‘Twelfth Night, with all its troubling undertones, is an uneasy play about
outsiders who lose.’ To what extent do you agree with this view? Remember to
include in your answer relevant comment on Shakespeare’s dramatic
methods. [25 marks]
Twelfth Night’s potentially trivial nature is often debated, as many try and discover
the message which Shakespeare aims to communicate in the play. It could be
argued by some that the play maintains a solemn and discomforting undertone,
conclusively to represent outsiders in society who lose, however looking at the
context of the play, this perception appears incorrect. The final scene of the play is
the key to distinguishing who ‘loses’ and who ‘wins’ in the play, and contains a lot of
important information as to the position each character finds themselves in by the
end of the play, and what might happen in the future, all of which distinguishing who
are the ‘outsiders’ and whether or not they ‘lose’.
Amongst the characters of Twelfth Night, Malvolio appears to be the most poignant
outsider. His puritan archetypal character not only contrasts the trivial, hedonistic
atmosphere of the majority of the other characters on stage, but would also mark him
as instantly dislikable to a contextual Shakespearean audience, given the puritan’s
attempt to ban theatre. He is constantly mocked and abused throughout the play,
most notably during the scene where he is fooled by Sir Toby and the others to dress
in ridiculous “cross-gartered yellow stockings” to impress Olivia. His gulling leads him
appear foolish and even insane as he is then locked up for his “madness”, all of
which appears to be a lighthearted satirical poke at the puritan character. However,
his departing words of the play might suggest otherwise. After enduring his
humiliation, he exclaims “I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you”, creating a
troubling undertone to his departure and creating a sense of impending doom, an
uneasy ending to the play. Although, one might also argue that he is as much of an
outsider to the twelfth night atmosphere as he may first appear, as upon abiding to
the desires of Maria’s false letter, he delights in the subversion of power when he
spurns Maria, the same subversion of power which defines the misrule of Twelfth
Night. In this sense, one might argue that Malvolio is not an outsider, and rather it is
his conformity to the misrule of Twelfth Night which sees him out as the ‘loser’.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek is another outsider, in the most literal sense, as he comes as
a visitor to Sir Toby. In a similar sense, he is a ‘loser’ throughout the play. Sir Toby
only has him around so to spend his money, and he fools him into believing he has a
chance in pursuing Olivia. Furthermore, he is gulled into fighting Cesario, or rather
Viola, and through the use of dramatic irony appears more foolish as he cowers in
front of his enemy who, unbeknownst to him, is a female. Sir Andrew, upon first
glance, is the dim-witted target of Sir Toby and his pack’s pranks, however
Shakespeare appears to look to draw sympathy for Sir Andrew upon the climax of
the play. Sir Andrew admits “I was loved once” a line with a melancholy undertone
which suggests a sudden realisation of his dire situation, and a reference to some
previous loss of “love” which makes the audience become more sympathetic towards
him. This contrasted with Sir Toby’s ruthlessly uncharacteristic insulting of him, in
calling him “an ass-head and a coxcomb and a knave, a thin-faced knave, a gull”, all
of a sudden shifts the light in which Sir Andrew is perceived, and he leaves the stage
silently as an ‘outsider’ and a ‘loser’.
