Gabriela Tovar

Questions for Twelfth Night

Choose two of the following three questions and answer them completely. Use solid, specific,
relevant examples from the plays and movies to illustrate your answers.

1. The play has a happy ending for everyone except Malvolio. Why is he excluded at the end
from the happiness of all the others? What was done to him, and by whom? Is what
happened to Malvolio cruel or fair, based on his character?

When we are introduced to Malvolio, we see that he is a very serious character. He considers
the other characters acts as dumb and childish. For example, when Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and the
Fool were having a conversation at night, Malvolio told them: My masters, are you mad? Or what
are you? Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?
(). This clearly shows how important it is to be decent and a gentleman for him. He wishes to be
in a higher social status, so the best way to accomplish it is by controlling his acts and showing the
perfect behaviour. Though he is loyal to Olivia, he wants to marry her to impose his power over the
ones he believes that behave silly. He doesnt go with the fun spirit that comes with the Twelfth
Night. Thats the reason why he is the only one that doesnt have a happy ending at the end.

As Malvolio doesnt really have a sense of humor, it is so easy for characters such as Maria,
Sir Toby or Feste to make fun of him. As he rejected these characters behaviour, they wanted to get
revenge. They think that he is a killjoy. Maria even says: Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of
puritan. and she continues The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly, but a time-pleaser
(). With this quotes we can see that even wants to act as a noble man, he is pretentious and
narcissistic; thats the weaknesses Maria uses to get revenge for her and the other characters. Maria
writes a letter which seemed written by Olivia, Malvolios desired love. In this letter Olivia tells
him she is in love with him, and that she would love to see him being happy and wearing yellow
stockings. Malvolio is delighted by this, and does exactly what the letter says. When Olivia sees
him, she thinks he is crazy. As she doesnt like the color yellow, and he was acting very happy when
Olivia was grieving, she believes him as a crazy man and sends him to prison. To continue the joke,
Maria makes the Fool dress out as a priest and perform an exorcism to poor Malvolio. At the end he
finds out that the letter was not really written by Olivia, but swears that he will get a final revenge.
 What happened to him was very cruel, but I personally think that treating people badly, like
he did to the others, could lead you to some pretty bad consequences. In my opinion, they went
really hard on him. One thing is to make fun of Malvolio by making jokes about him; another thing
is to break his heart by sending him a fake love letter. It must have been tough for him to be rejected
by the one he loved after she supposedly confessed her love for him. Also, it is unimaginable to
think how he would have felt in prison knowing that his love believes him crazy. However, the
funniest scenes in the play involve him being tricked, and as this is a comedy, it is really funny to se
him get picked on. This characters teaches us to not take things to seriously, mostly in Twelfth
Night, that its supposed to be a day to enjoy and be celebrated with fun.

2. Discuss the institution of marriage in Twelfth Night. It signifies happiness, but also the
possibility of changing one's social class. Who marries or tries to marry for love, and who
for social advancement? Does anyone achieve both? How does Shakespeare use the
institution of marriage in this play?

At the end of the play we can see that there are a plenty of characters that get married. First
of all, we have Olivia and Sebastian. Olivia she was pretty sure that did not want to get married
with Duke Orsino throughout the play. She doesnt even seem to have a love interest until Viola
comes. Even Sir Toby once told Sir Andrew that: Shell none o' the count. Shell not match above
her degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit. I have heard her swear t. Tut, theres life in t, man..
This could mean that she could have been interested to marry someone by a personal interest, but
not really for love. Later, she falls in love with Viola after hearing her thoughts about love, and is
desperate to marry her male version. As Sebastian was alive, it was her perfect chance to get
married with her love. He was unprepared but accepted anyways, and the most probable reason was
because she is beautiful. We could say that in this case it was love why they got married.

Then there is the Duke and Viola. Viola truly loves Duke, but he doesnt, or maybe he does
but it is a love for a friend. He just considers Cesario a helpful and loyal servant. However, when he
finds out that he is a she, he seems relieved. He tells her: Here is my hand. You shall from this time
be your masters mistress.. It is unclear if he falls for her, but we are sure that Viola married him
because of love. Finally, Sir Toby marries Maria. We can see that he falls in love with her once she
plans the prank on Malvolio. He says: Good night, Penthesilea. and continues Shes a beagle,
true-bred, and one that adores me. What o' that?. We can see how Maria is his partner in crime and
how he has feelings for her. Maria seems to like Sir Toby a lot as well, but what she gets from
marrying him is not just love, its a higher social status. Though Maria has some feelings for him,
she is Olivias servant, and Sit Toby is her chance of leaving that life behind. Maria goes more
along with the Twelfth Night spirit, so as she was a servant, at the end she becomes a noble lady. We
can say that marriage for her was social advancement and it could have been also a little love.

As it is a comedy about love that we are analysing, it is not surprising that many couples
come together and live happily ever after at the end. Shakespeare uses marriage as the perfect way
to end his play. The characters weve liked get the happy ending they deserve. Viola stays with
Orsino, Olivia gets his fake Cesario, and Sir Toby ends up with Maria. Marriage is also a way of
ending with the celebration of the Twelfth Night. What a better way of celebrating it than having
three weddings! So the characters that went along with this party got what they deserved.