Character plans

Question 1

What scenes/ events do each character appear in?

Answer 1

• Viola/Cesario: becomes love interest for Olivia Act 2, scene 1/end of the play confused for Sebastian (by Antonio), scenes with Orsino, marriage to Orsino at the end, Viola and Feste
• Olivia: Act 1, 1-Orsino,falling in love with Cesario, rejected by Cesario, falling in love with Sebastian (mistakes for Cesario/final scene of marriage)
• Orsino: Act 1,1, marriage at the end to Viola, violence towards Cesario who he thinks has stolen Olivia, happy marriage at the end, Cesario declaring his love for Olivia.
• Feste: letter sent to Malvolio, repartee with Viola, dresses as priest to trick Malvolio when he is locked away
• Sir Toby: relationship with Sir Andrew, partying when told off by Malvolio, tries to convince Sir Andrew to have a duel, almost has a fight with Sebastian on Sir Andrew’s part, marries Maria at the end of the play
• Maria: in charge of the letter, scenes with Feste, marriage to Sir Toby
• Sebastian: mistaken as Viola, Olivia falling in love with him, marriage to Olivia, relationship with Antonio, when Antonio thinks he has betrayed him, relationship with Viola
• Antonio: love/friendship with Sebastian, past in Illyria (enemy of Orsino’s), when he thinks he has been betrayed, left alone at the end of the play
• Malvolio: reads the letter, acts as a figure of ridicule, locked away as mad, tries to destroy the party atmosphere

Question 2

Viola - Viola is a driver of the plot and arguably represents the key themes of identity and love. She is also arguably the most likeable character and through her Shakespeare also represents a strong, female character.

Answer 2

-motif of the clothing/gender change through dress
-purity of her love for Orsino
-identity crisis in the play and this is driven through to the conclusion
-interesting that she is the main character over her brother (example of another strong female although she does still marry in the end like in all comedies)

Question 3

Orsino - used to explore a key theme that love is often fickle and superficial as well as revealing that gender can often be blurred as Orsino is in fact enamoured by Viola as a man.

Answer 3

-melodramatic/in love with the idea of Olivia Act 1, scene 1
-discussions with Viola about love between men and women ‘fell hounds’ /unrequited love
-gender blurring with his feelings for Cesario
-marriage to Viola (gender blurring/superficial nature of his love)
-Mirror of Olivia
-fickle nature of marriage
-by the end of the play the nature of his comedies (formula he follows) means marriage and happiness is the final thought (some messages just remain beneath the surface).

Question 4

Sebastian - not a key driver of the plot and actually does not really have a lot of key roles in the play but maybe there is a point in itself there-it is his sister who manages to take centre stage; needed for the resolution.

Answer 4

-shipwreck
-relationship with Antonio (theme of taboo love)
-fickle nature of love (love just sort of happens to him)
-feelings for his sister
-role in the resolution (he is needed at the end of the play to allow Viola to be herself and be discovered as herself)

Question 5

Malvolio - more complex and interesting figure than originally thought. Puritan but actually shows the danger of ambition and self-delusion.

Answer 5

-contrast to the spirit o Twelfth Night (ruin the party)
-figure of ridicule (subplot)-drivers of the comedy in that scene
-self-delusion(count Malvolio) continues until right at the end of the play
-pity (locked in a dark room) but upholds his sanity
-by the end of the play, he cannot be a part of the spirit of the Twelfth Night (context: party at the end of Christmas) and leaves (slight darker undertone as he storms out shouting he will get his revenge).