sign in sign up
<<
Home , Lord of Misrule, Twelfth Night (holiday)

Or What You Will By Study Guide by Nathan Davies, Lindsey Kolek, and Emily Strobel

The Author

William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 and died on April 23, 1616 (1). He was born and raised in an English town known as Stratford-upon-Avon (10). At the age of 17, Shakespeare married his pregnant girlfriend, 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. Their first child was born only six months into their marriage, which undoubtedly forced Shakespeare into an earlier adulthood. The whole situation was scandalous in their village. Soon after his first child was born, Shakespeare began doing what he is most well-known for: writing. Over a 23 year span, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets (1). Academics agree that Shakespeare wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part One around 1589 to 1590, making him about 25 years old (10). Shakespeare was said to have enjoyed playing the part of the ghost of Hamlet and also played Adam in As You Like It, moving him from behind the scenes to an onstage actor (11). Shakespeare was sometimes able to write four plays in a single year, all with varying themes. Even through the busy theater seasons, Shakespeare still found time to fill books upon books of sonnets (10). These works were first published in 1609, without the consent of the author. Shakespeare’s plays are written partly in verse and partly in prose, freely alternating between the two in the same acts and scenes. It was not unusual for a character to address a second character in verse while that second character responds in prose. Verse is a collection of lines that follow regular, rhythmic pattern in Shakespeare, usually iambic pentameter, a metric scheme in which each line has ten syllables consisting of five unaccented and accented syllable pairs (11). This style has become synonymous with Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare died in 1616, and his body was buried in the Holy Trinity Church. It is said Shakespeare would put a curse on anyone who would try to move his body (10). Engraved on a stone that rests upon his tomb in the church is the following: “Good friend for sake forbear To dig the dust enclosed here! Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones.”

The History

Twelfth Night is most commonly referred to as the eve before , which falls twelve days after . This holiday marks the end of the Christmas season and leads into the season that ends on Ash Wednesday. In Shakespearean times, was a night of large celebrations (7). It was traditionally celebrated with masquerades, feasts, and games. Each year, a “” was appointed. He and his assistant, the Fool, acted as grandmasters of the festivities. To appoint the Lord, a Twelfth Night cake was traditionally baked. Inside the cake was placed either a pea or a bean. The person who was served the piece of cake that contained the pea or bean was declared the Lord of Misrule. If a woman discovered the pea or bean, she was to choose the Lord from the men available. A mock court was then set up to help the Lord carry out his duties of decorating and celebrating over the Christmas season. Each member of the mock court was assigned a character that they were to act out through the remainder of the season at the many social events. Revelers would then comically pay homage to the Lord and his court as they watched over the festivities. Though the traditional celebrations are not common in England any longer, Twelfth Night cakes are still made by many. It was common for people to dress up to celebrate the end of Christmas. Costumes were very common, and, in the spirit of the Lord of Misrule who turns things on their head, it was quite common for men to dress as women and vice versa. The topsy-turvy antics that were led by the Lord and his court were of this nature. The characters played by the court were out of the norm for their actual personality (6). Here we see how the character Viola and her predicament in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night were inspired. As Viola dressed up like Sebastian, many people who celebrated Twelfth Night found themselves acting as their opposites. Though strongly popular in the of England and in many other countries in Europe, the Twelfth Night holiday and celebrations began to die out as time passed. The final Lord of Misrule was appointed just before the death of King James in 1553, and the familiar tidings associated with the night all but died out by the mid-Victorian era (5). In America, the only semblance of a Twelfth Night celebration comes with removing the Christmas decorations the day before Epiphany (6).

The Era

During the Elizabethan era in England, plays were performed in three different venues: inn-yards, open air amphitheaters, and playhouses. Inn-yards were used in the early days of what we know as Elizabethan theater. Shows were held either in private inns or actually in yards. Open air amphitheaters held the most patrons, seating between 1500 and 3000 people. The famous Globe Theater where Shakespeare performed the vast majority of his works is a type of open air Amphitheater: a round and stadium-like structure with no roof. As times progressed, plays began being shown in playhouses. These venues were much smaller than the Amphitheaters, but held a more professional and modern style (2). The earliest amphitheaters came to be in the late 1570s. Not only home to plays, they also had events for locals such as bear baiting and gambling. It wasn’t until 1595 that the first connection between Shakespeare and the theater was made. Unfortunately, the next 10 years would prove to be tumultuous for all involved in theater production. In 1596, London officials banned all performances within city limits due to the associated debauchery that townspeople had seen and complained about. After being forced from the stage for a year, playwrights flooded the city again as all amphitheaters were reopened in 1597 (2). The most notable theater, the Globe, was opened on Bankside in 1599 after the fall of another establishment, the Theatre, and enjoyed great success as Shakespeare’s primary playhouse. Built as a sort of miniature Coliseum, the Globe boasted the ability to present “eleven performances of ten different plays” in two weeks. Regrettably, the initial success was fleeting. All of London was drastically hit by a resurgence of the Bubonic Plague in 1603. This outbreak killed at least 33,000 people within the city and required all theaters and playhouses to be shut down until the vicinity was deemed safe (2). The decade following the tragic outbreak saw business as usual. Plays went on daily on the South bank of the Thames River and followed their traditional means of advertising and performing. Flags on the amphitheaters and playhouses denoted what type of show was being put on. A white flag meant comedy, red a historical play, and black was a tragedy. Shows were filled with all male casts, having young boys usually play the females. This practice occurred because the profession of acting was seen as being unseemly and something ladies should never enter into. And, as before, actors only received copies of their parts in the play for rehearsal, leaving the playwright as one of the few, if not only, to have a full copy of the work. All in all the industry rebounded successfully from the plague (2). Everything was on track for Shakespeare until 1613 when the Globe went up in flames. Performances works were halted until his theater could be rebuilt. Though reconstruction took one year, the peak of the era had come and gone. Shakespeare passed away not more than two years after the reopening of the Globe. As time passed on, a Puritan party began to grow in London. After seizing power in 1642 the banned theater for its lewd themes and associated behavior and tore down the Globe as a symbolic move. Once their Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, took charge of England, all playhouses and amphitheaters had been demolished. It was not until the royal line took control once again that plays were allowed to be performed, but by then Queen Elizabeth, a primary patron of the theater district, was long gone and her era had all but vanished (2).

The Play

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” -Act II, Scene V. Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will was written between 1600 and 1601 in England. It is completely fictional, except that Illyria is a real place (part of Ancient Greece). The main source for writing this play was most likely “Farewell to the Military Profession” (1581) by Barnabie Riche. Twelfth Night was first published in 1623 in the First Folio. Shakespeare didn’t want any of his plays published, but his actors would write them down and have them published after his death. The first recorded production of Twelfth Night is February 2, 1602 at Middle Temple Hall, one of the law schools in London (9). It still continues to be performed all over the world. A movie version was produced in 1996 featuring Helena Bonham Carter. There have been other movie versions produced in 1910, 1980, and 1987 (4).

The Story

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy about hidden identities and a mixed-up love triangle. The main character, Viola, dresses up as a man and goes by the name Cesario. In doing so, she falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who is in love with Lady Olivia. When Olivia meets Cesario (Viola) she falls in love with “him.” More drama is added when Viola’s supposedly dead brother, Sebastian, comes to town and looks exactly like Viola dressed as a man and everyone confuses the two (11). This theme of the mystery of identity connects to the motif of disguise and changing appearances. Viola is the most obvious character who wears a disguise, but we also see Malvolio (Servant) and Feste (Clown) wear disguises in order to get what they want. Clothes, or disguises, are a powerful symbol in the play and symbolize changes in gender and also class distinction. “The play suggests that clothes have a power that transcends their physical function. Through these disguises, the play raises questions about what makes us who we are, compelling the audience to wonder if things like gender and class are set in stone, or if they can be altered with a change of clothing” (8). Another theme that comes out of hidden identities is that of the mysteries of love, sexual attraction, and sexual identity. “Among the wild variety of love and desire that Twelfth Night explores, the only kind of love that the play admonishes is self-love. When characters finally overcome their self-absorption and express their desire outwardly to another person, however, all kinds of erotic entanglements follow” (Ford, 87). Olivia becomes enamored by Cesario, who really is Viola, and it brings up questions of sexuality and whether or not she falls in love with “his” femininity or Viola’s inward masculinity (3). Shakespeare not only shows us unconventional female/male relationships and what kinds of sexual connotations they have, but also gives us insight into the relationships of the same sex, especially the strong bond of Antonio and Sebastian and the complex elements of their friendship. “Recent scholars are more willing to see the passionate friendship between Antonio and Sebastian, as well as the misdirected sexual energy flowing from Orsino to Viola to Olivia, as signs of the play’s experimentation with alternative, homoerotic forms of social desire that may or may not operate within a conventional heterosexual code” (Ford, 88). Another symbol in the play is that of letters and gifts being passed along to others. Olivia gives both Cesario and Sebastian a gift, thinking they were the same person. She gives Cesario a ring to show her love and then later gives Sebastian a pearl. But these gifts do not only show her love and affection. She says, “Youth is bought more oft than begged or borrowed,” which suggests that they are intended almost as bribes from Olivia in that she would buy Cesario’s love if she could not win it. Also the letters play an important role as they are used as forms of communication and miscommunication—sometimes deliberate and sometimes accidental. They bring about confusion when there are characters manipulating the information, especially Maria’s letter to Malvolio (8). The themes of hidden identities, love, and disguises make this play unique and highly entertaining.

The Tidbits

 Shakespeare has been dead for a near 400 years and there are 15 million pages referring to him on Google. There are 132 million for God, 2.7 million for Elvis Presley and 14.7 million for George W. Bush (10).  Shakespeare used the word “dog” or “dogs” over 200 times in his works (10).  Macbeth is one of the most produced plays ever, with a performance beginning somewhere in the world every four hours (10).  Many young male actors died of lead poisoning during the Elizabethan period. The deaths were traced back to the make-up used to make them appear as females.  The ceiling of Shakespeare’s stage was called the heavens (11).  Suicide occurs in Shakespeare’s plays thirteen times (10).  All of Shakespeare's family was illiterate.  Shakespeare is listed as a writer in over 780 films on the International Movie Database, which do not include rewrites and adaptations such as West Side Story.  The most recent adaptation of Twelfth Night was a feature film titled She’s the Man.

The Citations

(1) Absolute Shakespeare. 2005. Web. 8 Apr. 2010. .

(2) "Elizabethan Theatre History." Elizabethan Era. Web. 4 Apr. 2010. .

(3) Ford, John R. Twelfth Night: a Guide to the Play. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.

(4) "IMDb Search." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

(5) "Lord of Misrule." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 07 Apr. 2010 .

(6) "Twelfth Night History & Cartoon Fun by Brownielocks." BROWNIELOCKS and THE 3 BEARS - Educational, Fun and Colorful For Ages 12 on Up! Web. 07 Mar. 2010. .

(7) "Twelfth Night." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Columbia UP, 2000. 2909. Print.

(8) "Twelfth Night." Spark Notes. 2010. Web. 3 Apr. 2010. .

(9) "Twelfth Night." William Shakespeare. 2005. Web. 9 Apr. 2010. .

(10) "Shakespeare Facts." No Sweat Shakespeare. 2009. Web. 8 Apr. 2010. .

(11) “Shakespeare Study Guide." Cummings Study Guides. Web. 7 Apr. 2010. .

The Images http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/10/article-1160701-03CD1C03000005DC-413_233x333_popup.jpg http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/dec/24a.htm http://blog.eduify.com/wp-content%5Cuploads/2009/09/william-shakespeare.gif http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/rockcandy/Image/twelfth-night.jpg http://drama.cua.edu/HartkeSeason/Archive%20Photos/pages/twelfth%20night%201956_jpg.htm http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_z6QNg8oZ7O8/SXUgHHDvDUI/AAAAAAAACHw/S1DB- Upw4w4/s400/Twelfth+Night+play.jpg