Analysis of Shakespeare - Twelfth Night

Analysis of Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, ca. 1601 (drama)

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1. Initial Reactions

The “Twelfth Night” drama by William Shakespeare in one of the most impressive works of literature of all times. The name Twelfth Night resulted from the feast of the Christian church celebrating the Epiphany or in other words demonstrating the divinity of Christ to the Gentiles. The play cycles around love triangle which is understood entirely by one charter called Viola.  It discusses most themes that are common and important in life such as love as a source of suffering. Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy and focuses on romantic love. Shakespeare uses this play to show that love can cause pain and suffering despite the happy ending of the play.

One aspect of work that most interests me in this play Twelfth Night by Shakespeare is the uncertainty of gender throughout the play. Gender is one of the most discussed topics or theme in the play. Several characters in Shakespeare’s plays are men. Twelfth night is one of the transvestite comedies whereby a female character identified as Viola distinguishes herself as a man. This situation forms a sexual mess (Amir, 2008). Viola falls in love with Orsino. She cannot tell him simply because he thinks she is a man. On the other hand, Olivia who is the Orsino’s affection object again falls in love with Viola in her guise as a Cesarean. Antonio was also clearly in love with Sebastian his male friend but his desires cannot be satisfied while Olivia and Orsino find tidy heterosexual fulfillment once the sexual ambiguities and trickeries are straightened out. This is a very strong aspect of literature used by Shakespeare in his play Twelfth Night.

1. Analysis of Twelfth Night

Shakespeare wrote his play the Twelfth Night is also known as What You Will when he was in the middle of his career in the year 1601 (Charles, 1997). It is one of the greatest comedies by the critics. It is about illusion, madness, deception and the extraordinary things that love cause us to see and to do. It was written in the Renaissance Literary period which falls between 1550 to 1660. This is the time where literature ha remarkable and most exacting and brilliant achievements. This is a period that was marked by the race for cultural development in both arts and philosophy. Renaissance in Europe was an awakening from the long sleep of dark ages. It had been a stagnant society reinvested in the in the promise of spiritual and material gain. Drama and poems were the most dominant forms of English literature during the Renaissance period, and these included the Twelfth Night of Shakespeare (Amir, 2008).

        Shakespeare is one of the best English writers in history. There has been much speculation surrounding the sexual orientation, religious affiliation and authorship and the chronology of the plays. He started writing early and in his play the Twelfth Night there are several insights. One of them is that Shakespeare loved male characters. This brings the theme of unknown gender since Viola who was a lady act and takes the roles of a man in the play. He depicts love as a suffering when the elements of violence come in. This is because he was born and brought up during the Renaissance period where violence was common in relationships (Amir, 2008).