The role of Malvolio in 'Twelfth Night'

A detailed Summary of The role of Malvolio in 'Twelfth Night'

The play "Twelfth Night" was written by Shakespeare during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first, and was mainly shown during Epiphany which marks the end of the traditional twelve days of Christmas (hence "Twelfth Night"). The play was written to brighten people up because after Christmas in the 17th century, the food was scarce, and it was dark and cold. Shakespeare probably wrote this comedy to brighten people up during this time of sadness.

The Play "Twelfth Night" is a romantic comedy. Although it is termed a 'comedy', the essentials of the play are serious. The play's opening lines sound it's major theme, which is love, 'if music be the food of love, play on'. Some form of love dominates the feelings of all of the major and most of the minor characters, including Malvolio. The play's first line is spoken by Orsino, who is deeply in love with Olivia. Orsino's love is purely egotistical as he sees himself as a typical lover, and won't accept refusal. A misguided kind of love explains Olivia's feelings for Viola (Cesario). The deception is based on physical appearance, as quoted by Olivia in Act I Scene V,

with an invisible, and subtle stealth

to creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be."

What is meant by the 'role' of a character is what the character brings to the play and how the character affects the plot of the story. This will focus on the key scenes that involve Malvolio and his importance in these scenes. From these, observations on Malvolio's feelings, and the audience's reactions to Malvolio's comments can be conducted.

Both Orsino and Malvolio are in different ways governed by the 'self-love' which Olivia accuses Malvolio of at the end of act one scene five. Viola's love for Orsino is a love which is genuine and selfless, as opposed to the vain and ambitious love shown by Orsino towards Olivia.

The final appearance by Malvolio in the play is when he approaches Olivia in the final scene, explaining his madcap antics and showing Olivia the forged letter. She instantly recognises it as Maria's handwriting and this is when Malvolio finds out that all this time, he has been made a fool of by Sir Toby, Maria, Sir Andrew and Feste. As Olivia puts it, he has been 'most notoriously abused'. Malvolio does not exact revenge for the duration of the play, however, his threat of revenge 'I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you!', reverberates beyond the immediate context of the play as the Puritans succeeded in closing down the theatres in 1642!

Finally, I don't think that Malvolio is a character that today's audience can accurately relate to because his Puritanical views are hardly ever witnessed in today's open society, but, as I mentioned earlier, in the Elizabethan audience, a majority of the public knew of a local Puritan group or individual and Malvolio typifies a hated minority in 17th century culture.

Another prominent theme in the play is disguise or mistaken identity. Viola's disguise is essential to the plot as it enables the audience to know more of the true situation when Olivia and Orsino are on stage, and it is the cause of many of the dramatic complications and confusions which make up the story. Other forms of disguise are featured in the play, not just the physical, like when Olivia's mourning is quickly discarded when she meets Cesario (Viola). A more sinister form of disguise is shown because you find out that Sir Toby Belch disguises his real motives behind his show of friendship for Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Malvolio Malvolio's, Twelfth Night, Puritans Shakespeare's, Sir Toby, Olivia Puritans, Sir Andrew, Orsino Malvolio, Act Scene, Andrew Aguecheek, Olivia Maria, sir toby, sir andrew, twelfth night, elizabethan audience, play twelfth night, ii scene, act ii, 17th century, act scene, play twelfth, act ii scene, toby sir andrew, sir toby sir, toby sir,

 1808
 7 

Category: English