Shedding Light on Twelfth Night

‘Carpe Diem’—seize the day!   Were the characters of Twelfth Night in it for the party?  Did they seize the moment to cause havoc?

 Twelfth Night is historically known in Christianity as the culmination of the Twelve Days of Christmas.  Twelfth Night is the night before the twelfth day. The night is considered to be an epiphany.  The night is meant to be a night of revelation of truth and light. Obviously relates to the ending of the play , the “epiphany”, of all the true identities discussed in my previous post.  This holiday was celebrated as a festival in which everything was turned upside down.  Likewise, everything is relatively inverted in the play. Malvolio thinks he could become a nobleman.

Olivia, as a woman, is in charge of the household.  Viola dresses up as a man.  Feste the fool should actually be called wise. These examples illustrate how Twelfth Night like the holiday is emphasizing similar themes or a topsy turvy situation.  The festive nature of the play draws upon the carefree attitude of the alternative title of “Or What you Will”.  People around holidays are supposed to be happy-go-lucky and roll along with happenings.  The “Or What You Will” highlights the lighthearted nature of the characters.  Except for Malvolio, the rest of the characters seem to go along untroubled with whatever happens in the play.  For instance, Olivia is rather complacent about accepting Sebastain is not Cesario. She goes moves forward with the prerogative (as you said) “Let It Be”.  Shakespeare uses the carefree nature of the characters as a parable for the audience.  A parable is a story, which illustrates a lesson, usually used in Biblical terms by Jesus (once again pointing back to the reference of the Twelfth Night).  Shakespeare is teaching a lesson of not to take life so seriously for no matter what happens one can take a “whatever” attitude toward the happenings and move on.  The play’s title may be based on the Epiphany or revelation of light, but Feste points out how life is not always filled with “light”.  Feste sings, “For the rain, it raineth every day.”  Life often has times of rain and seemingly “darkness”.  Feste expounds on the reality of life. Life is tulmultuous, confusing, people wear disguises (masks), and full of absolute nonsense.  Twelfth Night as a play taught me to see the lighter side of life maybe life should be a party from time to time.  Focusing on the darkness would leave me dressed in bright yellow tights and cross belts sulking.  In the spirit of Twelfth Night, let's instead:  “Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”  

Additionally, the theme of lightness and darkness as you mentioned will be used in the Othello.  Shakespeare’s use of common themes throughout his works can illustrate how the lessons of life correlate. 

Before the Final Bow

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night comes to an end with each character revealing their true identity.  Sebastian and Viola are reunited.  The brother and sister pair quickly quiz one another on their family to make for certain they are from the same family.  Cesario reveals she is not a man, but rather Viola.  Olivia is particularly disturbed after she thought she was already married to Cesario.  Orsino (with not even a pause) expresses his true undeniable feelings for Viola.  And lets not forget about the crazed Malvolio who realizes Olivia never loved him, but rather he was once again fooled by false love.  The big "reveal" creates a sense of clarity for the characters, perhaps even a moment of realization at their silliness.  The true clown about town, Feste, recognizes their utter lack of sanity still as Malvolio storms off and Orsino quickly falls in love with someone he once thought to be a man.  Feste quotes from the letter, "Why, 'some are born great, some achieve/ greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon/ them" (V. i. 372-374). Feste is commenting on their lack of greatness!  The characters did not achieve any great feat by finally coming to their senses about people's real identity.  The characters may have been born into noble (great) families.  Yet, the characters do not have greatness thrown upon them for in this comedy the characters simply fall in and out of love.  Feste points to how the characters still see what is "outer beauty" (thinking everyone is a regulation hottie).  As the play came to end, one could almost feel the resolution right around the corner.  Being in the audience we have the inside scoop on what is going with the characters so we are able to laugh at their silly mistakes and nonsensical reasoning.  But as the play ends, Feste sings, "But that's all one, our play is done,/And we'll strive to please you every day"(V. i. 409-411).  Upon reading the final lines, I thought wait is the joke on me? Did all of these players seemingly dupe me? Shakespeare uses metatheatre in the sense of play or masque presented as part of the larger plot.  The use of metatheatre at the end of the play highlights how a masque or a "disguise" has been used as part of the larger plot to fool the audience.  The characters all along knew they were acting.  Shakespeare may have meant to teach the audience a lesson about laughing at another human's misperceptions and mistakes.  Shakespeare played a joke of his own on an unsuspecting audience.  Moreover, Shakespeare established a principle of being careful with love.  Shakespeare showed how stupid and unreasonable love could be.   Love should be well reasoned and meaningful!

Only Fools Fall in Love

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night plays on the foolishness of love.  The characters are falling in love based on mistaken identity which is absolutely and utterly foolish.  Olivia is falling in love with the "handsome" page boy Cesario because the way he is straightforward about wooing for Orsino.  Cesario demonstrates what Olivia finds attractive by actually being a 'man'.  Cesario is actually Viola, Sebastian's sister, in disguise.  Viola quickly falls in love with Orsino. Orsino is still excessively in love with Olivia.  Malvolio who is already in love with Olivia falls for a planted love letter by Maria.  He thinks the letter was written by Olivia and foolishly dresses up in ridiculous yellow stockings.  [Luckily, as the audience, we have the inside scoop into the confusing love of the cast.  To me, this is what makes Twelfth Night and other comedies funny is that we know something the cast does not know so the 'trick' or the punch line is not on us.]
Falling in love?  The characters of Twelfth Night do not think twice before falling into love.   Falling means, "to pass into some physical, mental, or emotional condition".  Olivia, Viola, Orsino, Malvoilio, and even Antonio quickly pass into an emotional condition of love.   Love has been illustrated across time to cause foolishness.  But, why?  Similar to the concept of slapstick comedy or comedy in general, love plays tricks on the mind.    Love literally makes people silly.  Love blinds people to human reason because  the emotions of love cloud any clear, sensible mental state.  Shakespeare elucidates on the reality of humanity.  The audience may laugh at the foolishness of the characters, but these characters are simply illustrations of the reality of love.  We quickly fall in and out of love. We idolize physical beauty or swoon over a "hottie".  We fall for comfort of companionship.  We deny faults of our partners or try to fix flaws of character.  The foolish love in Shakespeare highlights the foolish love college students experience on a daily basis, yet we seemingly ignore or deny the foolishness.  
Shakespeare's Feste should probably start roaming around today!  Feste says, "Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life?".  Individuals often pass up opportunities and jump at supposed "soul-mates" foolishly when we are missing out on the "good life".   Feste brings light to the reality of generations recklessly falling in love.  Can we really ever stop foolishly falling in love? 

Crazy Ophelia: Psychology in Hamlet

The young maiden Ophelia from Hamlet lost her mind!  The sexualized Ophelia began to mentally unravel after the death of her father and by giving herself sexually to Hamlet.  Did she suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder? PTSD?
In Act IV Scene v, Ophelia begins singing mindless and meaningful songs.   She sings, "Before you tumbled me, you promised me to wed."  Ophelia is singing about how she slept with Hamlet.  The song is a narrative about a maiden, but when the maiden comes out of the bedroom she is no longer a maiden.  Ophelia continues with how the man would reply, "So would I' a done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.  She is referring to how if she had not gone to bed with Hamlet then he would have likely married her. Essentially, Ophelia was manipulated by Hamlet because of Hamlet's malice and resentment of his own mother.  Gertrude easily slipped into bed with Claudius right after Hamlet's dad died.  Hamlet recognizes Ophelia's quickness to jump into bed as too similar to his mother.  His essentially sexual abuse of Ophelia contributes to her possible Borderline Personality Disorder.  Borderline Personality Disorder is when a person's emotions are rapidly changing.  In Ophelia's case, she showed the symptoms of being sexually impulsive, fearing being abandoned, and feelings of emptiness.    Ophelia seems overly attached to Hamlet even though he is treating her poorly.   Furthermore, when she gives the possibly imaginary flowers this highlights how flowers serve no utility.  Symbolically, Ophelia feels like she serves no utility or purpose anymore. Borderline individuals are usually uncertain about their identity.  Ophelia is obviously questioning her identity given the present matters, since she is feeling abandoned and lost without a family.  Ophelia has no protection.  Likewise, Borderline individuals often become suicidal and self-destructive.  Ophelia falls into the brook and dies.  Her death can be deemed a suicide as Gertrude explains how she continued to sing songs, "snatches of old lauds", until the garments weigh her down enough to drown Ophelia from her "melodious lay".  Ophelia could not take her lonely life and tumultuous life any longer.  Therefore, Ophelia could be considered to have suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder or possibly even Post Traumatic Stress Disorder given the fact her dad died and she was pregnant at the time of death.  In any case, Ophelia shows another side of human nature to pushed to mental exhaustion from external pressures and chaotic events.

Serpent Imagery

The serpent has symbolic value.  Since the beginning, the idea of the serpent was one of evil temptation as seen in the story of Adam and Eve.  The serpent convinced the two to eat of the Garden of Eden and therefore, betray God.  Shakespeare used serpent symbolism and imagery during Brutus's speech about Caesar.  Brutus explains,    "And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, Which, hatch'd, would as his kind grow mischievous, And kill him in the shell".   Brutus believes Caesar is merely a "serpent's egg" waiting to hatch and once the day comes he will indeed commit mischievous actions.  Ultimately, Brutus decided to kill Caesar before any of the actions could be committed.  Now in reading Hamlet, Shakespeare again uses the serpent as a symbol.  In act I scene v, the Ghost says, "A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark/ Is by forged process of my death/ Rankly abused.  But I know, thou noble youth,/ The serpent that did sting thy father's life/ Now wears his crown".  The Ghost, apparently the late King, explains his untimely death was at the hand of his brother, Claudius.  The Ghost conjures Claudius as a serpent who took his life unjustly and provided a false story to the people of Denmark.  In this sense, the serpent represents evil vindictiveness.  The serpent Claudius or the arrant knave was hungry for power.  The representation of Claudius could be similar to how Brutus saw Caesar, but Claudius has actually already committed acts of grave nature to get to power.  Therefore,  the symbol of the serpent is one of evil, temptation, and a chance to be vindictive in the works of Shakespeare.  

The Brute Brutus

In conclusion of the play Julius Caesar, Brutus revealed himself as a true brute.  Brutus treated his friend Caesar with utter disrespect.  I came across the description of Brutus as "cupidinous" which means "Filled with amorous desire or passion; not to be confused with cupidity, excessive desire, especially for wealth; avarice" (http://www.definition-of.com/cupidinous). Brutus had extreme passion which clouded any sense of sound judgment.  Passion messes logic!  Furthermore, in terms of avarice which means an "insatiable desire for gain".  Brutus's avarice for Roman power was not well thought out.  He claims to be looking out for the Roman Republic, but if he were truly looking out for the state's well-being then Brutus would have spent more time in laboring with making a sound judgment.  Brutus's brash and unreasonable decision to side with the conspiracy show his lack of real motives.  Ultimately, I believe Brutus took this opportunity to be powerful and be the new star of Rome.  He always had hidden desires to step out of the shadows and be in the limelight.  I think this relates to natural human desires to have power. Moreover, a lot of political decisions are made in the cover for the "good of the people", but often not all possibilities are taken into account.  Look at the Iraq War how as Americans we completely shook up their government to remove a tyrant and the people still don't have a stable government.  This correlates to how the conspirators killed Caesar to leave Rome in shambles with the War in Phillipi.  Ultimately, Brutus's character, motivation, and political actions need to called into question.  His brute and  cupidinous actions should not be hailed, but rather called into question for they were neither very honorable or noble which supposedly the crowning glory of Brutus's being.

The Funeral Speeches

Brutus or Antony? Convincing the mere plebeians to listen beyond their mere words.

Brutus speaks in the common people for he does not use iambic pentameter.  He emphasizes his honorable nature for he put Rome first and foremost.  Brutus explains his love for Caesar, but he recognized the ambitions of Caesar to be troublesome to Roman people. He attempts to use logic as his rhetorical device to say he is consistent in his everlasting love for Rome. Rather, Antony actually puts himself amongst the people by putting himself on the ground of the people.  He triumphs in his oratory skills of speaking by playing on the pathos of the crowd.   Antony still uses reason against Brutus's argument by providing the evidence of how Caesar three times denied the crown!  This is an instance of Antony using ethos to get the crowd to trust in what he is saying.

 Still I think an argument could be made that Antony successfully used all three devices as a plebeian responds with, "Methinks there is much reason in his saying".   Since Antony successfully gains the backing and trust of the crowd, he is able to reveal the true occurrences of Caesar's death by traitors.  Antony  incites the crowd in to a vicious, fiery rage to mutiny against the bad souls of Rome.  Brutus played upon reason verses Antony uses the raw emotion.

I still believe both of these characters are power hungry political figures vying for their chance to control the great Roma.