Twelfth Night - Carnival Spirit/Festivity
THESIS
- Shakespeare’s epiphany play ‘Twelfth Night’, written in the early 17th century, is a classic
example of a festive comedy that explores the complexities of love, gender, and societal norms,
therefore perhaps illustrating both the comedic and darker elements of human nature.
- Literary critic/Philosopher Bakhtin’s Carnivalesque - “celebrated temporary liberation from
prevailing truth and from established order; it marked the suspension of all hierarchical rank”
- Shakespeare employs the concept of carnival spirit to challenge established order of society
through the tensions presented between Revelry and Repression, to explore gender confusion,
and to highlight its temporary nature, emphasising how order must be restored.
1. Shakespeare presents Carnival Spirit through the tensions between Revelry and
Repression(Carnival and Lent) prevalent in the play - darker side of human
nature
- Laroque - ‘Shakespeare’s festive comedies revel in the carnival spirit of liberty and
irrelevance’
- exotic setting of Illyria seems to set up a fantasy world where normal rules do not apply,
establishing a sense of liberality.
- Shakespeare explores carnival spirit through the juxtaposing gures of Sir Toby, who is the
embodiment of the carnival spirit as the ‘Lord of Misrule’, and Malvolio, who represents the
puritanical ideas of lent.
- Song is a repetition of the phrase ‘Hold Thy Peace’ - meaning ‘be quiet’, creates irony and
humour as their singing is loud and boisterous.
- Shakespeares use of malapropism to heighten comedic e ect - 'lechery? I defy lechery’,
mixes words up, matches his hedonistic and excessive behaviour as he excessively drinks,
confuses the word ‘lethargy’ (sleepiness) with lechery (lustfulness) showing the extent of his
intoxication
- ’I’ll drink to her as long as there is a passage in my throat.’ (1.3.150)- consistently promotes
his revelry, mischief and excess throughout play.
- ACT2S3 - criticises Sir Toby Belch and his companions for their revelry, stating, "My masters,
are you mad?” - Interruption of revelry establishes the tension between the hedonistic
philosophy of Sir Toby’s and groups view of life and the ‘puritan’ austerity of Malvolio.
- Maria naming Malvolio a ‘kind of puritan’ - evokes a context of Religious austerity as practiced
by puritans, when Puritans came to power after the Civil War, one of their rst acts was to shut
all theatres in 1642.
- “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” Sir
Toby mocks Malvolio's puritanical strictness and restriction.
- Gulling of Malvolio - Malvolio’s fate is arguably the defence of ‘cakes and ale’ which represents
the carnivalesque indulgence and chaos - Bevington “Twelfth Night comes close to being
militant in its defence of merrymaking”
- Explores the darker side of human nature - “Good Sir Topas, do not think I am mad. They
have laid me here in hideous darkness” - Malvolio imprisoned as a madman, ironic as he is
trying to convince Feste, the fool disguised as Sir Topas, that he is not mad. Reference to
darkness refers to physical darkness and a gurative allusion to madness as a state of
confusion.
- Shakespeare argues that perhaps the manipulation and cruelty of Malvolio’s gulling illustrates
how the carnival spirit can bring out the worst in human nature.
- Malvolio's unhappy ending - “Ill be revenged on the whole pack of you” - The metaphor of
“the whole pack of you” in his nal words creates imagery of the other characters surrounding
him in opposition; he is an outcast, and his ending is re ective of that
- remind us that twelfth night is a carnivalesque play, in which usual rules and roles are
suspended - but that the status quo will be resumed tomorrow, cynical tone which perhaps, as
this was Shakespeares last comedy, permeates the the tragedies Shakespeare wrote after for
the next decade.
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