Twelfth Night

Educators Packet
Renaissance Theatre Company

London, 1988

Synopsis
A young woman, Viola, is on the shore of Illyria. She has survived a shipwreck in a storm at sea. Viola mourns the loss of her twin brother but decides to dress as a boy to get work as a page to Duke Orsino. Orsino, the Duke of lllyria, is in love with his neighbour, the Countess Olivia. She has sworn to avo id mens company for seven years while she mourns the death of her brother, so rejects him. Despite his rejection Orsino sends his new page Cesario (Viola in disguise) to woo Olivia on his behalf. Viola goes unwillingly as she has already fallen in love at first sight with the duke. Olivia is attracted by the boy and she sends her pompous steward, Malvolio, after him with a ring. Olivias uncle, Sir Toby Belch, her servant Maria, and Sir Tobys friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who is also hoping to woo Olivia, and is being led on by Sir Toby, who is trying to fleece him of his money, all plot to expose the self-love of Malvolio. By means of a false letter they trick him into thinking his mistress Olivia loves him. Malvolio appears in yellow stockings and cross-garters, smiling as they have told him to in the letter. Unaware of the trick the Countess is horrified and has Malvolio shut up in the dark as a madman. Meanwhile Violas twin brother, Sebastian, who has also survived the shipwreck, comes to Illyria. His sea-captain friend, Antonio, is a wanted man for piracy against Orsino. The resemblance between Cesario and Sebastian leads the jealous Sir Andrew to challenge Cesario to a duel. Antonio intervenes to defend Cesario whom he thinks is his friend Sebastian, and is arrested. Olivia has in the meantime met and become betrothed to Sebastian. Cesario is accused of deserting both Antonio and Olivia when the real Sebastian arrives to apologize for fighting Sir Toby. Seeing both twins together, all is revealed to Olivia. Orsinos fool, Feste, brings a letter from Malvolio and on his release the conspirators confess to having written the false letter. Malvolio departs promising revenge. Maria and Sir Toby have married in celebration of the success of their device against the steward. The play ends as Orsino welcomes Olivia and Sebastian and, realizing his own attraction to Cesario (Viola) and promises that they will also be married.

William Shakespeare Sources

When Shakespeare was writing for his audiences there was a lot of pressure to turn out plays very quickly. It was a business after all! Furthermore, it was a business in which Shakespeare held stock, therefore he would have been pushed to produce new works of entertainment as often as he was able. Plots, characters, and even dialogue in some instances were frequently recycled to create new plays.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare

Twins
Twin plays, or plays about mistaken identities were very popular in the 16th century. The most notable is Comedy of Errors; however, twins commonly appeared in many of Shakespeare plays. It is likely that Shakespeares most important source for Twelfth Night was a story by Barnaby Riche called Apolonius and Silla; it contains many of the elements of Twelfth Night: a shipwreck, twins, and the girls passion for a duke. It is also worth bearing in mind that Shakespe are was writing for an acting company which had a pair of twins as members. Furthermore, in his own personal life fraternal twins were prevalent. His children were twins, one boy and one girl. In the play, Viola spend much of the play mourning the death of her twin brother. In Shakespeares life, his twin son died very young.

Puritans
In Shakespeares London, Puritans held a substantial amount of power and influence. They condemned the theatre as a place of vice and sin. Malvolio is described as a puritan in the play and theatre goers of the day would have enjoyed seeing a puritan characters fall from grace.

Advertising
Not far from the Globe Theatre was a local pub called the Elephant. Its no mistake that the characters in the play say that the Elephant is the best place to lodge. As well as being an inside joke for the audience, it may also be the first use of product placement in history.

Dialogue Exercise
Grab a partner and try it yourself!
OLIVIA I prithee, tell me what thou thinkst of me. VIOLA That you do think you are not what you are. OLIVIA If I think so, I think the same of you. VIOLA Then think you right: I am not what I am. OLIVIA I would you were as I would have you be! VIOLA Would it be better, madam, than I am? I wish it might, for now I am your fool. Great! Now try playing the scene with different motivations. Each actor choose a motivation from the list or make up your own. Dont tell anyone which one you have chosen. Perform the scene in front of the class and see if they can guess your motivation.

To insult To humor To romance To explain To excite To anger To discover To love To frighten To sleep To get sick To avoid To please