"It points out the thousand ways the free man is not free" -Kerr

(Links to Viola's necessity to dress up as Cesario even after she comes from aristocratic background
herself, yet this is used as an element of comedy)

"He is an enemy of merriment" -Bevington

“What might otherwise be entrapment is justified, according to the play’s satirical code” -Bevignton

“If any puritans are like Malvolio, they deserve to be outwitted and humiliated” -Bevington

(Links to historical context, puritans were taking down theatres. Although they had the right to
practice their beliefs, they imposed these to the rest of the people)

“In tragedy there’s always hope… we are serious as long as there’s a way out” -Kerr

(links to false hope of Malvolio, arguably a tragedy rather than comical)

Dark Comedy

Twelfth Night like the Latin comedies of Plautus and Terence has a five act structure. The typical five
act comedy consists of an exposition (an opening that sets forth the main conflict in the play),
complication (series of events that increases the conflict), the climax (the turning point of the play),
denouement (the unravelling of the confusion) and finally, the resolution (wherein matters are
cleared up and the characters are happily united). These plays move from confusion to harmony and
usually end in the marriage(s) of the main characters.

Comedy of situation is that wherein an individual becomes the subject of the joke through
circumstances beyond his/ her control. Sebastian being mistaken for Cesario would be an instance of
this.

Twelfth Night revolves the festive tradition inviting frivolous behaviour, this can be seen through the
chaotic structure of metatheatrical where the subplots seem to be a play within a play. However,
perhaps as coment on social structure Shakepsear ultimately adheres to the typical five act srtruture
where the resolution fulfils social heteronormativity.

Three Unities (Unity of Action, Place and Time) of the classical Greek theatre. The use of sub-plots
enhances the confusion and thus heightens the comic effect. Twelfth Night would have been a mere
shadow of itself without the secondary plot of Sir Toby, Maria, Sir Andrew, Fabian and Malvolio.
‘Staging’ is another device used, which gives us an impression of a play within a play. Viola’s act as
Cesario, the Duke’s posturing as a lovelorn man, the deception practised upon Malvolio, Feste’s
caricature of Sir Topas and his song at the end (“we’ll strive to please you everyday”) increases the
theatricality and hence the illusory quality of the play. David Bevington in his essay, “Last Scene of
All: Retirement from the Theatre” (2002) says that Twelfth Night, like many of Shakespeare’s plays,
“takes pains to remind us that we are in the theatre”.

Despite having had two women as monarchs and for all its Renaissance humanism, sixteenth century
England was largely patriarchal in its values. Cross-dressing in real life would have been seen as a
serious offence punishable by legal, moral and religious codes. A woman’s role was confined to the
four walls of her house, tending to her husband and family. Her greatest virtues were deemed to be
piety, obedience, chastity, silence and patience. Interestingly, in 1620 a pamphlet entitled Hic
Mulier (This Manlike Woman) was published, which condemned transvestitism among women and
equated it to sexual promiscuity. Thus, it was only in fiction and carnivalesque celebrations that such
‘subversions’ would have been tolerated. Shakespeare’s cross- dressed heroines, in some respects,
demonstrate a strength of will and boldness in their actions that would have been quite radical in
that age. They are dynamic, resourceful and active- qualities deemed to be ‘masculine’ and yet, they
are not so masculine so as to earn public censure. Perhaps, it can be argued that Shakespeare
modeled some of their traits on those of his Queen.

“In this comedy, women are mistaken for men, men mistaken for women disguised as men, and
definitions of manhood and womanhood themselves called into question.” (Maslen) In ‘Cesario’ we
have neither a whole woman nor a man. Through disguise Viola has the freedom of expression, not
usually granted to a woman. She can now speak of her love to Orsino, though he is unaware of the
full import of her words. Despite this freedom of speech and movement, her physical frailty still goes
against her. Thus, Cesario is reluctant to fight a duel because Viola cannot. Viola empathizes with
Olivia because she knows what unrequited love feels like and yet she can find no way of untangling
the problem, without revealing her secret. As Anna Jameson demonstrates in her essay titled “Viola”
(1833)- “her disguise does not sit so easily upon her; her heart does not beat freely under it”. In
many ways then, Viola’s male guise serves only to heighten her helplessness and ergo her
‘femininity’. She is among the very few Shakespearean heroines to remain in disguise until the end
of the play. Ultimately, she is only too happy to accept male authority by accepting Orsino as her
husband.

Malvolio

Through Malvolio, Shakespear presents a symbolic comedic downfall to reflect the fine line between
satire and sadism.

Arguably, Shakespear epitomises dark comedy through Malvolio’s prank.

- Critics are divided over this treatment of him. While some feel that Malvolio was justly
penalized for his self-righteousness and ambition, others condemn it on humanitarian
grounds. Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth century critic, in “Notes on Twelfth Night, or What
You Will” (1765) says- “The soliloquy of Malvolio is truly comic; he is betrayed to ridicule
merely by his pride.” Whereas a little lesser than a century later, Charles Lamb in his
book, On Some of the Old Actors (1823), forces us to look at Malvolio with sympathy- “..his
pride, or his gravity, (call it which you will) is inherent, and native to the man, not mock or
affected, which latter only are the fit objects to excite laughter.” At any rate, the fact that
the Elizabethan audience loved this play is suggestive of the then prevalent attitude towards
Puritans.

Confusion

In Twelfth Night, Shakespear explores mistaken identities as a way to reveal the tragic absurdity
beneath romantic conventions.
Arguably, Shakespear explores confusion of identity as a dark comedy device to comment around
social conformity in Elizabethan Era.

Shakespear explores identity-based confusion in Twelfth Night as an element of dark comedy as a

comment on the constraints of social roles in the Elizabethan Era

- Viola’s need to dress up as Cesario “Comedy is making fun of the tragedy of others” (Carter)
Presents Viola’s helpless state as a base of comedy.

- Sebastian follows Olivia into her house, falling immediately in love with her beauty. Olivia
begins to treat Sebastion to gifts and asks if he would like to marry her. Sebastian, star
stricken by her beauty and money, agrees to marry her while Olivia still believes he is
Cesario. This presents Olivia as a victim, one that marries not her true love, but falls into
societal norms of heterosexual marriage. Sebastion, on the other hand, marries her due to
superficial impulses (her beauty and status), an impulse decision caused to produce
amusement, yet it may convey the message of ulterior motives within Elizabethean society.
(Mockery of love?)
- This ideological tension extends to the play’s treatment of love and marriage. Sebastian’s
sudden agreement to marry Olivia—who mistakes him for Cesario—satirizes courtship as a
hollow ritual. Olivia marries a man she barely knows; Sebastian consents due to beauty and
status. This is humorous, but it also mockingly exposes Elizabethan society’s shallow,
transactional view of marriage. Similarly, the love triangle between Viola, Orsino, and Olivia
exists in a state of persistent confusion: Olivia falls in love with a woman disguised as a man,
while Orsino forms an emotional intimacy with Cesario that borders on homoeroticism. In
both cases, desire subverts heteronormative expectations, yet ultimately conforms through
convenient resolution.
- Alternative interpretations abound. Some critics, particularly feminist scholars, have seen
Viola’s cross-dressing as a form of proto-feminist agency: a challenge to patriarchal
structures through performative gender. Others, however, argue that Viola’s return to
femininity at the play’s end, and her swift submission to Orsino’s authority, reaffirms the
very social structures the play seems to mock. Similarly, Malvolio’s humiliation has been
read both as just punishment and as a critique of mob cruelty. The ambiguity of these
readings is what elevates Twelfth Night from simple comedy to dark comedy—a genre that
makes us laugh while also making us deeply uneasy about what, and whom, we are laughing
at.

Homosexuality

Shakespear uses the blurred line of gender and desire as a dark comic device that comments of
heteronormativity

- Antonio’s confusion of Cesario and Sebastian

- Comedy on Olivia’s love to Cesario, Interestingly it is not Cesario’s ‘masculinity’ that is
appealing to Olivia. She finds his “beautiful scorn” and and “angry lips” (epithets more suited
for a girl than a man) attractive . She tells him that she woos him against her reason and in
spite of his pride. In a clear case of role reversal, the reluctant ‘man’ is being courted by the
 woman. Olivia does not know that she is wooing a woman, but her interest in the rather
effeminate Cesario could have homoerotic implications.

- The metatheatrical Form to convey comedy.

- In the case of Olivia and Cesario, Olivia’s infatuation operates against all Elizabethan
conventions of gender roles. She actively pursues Cesario, undermining the social
expectation of passive female virtue. In a clear case of role reversal, the suitor becomes the
pursued. But the comedy here is sharpened by an added layer: Cesario is not a man. He is
Viola in disguise. Olivia, therefore, is unwittingly attracted to a woman—and more
specifically, to qualities that align more with femininity than masculinity. She describes
Cesario’s “beautiful scorn” and “angry lip,” phrases with distinctly delicate, even sensual,
connotations. These are not traits conventionally attributed to male heroes in Renaissance
comedy. Rather, they suggest a queer aesthetic: Olivia is drawn to Cesario’s emotional
intensity, ambiguity, and defiance of masculine norms.

- What makes this scenario darkly comic is the trap it creates. Olivia believes she is
transgressing gender norms in a controlled, playful way—wooing a man in defiance of social
codes—while the audience knows she is doing so much more. She is crossing into
homosexual territory, albeit unknowingly. The dramatic irony intensifies the discomfort: we,
the audience, are in on the joke, but the joke is a cruel one. Viola cannot reciprocate Olivia’s
love, nor reveal the truth without endangering her own safety. Thus, what appears as comic
misunderstanding masks emotional entrapment and unintentional deception, lending the
scene a distinctly unsettling tone. As critic Bevington suggests, “what might otherwise be
entrapment is justified, according to the play’s satirical code.” The audience is forced to ask:
at whose expense is this comedy made?

The structure in which many subplots run through the play can be described as 'River Action'; actions
not closely linked are moving in parallel to be integrated at the end of the play. Shakespeare has
used this structural technique to create both humour and tension. The subplots also pick up on the
themes of love and mistaken identities, preparing us for the part those themes will play in the main
plot.