| “He’s a sad man and in many ways completely ludicrous, because he displays the height on conceit and pomposity” | Nigel Hawthorn- On Malvolio, the comic relief of the play, presented as a mockery. |
| “A topsy-turvy world of confusion and masquerades” | Gibson- The disguises (masks) create a ,world of confusion’, which acts as the antagonist in the play. |
| “Illusions are the way to find truth and time will achieve a happy ending for most” | Gibson- The disguises eventually bring the characters to the ones they truly love the most, links to Violas soliloquy ‘O time! thou must untangle this, not I’. |
| ” A never-never land of make believe and illusions” | Gibson- Characters, such as Orsino, believe they are in love, with people they barely know. |
| “They seem to mean one thing then break their promises” | Norton- no one in this play sticks to what they say, characters, such as Sir Toby are deceitful and ‘two faced’, particularly to Sir Andrew |
| “Orsino imagines he’s in love with Olivia, tough he doesn’t really know her at all” | Jones- His so called love for Olivia, could be seen as a way of oppressing his ‘homosexuality’, which is revealed as he begins to fall for Cesario. |
| “Antonio and Sebastian provide the most fertile ground for queer inquiry” | Casey- There is an obvious love between the two men, which seems to be far more than a friendship ( see Lindsay Posner Twelfh Night production) |
| “The clown or vice… was a recognised anarchist who made aberration obvious by carrying release to absurd extremes” | Barber – Feste is perhaps the smartest character in the play, due to his quick wit. Yet to the other characters he is seen to be a ‘fool’. |
| ‘The whole of Twelfth Night debates the very nature and morality of comedy’ | Michael Dobson-earlier viewers may have enjoyed the torture of Malvolio, but modern audiences may feel a sort of sympathy |
Twelfth Night Critics
July 17, 2019