in blank verse, have a larger amount of room from the last word on the line to the end of the page.

The prose sections look just like regular text in novels, approaching the end of the page.

Prose vs. PoetryRemember that members of the nobility

typically speak in poetry, while those in lower classes typically in prose.

This is not always true, so think about why Shakespeare is making this distinction.

Shakespeare used verse to do the following: Express deep emotion requiring elevated language Make wise, reflective observations that require lofty

language Inject irony

Shakespeare used prose to do the following: Express ordinary, undistinguished observations Suggest madness or senility Poke fun at characters who lack the wit to speak in

verse

Themes and Motifs

Themes Love, both romantic and brotherly, can lead to

excessive behavior. Look for romantic examples involving Malvolio

and Olivia, Orsino and Olivia, Viola and Orsino, & Sebastian and Olivia.

Look for brotherly examples involving Viola and Sebastian as well as Antonio and Sebastian.

Ambition is folly. Class and status were of penultimate importance

in Shakespeare’s time. Watch what happens as a result of Malvolio’s

pursuit of Olivia. But then also watch what happens with Maria and her love interest. What seems to be the difference in the two situations? What is Shakespeare trying to tell us about love, status, and intelligence?

MotifsLetters, Messages, and Tokens

Twelfth Night features a great variety of messages sent from one character to another—sometimes as letters and other times in the form of tokens. Such messages are used both for purposes of communication and miscommunication—sometimes deliberate and sometimes accidental.

Madness/Fools No one is truly insane in Twelfth Night, yet a number

of characters are accused of being mad, and a current of insanity or zaniness runs through the action of the play.

Disguises/Deception/Illusion Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises,

beginning with Viola, who puts on male attire and makes everyone else believe that she is a man. Through these disguises, the play raises questions about what makes us who we are, compelling the audience to wonder if things like gender and class are set in stone.