Gender Fluidity
One of the central themes of Twelfth Night is gender, specifically the unstable and uncertain nature of gender in the world of the play. Through all of the play's cross-dressing or disguised characters, Twelfth Night explores how gender is itself largely performative in nature. This theme is especially significant in the broader context of early modern English theater, where female roles were played by boys or young men. So, in the case of Viola, her character would have been played by a boy dressed as a woman who is disguised as a man. Twelfth Night therefore takes on a playful but nonetheless insightful attitude toward gender as something that can be manipulated and performed.
Love and Suffering
From the very beginning of the play, love is characterized as an all-powerful, all-consuming emotion. It is also, however, characterized as the root of someone's suffering, especially when that love is unrequited. In Act One, Orsino laments his unrequited love for Lady Olivia, wishing desperately to put an end to his suffering that he cannot escape. This was a common theme, not only on the Renaissance stage, but in Renaissance poetry – including Shakespeare's own sonnets. Often, love is characterized as a double-edged sword, or a phenomenon that is simultaneously someone's entire reason for living and the sole cause of their pain.
Disguise and Deception
Of course, disguise figures heavily into the play, as does the theme it connotes: deception and deceit. The most apparent example of a character using disguise to their advantage is Viola. As the page boy Cesario, Viola is able to earn a position in Duke Orsino's court (a role that would otherwise be off-limits for her). Ironically, in this disguised role, she is also able to get closer to Orsino that she ever would have been able to as a woman. While disguises – especially cross-dressing ones – were frequently employed in Shakespeare's comedy plays, in Twelfth Night these disguises are not just a form of entertainment but actually a means of commenting on the nature of gender and gender roles as they were understood in early modern society.
Ambition and Social Class
While the play primarily follows characters who are all relatively of the same social class (nobility), it also develops a subplot involving Olivia's steward, Malvolio. Malvolio desperately wants to rise above his social station, and is easily convinced when Maria (Olivia's lady in waiting) forges a letter from Olivia confessing her love for Malvolio. The play makes a mockery of Malvolio's ambition while simultaneously comparing him to a Puritan – Christians who were, at the time, critical of the Catholic Church and especially disparaging of the theater. In an instance of dramatic irony, the audience is well aware that Malvolio could never actually marry a noblewoman. Interestingly, then, the play endorses a fluid perception of gender at the same time it maintains a rigid understanding of social hierarchy.
Love's Unpredictability
The lovers in Twelfth Night (virtually every character, at some point) fall hard and fast the objects of their affection. The play emphasizes the unpredictability and all-consuming nature of love through the love triangle of Orsino, Olivia, and "Cesario"/Sebastian. Through a series of private confessions, the play advertises an understanding of love as something over which people have no control. Olivia, for example, is allegedly not interested in a suitor as she mourns the death of her brother, but the appearance of "Cesario" (Viola in disguise) in her life quickly changes her mind. That the characters are so quick to fall in love, even with characters who are pretending to be someone else, underscores the extent to which love is unruly and often surprising, even to the lover.
Language and Communication
Like many other themes in the play, Shakespeare presents language and communication as a double-edged sword. In some circumstances, language can be a source of truth and expression, as in the cases where characters spontaneously compose love poetry about their beloved (something Shakespeare himself did in his sonnet sequence). However, language can also be another source of miscommunication and deception – as in, for instance, the letter Maria writes to Malvolio, pretending to be Olivia and confessing her love for her steward. Shakespeare's presentation of language, writing, and communication in the play reminds audiences of the power and skill of the playwright, who must use language and poetry to communicate deeper truths about the world.
Culture and the Theater
Twelfth Night is, like many of Shakespeare's plays, frequently self-referential and meta-theatrical. That is, the events of the play often comment on the nature of theater and performance itself. Nowhere is this more obvious than through the cross-dressing of Viola, who embodies the transvestitism already operative on the early modern stage as women were always played by men. Furthermore, the theater often came under criticism from Puritans as an allegedly low-brow form of entertainment. Twelfth Night challenges these criticisms by using its plot to interrogate notions of gender, sexuality, class, and society more broadly. Finally, through the character of Malvolio (who himself is compared to a Puritan), Shakespeare mocks a Puritanical mindset for being largely out of touch with reality.
