Explore Shakespeare's Use of the Malvolio Subplot in Twelfth Night

Explore Shakespeare's use of the Malvolio subplot in Twelfth Night (Or what you will)

In Shakespeare's ‘Twelfth Night or What You Will’ the main plot follows the love triangle of Olivia, Orsino and Viola whilst the subplot focuses on the tricks played on Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, by Sir Toby Belch, Maria, Fabian and Andrew Aguecheek. It has been debated whether torturing of Malvolio is justified by his previous actions or whether the members of Olivia’s household are cruel to Malvolio and have no real motives to to do what they do.

Malvolio is the puritan of the play and disapproves of everyone who does not follow the same strict religious beliefs as he does, this then makes him an easy target for Sir Toby, Maria, Fabian and Sir Andrew. Sir Toby and Maria show their lack of respect of his beliefs in the same way he does to them, this is conveyed through ‘Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” this metaphor mocks Malvolio as as a puritan he believes celebrations such as Christmas and Easter are just excuses to overeat and get drunk. As Bevington says ‘Malvolio has the right to be virtuous but he has no right to mipose his sense of moral propriety in others’. At the time ‘Twelfth Night’ was written the puritans disliked theatre and therefore became a threat to Shakespeare and in 1642 under the force of the Puritans, the English Parliament issued an ordinance suppressing all stage plays in the theatres. It could be argued that Shakespeare characterises Malvolio to make the Elizabethan audience hate him and therefore laugh even more when he is tortured at the end of the play. The Malvolio subplot adds humour as well as a mouthpiece for Shakespeare to express his negative views of puritanism

There are two sides to Malvolio, the puritan spoilsport who disapproves of everything other than religion, he wants the audience and other characters to see this side of him however he has a ambititious side where he longs to become ‘Count Malvolio’ and marry Olivia. Malvolio ends