"Twelfth Night"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes William Shakespeare's play "Twelfth Night." It discusses the way in which Shakespeare subtly moralizes throughout the play's plot and how Shakespeare plays with the notion of social mobility to assert that with worthy intentions, a transgression of class can be acceptable. The paper provides examples and quotes from the play to illustrate its points.

From the Paper:

"Shakespeare also moralizes by denouncing ill-disguised simulacrums of love and teaches that incompetence, greedy self-gain and a thirst for dominance as motives cannot lead to what is desired. False love is a running motif throughout the play; just as Orsino's "love" for Olivia is more a stage for his self-indulgence, Malvolio's "love" for his mistress is more a gateway to an elevated social status. Never once does he spend time to speak of his alleged love for Olivia, nor does he ever verbally profess any love for her. At most, Malvolio tosses out flimsy comments about dedication to his lady, and the focus of his dreams is clarified when he muses on the power made accessible through a marriage to Olivia. Malvolio's love is only for himself and his inability to think unselfishly about anyone else inevitably marks him as someone to be detested (I.v.73). The other characters comment on his ignorance, that "so crammed (as he thinks) with excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him" (II.iii.126-129). Malvolio displays a glaring ignorance for how others feel about him; he is not perceptive or sensitive to the reactions of others, and this indicates, again, that provincial love of self that is to be his downfall. Malvolio never really has a chance to begin with, for from the start of the play, his sour egotism is unabashedly apparent."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cressy, David. "Describing the Social Order of Elizabethan and Stuart England." Literature and History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. 29-44.
• Malcolmson, Cristina. "Social Mobility and Gender." Twelfth Night. Ed. R.S. White. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1996. 160-193.
• Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Elizabeth Story Domo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

More papers on "Twelfth Night":

• Book Review # 139680 : "Twelfth Night and Hamlet - A Comparison"
• Analytical Essay # 130725 : "Comedy as Instruction in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night"
• Book Review # 116663 : "Twelfth Night"
• Comparison Essay # 86527 : "Disguises in "Twelfth Night" and "King Lear"

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