Twelfth Night discussion

Any resemblance between the characters in Twelfth Night and real people is purely coincidental.

Washed ashore after her ship sinks, Viola first wants to know “Where am I?” Good—just what anyone would say. Told that she is in Duke Orsino’s country, the first thing she wants to know is “Is he married?” Oh-oh. This does not seem too realistic. Would you believe Kate Winslett, on being hoisted aboard the Carpathia, wanting to know first of all whether Captain Rostron is married?

Viola does, to her credit, inquire about her brother’s fate, but she shows no interest whatsoever in either continuing on to her original destination or getting back to the place she came—considerations you might thing a shipwreck survivor would at least think about.

And so it goes—a grown man in a responsible position consumed with unrequited love to the exclusion of all else. A rich and beautiful woman devoting herself to seven years of deep mourning and seclusion. Is this the way rational people behave in real life—whether during the sixteenth century or today? I don’t think so.

Probably the trouble here is that I am too literal minded and just don’t connect with the play—a fact that does not imply there is anything wrong with the play. Or with me, for that matter.

The First time I read the book I was Confused. After I played the part of Viola in a play last year, things started clearing up. Probably because the play was directed by my mother who had 6 kids (she now has 7), and because my Mom loves and understands Shakespeare, I started to also.
If I remember the story right, Viola's father was dead so that may have been why she didn't go on to her original destiny. The rest of the story is probably Shakespeare's desire to create a fun adventure.

Delmar H. wrote: "Any resemblance between the characters in Twelfth Night and real people is purely coincidental.

Washed ashore after her ship sinks, Viola first wants to know “Where am I?” Good—just what anyone w..."

In the world of Shakespeare, anything is possible. Just go with it and let the words come "o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets".

Also, the fact that Orsino is not married is fairly important in the play and needs to be understood by the audience early on. Viola's life has been devastated by the shipwreck, so she can't even think about revisiting the places she lived with her adored twin brother. Maybe she was just making idle conversation with the sailor whilst she came to terms with her grief. And Olivia is pretty crazy!

Sorry, I just love the play so much I have to defend it!

I never thought of the fact that Viola wouldn't want to go where she had gone with her twin brother.
I think that Shakespeare was trying to appeal to a lot of different audiences.

Well, it is a piece of entertainment. Shakespeare did not sit down to write great literature, he wrote plays that people would enjoy and pay to come and see. The fact that we find them great literature some 500 years later is just testament to his skill.

Also, it is a play and not a novel. There are devices, norms and considerations associated with writing plays that do not apply to novels. They come from a much longer cultural history than the novel enjoys. The author cannot spend too long on establishing a character’s history or motivations because the audience is fickle and if their attention starts to wander then the play is going to run into trouble. Also, it is a comedy therefore to strict an adherence to ‘realism’ is not going to win the crowd over either; they want laughs and ridiculous situations, the clown, the love interest, the happy ending.

Twelfth Night is written within these constraints and pretty successfully I would say.

While I enjoyed reading Twelfth Night, there really isn't anything memorable about it for me. In fact, I remember very little about the play at all; I would have to read the plot overview and look at the characters. I love Shakespeare, as much as I do the Beatles, but, in my opinion, the Beatles did have some throw away songs. I think this is possibly a throw away play.

A favorite. It's part fantasy, however. And plays a lot of games with the fact that Shakespeare was dressing up boys as girls as boys--fun role-playing. The subtitle is "What You Will"--which in Shakespeare's day would have multiple meanings, including sexual ones. Twelfth Night back in the day , was a party holiday, much like Mardi Gras--where anything goes. So good strait-laced Catholics could have a break and go wild. It was therefore a masquerade, and this play was probably written for such an occasion. So of course most of the characters appear a bit over the top, even crazy. I take Duke Orsino as a bit of a parody of the languishing lover--if you read that beautiful opening monologue of his with an ear to its comedy--it's really too much! And his servants are making fun of him in the background, all that stuff about deer-hunting--they are questioning his masculinity.

And Feste! I love Feste. Who wouldn't want to have his charmed life.