MADNESS AND MIMETIC VIOLENCE: LAUGHTER AND LANGUAGE IN SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT By Kaitlyn Joy Blum A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Wilkes Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a Concentration in English Literature Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Jupiter, Florida May 2013 MADNESS AND MIMETIC VIOLENCE: LAUGHTER AND LANGUAGE IN SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT By Kaitlyn Joy Blum This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Michael Harrawood, and has been approved by the members of her/his supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: __________________________ Dr. Michael Harrawood ________________________ Dr. Rachel Corr ________________________ Dean Jeffrey Buller, Wilkes Honors College ________________________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could never have done this project on my own, and must give many thanks to a multitude of superb individuals. First, I wish to say thank you to my family: to my mother, your never-ending support for me has always been my greatest source of encouragement; my father, for your words of wisdom; my brother Will for our true friendship with one another; my grandparents, for supporting my academic endeavors; my godparents for their kindness, especially during my college years. I want to thank the friends that I have met at the Honors College, especially my best friend Erica for your constant support and Dawn for your assistance in formatting this thesis. Additionally, I must thank several outstanding faculty members for being particularly important in my college career. Thank you to Dr. Rachel Corr, for being my second reader, and inspiring my interest in the study of anthropology. Thank you to Dr. Carmen Cañete-Quesada for teaching me Spanish, and believing in my abilities. Next, a big thank you to Dr. Miguel Vázquez for simultaneously being one of the hardest and most influential teachers I have had at the Honors College; he taught me Don Quijote, and I must thank him profusely for that! Finally, I must thank Dr. Michael Harrawood for being the best academic advisor that a college student could ask for; I consider you to be both my English teacher and my life mentor, because you have taught me about literature and have been a true friend. iii ABSTRACT Author: Kaitlyn Joy Blum Title: Madness and Mimetic Violence: Laughter and Language in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Institution: Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Michael Harrawood Degree: Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences Concentration: English Literature Year: 2013 This thesis seeks to consider the malevolent humor of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, particularly in light of the philosophical position that literary critic Rene Girard posits about what he refers to as mimetic desire. Girard contends that much of the basis of human interaction is the mediation between desires to imitate, and desires to annihilate. Using Girard’s critical writings as a frame of thought, I am interested in the circulation of cruelty in which the characters of this problem play interact with one another. American writer W.H. Auden claimed “Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s unpleasant plays”, and this thesis addresses the relationship of laughter and cruelty in Twelfth Night as the characters utilize comedy to negotiate between their simultaneous desires to imitate and destroy. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO ...............................................................................................................18 CHAPTER THREE ...........................................................................................................41 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................58 v CHAPTER ONE This paper seeks to consider the malevolent humor of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the problems present in this problem play. Malevolent humor often relies on an element of cruelty, typically at another person’s expense. While this category of comedy can often produce laughter, malevolent humor leaves a sense of aggression and violence in its wake. Anglo-American poet W. H. Auden described Twelfth Night as “one of Shakespeare’s unpleasant plays. It is not a comedy for school children”, and I believe that Auden cuts closer to the essence of the play than those individuals who perceive Twelfth Night to be a light and entertaining romp. Although Twelfth Night appears to be primarily concerned with cross-dressing, identity confusion, and silly tricks, a shroud of darkness covers the play, as characters attempt to usurp one another and at times viciously tear one another down. Since the 1950’s, many literary critics have categorized Twelfth Night to be one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, because it was labeled as a comedy in the 1623 Folio; yet contemporary opinions highlight the problematic nature of the play. The play is rife with violence and a cruel sense of humor. This paper argues that it is because of the presence of violence within Twelfth Night that the play successfully echoes a concern with the cruelty of laughter. Several moments of the play which seem to call out to the audience as being “comedy”, are in fact some of the darkest scenes of the play. I will analyze the Malvolio-baiting scenes, as they are essential to understand the core essence of play, because these scenes include the moments in which Feste, Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Aguecheek, and Maria perform an elaborate trick on Malvolio, in an 1 attempt to humiliate the servant, who remains consistently fixated on the morality of others. These scenes are particularly crucial for understanding the cruelty and violence that occurs within the play, because Feste, Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Aguecheek, and Maria use Malvolio in order to stage an elaborate trick, in what seems to be (in their minds) that they are teaching the Puritan a lesson. Additionally, I am interested in the word-play that Feste the clown performs regularly, in a form of verbal performance and usurpation, especially when he speaks with Olivia and Viola. Feste operates in an interesting relationship with the other characters of the play, because his role is to perform the stereotypical fool, yet in reality, Feste remains the sharpest character onstage. I will consider Feste’s role in relation to the imitation in which he partakes, especially as he is self-aware of performing the role of the fool, as he attempts to usurp the speech of other characters in order to make their words his own in grand imitative gestures and word play. Feste’s verbal usurpation is a perfect example of mimesis, and he is able to add comedy through his imitations of various characters. Additionally, this paper will consider the importance of the presence of the twins Viola and Sebastian, and the final goal of the play: the placement of both of the twins together on the stage at the same time. The twins’ presence is so important in considering what I will call the mimetic element present in Twelfth Night as the crux of the play is the way in which characters negotiate relationships by imitating one another. Viola and Sebastian are integral for the mimesis element because twins are human representations of mimesis, because they are separate individuals yet they appear to be the same, in what seems to be a display of imitation. Shakespeare is aware of their mimetic nature, and plays it up in several scenes 2 of the play, in which Viola is confused to be Sebastian, and vice versa. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night operates in a close relationship with mimetic violence as characters imitate one another in an attempt to enact that which they desire from other characters; the ultimate way to unlock the meaning and significance of the play is through an understanding of mimesis. My sense of the play is that Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night in order to dramatize certain aspects of the human experience, such as the imitation that individuals partake in, and the violence that branches out from mimetic desire, combined with the cruelty that often accompanies laughter. French literary critic Rene Girard has written extensively about frequent occurrences of mimesis, and the myriad of ways in which the individual develops his or her sense of selfhood through the act of imitation. Individuals negotiate between the sense of individuality and personal desire as they attempt to become the object of someone else’s desire. The violence of the play reflects a sense of mimetic violence coupled with, and brought about by, doubling through imitation driven by desire; this violence is not necessarily the throwing of punches but rather, the cruel interactions of the characters. Girard argues extensively about the violence that is simultaneous with desire, the drive toward imitation of others, and the subsequent doubling that occurs through the enactment of this mimetic violence. Girard’s A Theater of Envy posits his argument of the connection between mimetic desire and violence, with the intuitive knowledge of the human experience that Shakespeare possessed. In his book A Theater of Envy, Girard analyzes the mimetic