Theme plans

Question 1

Class - To show the rigid class structures in Elizabethan society and how they can be more fluid.

Answer 1

• Duke Orsino wants to be matched to Olivia, but he says not because of her riches.
• Sir Toby and Malvolio ‘art any more than a steward’
• Malvolio - ambitions of higher social status
• Lower status characters are often the most witty and intellectual - Maria (plot for Malvolio), Feste (speaks wisely and repartees with many other characters)
• High-status characters like Sir Andrew are often more ignorant
• marriage restores order although Shakespeare does show Maria raising her status

Question 2

Marriage - play ends with marriage as typical of a Shakespearean comedy; conforms to traditional expectations there. Marriage is presented as superficial in many ways.

Answer 2

• Orsino’s love for Olivia/ desire (reasons for marriage)
• Viola - his wife (Viola would marry Orsino)
• Malvolio has ambitions to marry above his social status - ridiculed that he wants to marry above his status
• end of the play (superficial status of marriage/ Maria marries Sir Toby/ marriage as a tool to conclude a comedy and unify all the chaos earlier in the play)

Question 3

Love and suffering - love is the cause of many painful feelings in the play and is almost presented as dangerous to violence/force of destruction and lack of control (storm as representative of this)

Answer 3

-Orsino ‘fell and cruel hounds’ ‘satisfy it I cannot’ –unrequited
-Olivia ‘plague’ –especially when she is rejected
-Viola ‘desperation’ for Orsino
-dangerous –dual between Sir Andrew and Cesario (joke but borders on dangerous) and Orsino threatens Cesario’s life in Act 5, scene 1
-Malvolio is an outcast and is falsely led to believe he is the object of affection
-Antonio –potential hints at homoerotic feelings for Sebastian which are left alone at the end of the play

Question 4

Ambition - is largely based on Malvolio but other characters like Maria also improve their situation. Most characters seem to have ambitions of love and marriage within their own social class.

Answer 4

• Orsino-love within his own class/ambition to marry Olivia
• Malvolio ‘tis fortune’ –ambition to improve his social status
  Maria marries Sir Toby maybe because she embraces the ‘Twelfth Night’ spirit of the play and its title

Question 5

Love and desire - Characters are helpless to the forces of love and desire and this drives the plot of the play

Answer 5

• Olivia is shocked at her desire for Cesario
• Viola love for Orsino ‘knot she cannot untie’
• Malvolio love for Olivia ‘tis fortune’-his destiny
• Sebastian when faced with Olivia’s sudden vow of love to him’ ‘accident and flood’

Question 6

Disguise - how identify can be confused and warped; all is not always clear/very typical motif/disguise can be powerful

Answer 6

-Viola disguise
-Olivia’s love for Cesario
-Orsino thinks he is in love with Olivia /desire
-Malvolio deceived by Maria and Sir Toby-comedic impact
-Sebastian thinks he is Cesario/dual with Sir Andrew-danger of disguise
-clothing as a motif

Question 7

Gender and sexuality -Gender is much more fluid than Elizabethan society might state; love and desire can often be confused

Answer 7

-Orsino’s speech; melodramatic, romantic language represents the typical male courting of a female
-Viola/Cesario dressed as a man in love with Orsino
-Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola)
-Antonio’s friendship with Sebastian
-females like Maria and Viola playing pivotal roles in the plot