Analysis of a Scene from Twelth Night
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This study will provide an analysis of Act III, Scene 1, from Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night. The analysis will be based on the view that Shakespeare has no other intention in this scene than to show the delightful silliness of love and of being in the state of love. The bewildering and light-hearted complexity of characters and roles and gender-crossing in the play is exemplified in this scene, and the reader or audience member is meant by Shakespeare to take nothing from the scene but a dizzying sense of fun and play with love and words. Reality and illusion are mixed and mired with one another, but there is nothing serious about the mixture. Shakespeare has some of the characters brook serious subjects, but immediately the farce is re-established and seriousness is snatched away for the sake of silliness. Even as Olivia declares her love and longing for the servant whom she believes to be a man, the reader has long ago come to be aware that nothing is truly at risk here, except for the character of Malvolio who represents evil in the play. This scene, like the entire play, is so light-hearted that even at the most apparently anguished moment of a character such as the lovestruck Olivia the reader takes delight because he or she knows that all will inevitably end well, except for the malevolent Malvolio. Viola, disguised as a man, and specifically as Cesario, Count Orsino's servant, enters Olivia's garden with the drum-playing clown attached to Olivia. The two embark
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verage courtier. The point, once again, is simply to have the reader experience more happy semi-nonsense and deception on the journey toward the ending where all is sorted out and love is found all around.
Olivia and Viola are left alone for the remainder of the scene, and much deception inevitably occurs as Olivia confesses her affection for Viola---whom she believes to be a young man---while Viola tries to deliver the Duke Orsino's expressions of love to Olivia. Olivia, of course, wants nothing to do with Orsino, while Viola herself is in love with the Duke. This preposterous set of deceptions is meant to entertain above all, of course, and the reader who appreciates such shallow foolishness will enjoy himself or herself.
The pleasure which the reader is meant to draw from the scene is based in knowing the reality of the situation while the characters themselves must struggle valiantly but generally in vain to understand. Of course, Viola is at least aware that she herself is pretending to be a man, but in other scenes she is as thoroughly in the dark as Olivia is in this scene. At the same time, in this scene Viola is bewildered by the speeches of the clown, as well as those of the sly Toby, so that all involved are bewilde
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Orsino Viola, Count Orsino's, Twelfth Night, Viola Olivia, Toby Andrew, Olivia Toby, Sir Toby, Olivia Viola, Accordingly Viola, III Scene, scene play, audience reader, sir andrew, sir toby, sir live church, live church, viola tries, sir live, viola clown, clown clown, cleverness clown,
Approximate Word count = 1462
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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