AO5 Flashcards
12th night is a
“12th Night is a play full of fools”
(Norton)
Marxist Reading: Elliot Krieger
1970- political
“A ruling class ideology operates within the play”- indulge and supplement excessive emotions
“Only a privileged social class has access to the morality of indulgence”
Act 1 Scene 1 RSC 2017
-Romantic color palette- homoerotic tones with gossip, naked curio, renaissance style
“Duke Orsino is a narcissistic fool.”
Baker, 20th century
on verse
Minton “Verse can be a vehicle for self-indulgence”
NT 2017 characterization of Orsino
roostering playboy who adheres to the courtly lover conventions of the 21st century: flowers, chocolates, a teddy bear
Act 1 Scene 2 Johnson
“A cunning schemer, never at a loss.”
18th century
Viola as the
catalyst of the play
Wanamaker
Tennenhouse (feminist criticism)
“the transfer
of patriarchal power to a woman.”
Political criticism in conflict Act 1 Scene 2 Trevor Nunn
1996
Illyria is a feudal male dominated society- highlights trade wars and Orsino’s role as a military leader- Viola’s home country is at war with
Menacing squad of black uniformed horsemen gallop along the beach
Hazlitt
- follies
- charm
Late 18th century placed a focus on character and individual responsibility
1817
“makes us laugh at the follies of mankind not despise them”
“the great and secret charm of 12th night is Viola”
argues Orsino is “capable of powerful
feeling […] and development under Viola’s influence”
Warren
Act 1 Scene 5 narcissus
RSC Gill 1974
Used the set to embody the idea of self-love by having the stage dominated by a huge mural of the classical Narcissus
Psychoanalytical criticism (Holland) self-love
Malvolio seems a narcissist but indeed he is someone who lacks self-love
Magoulias: Narcissus
Dominated by the image of Narcissus, a “continuous reminder to the audience of the themes of ambiguous sexuality and erotic self-deception.”
Seduction is…
predominantly aural
Massal
Olivia is not quite
comfortable in the conventional role of hunted deer made available by the petrarchan tradition
Massal
Olivia is “in thrall
to her melancholy” Schalkwyk
Act 1 Scene 5 GT 2012
All male production- affects erotic interplay between actors- the performance of gender
On the bed
2001 Posner: wake up across an unmade bed (A+S)
Salinger on Antonio
“the one single-minded representative of romantic devotion”
RSC 2017 Antonio and Sebastian
- “A deeply gay play” (Luscombe)
- Green orchid- Wilde-homo
- danger is more metaphorical than the NT 2017 production with ragged clothes
- As they grow closer and are interrupted, they jump back
Viola is trapped
by her disguise (Bickley)
C.L Barber on decorum
20th century
Viola achieves her disguise through ‘perfect courtesy’ whereas Malvolio threatens to violate it.
Manningham
1602
“A good practice in it”
Charles I
Wrote Malvolio against his 1632 copy
“Cold, austere,
repelling, but dignified” Lamb 1822
Henry Irving
1884 influenced by Lamb
portrayal with innate dignity and pathos to his humiliation
“As a sycophant
a social climber, and an officious snob, [Malvolio] well deserves to be put back in his place” Levin
“The revenge taken on him
is so extreme because what he stands for is so massively dangerous.” Pennington 1992
“Characters in love
are simultaneously at their most ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ most true and most feigning” Eagleton
Act 2 Scene 4 RSC
Embrace in a kiss as Cesario teases a revelation.
As Orsino says ‘Ay that’s the theme,’ there’s a painful expression on his face as he knows he must carry on playing the role of pursuer in the theme of the play
(20th c) “puritanical..
aversion”
“one has a sense of there being inverted commas around the “fun””
Auden
“Male Malvolio is
often read as power-hungry…Malvolia is a closeted homosexual whose secret (and unrequited) love for her mistress leaves her humiliated” Lynn
National Youth Theatre 2024
Electric moment on stage as Malvolio believes Olivia loves her, golden strings erupt into the air, a mocking play on “golden time convents”, music explodes, together with Malvolio the audience shares the pure ecstasy of feeling loved which we share despite our awareness that it is false.
Act 2 Scene 5:
RSC 2017
NT 2017
-Revelers hide behind statues in the open- comedic because visible and thus foolish as he cries
- revelers hide behind bushes
“Instability
of language” Hartman (post-modern)
“It is as Viola
that she should be pitied, in love but unloved, it is as Cesario she is loved” Perno
Schalkwyk “Love seems
to be a form of madness”
“His role is to
expose all that is vulgar and falsely stereotyped in human relationships” (Bahktin)
“This fellow is wise enough to play the fool”
Act 3 Scene 1 RSC 2017
rose in Olivia’s vase- romantic emotions but reminds us that women are as flowers who fall that very hour
- theme of time passing, urgency, youth growing
- “The clock upbraids me with the waste of time”
“Twelfth night used to be
funny” Berry 1981
Gulling of Andrew Act 3 Scene 2 RSC 2017
Go through suitcase and find a stuffed teddy bear
Act 3 Scene 3 NT 2017
The elephant poster has LOVE written on it resonating more with the description of a sex hostel than a formal inn
Act 3 Scene 4 Malvolio’s transformation:
RSC 2012 (Modern-dress): lack of subtlety, Malvolio’s humiliation is taken to it’s extreme, a grotesque transformation as Slinger wore women’s underwear and a cod piece
BBC 1980: little physical transf. McCowen’s face in close-up~ psychological nuances of self-delusion
“The real theme of Illyria
erotic delirium or the metamorphoses of sex” Kott
“What she lacks
Sebastian has” 1959 CL Barber
Act 4 Scene 1 Globe Theatre 2002
Technical illusion through male caste- indistinguishable- confusion- diff. in behavior rather than physicality
Pequigney
“Sebastian could never have done what was necessary to win Olivia, and his only chance was for his sister to perform the masculine role for him”
1987 RSC Sher’ Malvolio
tethered to a post like a bear- taking up the bear-baiting metaphors in 2.5 darkness was paradoxically figured by bright light
“Malvolia as a woman whose
sense of identity has been irrevocably shattered.” Lynn
“The play disciplines
independent woman like Olivia and rewards the self-abnegation of Viola”
Howard 1980s feminist criticism
Act 5 Scene 1 RSC
Sir T is dressed gallantly whilst Andrew is undone
Older casting of Pochrane- vulnerable
Orsino holds hands with Sebastian instead- wants male viola
Sebastian runs towards Antonio
Orsino’s last lines are ushered by Olivia- he is muted and also punished in his inconstancy
“Instead of a resolution
we are left with a knotty confusion” Herald
“Emblematic silencing
of the feisty female character in marriage” Smith
Bate
“Viola is diminished when bereaved of her second self”
“Complicates 12th Night’s movement
from queer to straight, from homoeroticism to heterosexuality. He is the desire that cannot be contained in the marital conclusions typical of a romantic comedy” Smith
The final marriages have “something
perfunctory about them as if the fantastic contortions of the plot had made the characters into puppets” Pennington
