The first known performance of Twelfth Night was on the 2nd February 1602, which is in fact Candlemas Day. It was a traditional festival at that time. The Elizabethans allowed time for fun and festivals to break up their long hard winters. The majority of the Elizabethans also believed in the "Lord of Misrule" and they were quite happy to do as they willed at certain times of the year to let misrule preside over the normal state of order. This echoes the very essence of the play as Twelfth Night is certainly about letting misrule appear greater in stature to controlled behaviour and the normal state of order.

Twelfth Night is full of moments that contain a very lighthearted atmosphere and this is expressed through both the main and the subplots. The main source of comedy throughout the main plot is between the complete and utter confusion of the four main characters Olivia, Orsino, Viola and Sebastian. Although Sebastian does not feature very prominently in the play, the element of confusion between the characters would cease to exist without him in the play. Viola's dual identity

C.L. Barber made a point that Twelfth Night can be seen as being linked to social customs and traditions of Shakespeare's day. He says that it can be seen as turning an opposition between the idea of "misrule" and the "puritans" oppositions to such festivals (as represented by Malvolio). Shakespeare is seen by C.L. Barber as using holidays and festivities to build a theme round his comedies as Shakespeare grew up with them. C.L. Barber states that, "English society enjoyed a moment of reconcilement, was perfectly situated to express both a countryman's participation in holiday and a city man's consciousness of it." I believe that by saying this he feels that, as holidays and festivals were very important to Elizabethan's, Shakespeare wanted to use this theme throughout his plays so audience members would have a better understanding of the play and would be able to relate to it much easier. Due the importance of holidays and festivals to Elizabethan's, possibly the naming of Twelfth Night would have enticed members of the public to go to a performance of it, as the title was associated with fun and festivities.

Throughout the subplot of Twelfth Night both Sir Andrew and Sir Toby make an immensely humorous double act. Most of the laughter they receive is developed from their behaviour. Sir Andrew's gullibilty and sexual naivety provides much of the humour in this double act. This does not mean to say Sir Toby does not provide any of the humour. On the contrary, he uses Sir Andrew's gullibility and his sexual naivety to his own advantage. Thus, making Sir Andrew look like a fool different to that of Feste and possibly giving Sir Toby the title of the "Lord of Misrule". The idea of Sir Toby being the "Lord of Misrule" is very common and in some ways it is true. For, instance Sir Toby was the main man behind the trick played on Malvolio and he was also the person who started the noise making in Act 2, Scene 3 by asking Feste to sing a song, "Come on; there is sixpence for you: let's have a song."

Malvolio has suffered immense cruelty from some of the other characters in Twelfth Night and evidently many of the audience members may feel sorry for Malvolio in the way that he was treated. To be treated like a madman by people who are supposedly your friends is not a happy thing and I feel that, in the end Malvolio possibly thought he was a madman, or at least he was going mad as Feste went to great lengths to prove his madness. To continue with the joke they played on Malvolio, even after they could see what it was doing to him, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste, Antonio and Maria were unbelievably cruel and I feel that they should h

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Approximate Word count = 1780
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)