Twelfth Night Literary Elements

drama; comedy

English

Dukedom of Illyria (fictional)

There is no singular narrator in the play, though the performance follows the character of Viola closely as she grapples with her love for Orsino and her disguise as his page.

erratic, unstable, grim, festive

The central protagonist of the play is Viola. The central antagonist is Malvolio.

The major conflict of the play is that Viola, who disguises herself as a page boy, falls in love with Orsino, the duke she serves. Orsino is, in turn, in love with Olivia, who falls in love with Viola's disguise, Cesario.

The climax of the play occurs when Viola comes face-to-face with Sebastian, her twin brother who she presumed to be dead. Viola ultimately reveals her true identity and ushers in the re-stabilizing action of the play.

When Viola arrives in Illyria disguised as a page, she argues that she will be able to speak "musically" to Duke Orsino if she is allowed to serve him. Earlier in the play, Orsino described music as the "food of love." This moment with Viola foreshadows the end of the play, in which Viola's true identity is revealed and she and Orsino are married.

When Orsino tells Viola that he will continue to call her Cesario so long as she wears men's clothes, he actually implies that part of his attraction to her is the fact that she is dressed as a man.

Like many Renaissance plays, Twelfth Night makes frequent allusions to ancient Greek and Roman arts and culture. It also, however, alludes to some of Shakespeare's contemporaries or near-contemporaries, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, and Thomas Wyatt.

Important imagery in the play includes hunting, the sea, costumes, and food/drink.

The central paradox of the play is that Olivia and Orsino are in love with the same person but they perceive her as two different people (Viola and Cesario).

In many ways, Olivia and Viola are parallel characters for the way they showcase gender role-reversal. Viola takes on the physical appearance of a man while Olivia steps into a masculine role when she proposes to Sebastian (whom she perceives is Cesario).

The hunting imagery in the play makes use of personification as it equates the deer (or prey) with a beloved that the hunter (the lover) must pursue.

Of course, Twelfth Night makes use of early modern costuming and nods meta-theatrically toward the fact that female roles were played by boys or young men. The play is self-referential in this way, using the topsy-turvy nature of the Twelfth Night holiday to put the full potential of early modern theater on display.