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Words, Identity, Sexuality, Imagination, Madness. Twelfth Night. Opening questions. What are the issues/conflicts/problems of the play that are brought up in Act I? Literally: Who can get what they want & who can’t? Why? What/who blocks desire? Metaphorical or bigger issues:
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Words, Identity, Sexuality, Imagination, Madness Twelfth Night
Opening questions What are the issues/conflicts/problems of the play that are brought up in Act I? Literally: Who can get what they want & who can’t? Why? What/who blocks desire? Metaphorical or bigger issues: What determines identify? To what extent is it dependent on class and gender, and to what extent is it dependent upon attire and/or disguises? How is romantic love depicted in the play? What is Shakespeare saying about romance? Twelfth Night is traditionally a festival when everything is turned upside down, topsy –turvy. How does this happen in the play?
Themes • Identity – depends upon interplay between perception and “truth” (but what is “true”? Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to imagine himself as a successful suitor Olivia tries to get Cesario to be her lover Sword fight is a faked fight between a coward and a young woman (3.4.276+)Viola in two categories at once – “poor monster” both male & female and neither (2.2.34-35) • Power of language to alter reality • Power of self-deception (3.1.145-9) • What you will, will being “carnal appetite” or sexual urge • Imagination: see especially Malvolio’s imagination of himself as so important and beloved, which Maria’s note only plays into (2.4.44+) • Being a puppetmaster (Maria like Iago) • Madness
The Anxiety about Attire • Sumptuary laws were enacted in England during this time • These made it a CRIME to wear certain clothes e.g. a woman wearing a man’s clothing. • Driving force behind the laws is a fear within society about the role of identity • Can people jump out of their proper spot in the Chain of Being in the right clothes? • Theaters were often running up against this problembecause women couldn’t act on stage so boys played their parts. • When audiences saw Viola dressed as Cesario, it was a double disguise. • Boy acts the part of a girl, who is dressed as a boy in the fiction
The Semiotics of Clothing and Disguise • Symbols signify meaning • Order results from an agreed upon meaning for a symbol: signifier = signified • Disorder would result from disagreement on what a symbol means: signifier = ? • Of course, disorder, anxiety, and social contradiction is the stuff of comedy
Semiotics and Sumptuary Laws Signifier (sign) Signified
Similarly, Signifier Signified pants MAN
Contradictions • However, England was full of problematic symbols
What does this mean for Twelfth Night? • Olivia confuses the signifier (clothes) for the signified, (man) and accept a substitute with the same clothes as if it were the same. • What if she actually liked Viola, the woman? (does she really think Sebastian is identical?) • Orsino doesn’t seem to care if he gets a substitute woman or man/woman. • Viola never really puts on the ”correct” clothing at the end. • Maybe Orsino really wants the man, Cesario? • Things are still pretty darned topsy-turvy at the end • Perhaps this says something about marriage or gender . . .
Then we have Malvolio • Sir Toby, Maria and the Fool torture him • What does he do to deserve it? • They call him a Puritan for disapproving of their all-night drinking binges. • Do they cross the line? • How do you read his last lines, humorously or tragically?
