Search results
Jul 31, 2015 · Toggle Contents Act and scene list. Characters in the Play ; Entire Play Twelfth Night—an allusion to the night of festivity preceding the Christian celebration of the Epiphany—combines love, confusion, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery.After the twins Sebastian and Viola survive a shipwreck, neither knows that the other is alive.
Enter SIR TOBY BELCH (1.5.116) — Sir Toby Belch, half-drunk, delivers the news that there's someone at the gate. Olivia asks him who it is, but all Sir Toby knows is that it's a gentleman. Olivia asks Sir Toby how he came to be drunk, but Sir Toby is too drunk to give a coherent answer, and leaves.
Plot Summary. Duke Orsino of Illyria is in love with Olivia, but his advances are rejected. A shipwrecked Viola arrives on his shores, and with the help of a Captain, disguises herself as a boy, calling herself Cesario, and enters Orsino’s service. Orsino takes to Cesario, and sends ‘him’ to woo Olivia for him.
In the Church of England, the Twelfth Night (or the eve of the Epiphany) was celebrated on January 5th, when celebrants sang songs, defaced doors with chalk, and ate Three Kings’ or Twelfth Night cake. One of the most popular Twelfth Night traditions was to hide a pea and a bean within the cake. The man who discovered the bean would be ...
Many critics, such as Stephen Booth, consider Twelfth Night Shakespeare's outstanding comic achievement, and it is usually very successful in performance. Recently critics have treated Malvolio's humiliation as close to tragic, and Orsino's affection for the "boy" Cesario/Viola as raising serious doubts about his heterosexuality, both views reflected in modern performances.
Twelfth Night Translation Table of Contents. After surviving a shipwreck, Viola finds herself a stranger in Illyria. Deciding to dress herself as a boy to serve Duke Orsino, she soon falls in love with him--and trips into quite a love triangle when the countess Olivia, whom Orisno loves, falls in love with the disguised Viola.
Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. Shakespeare belongs to you. His world is vast. Come explore. Join us online, on the road, or in Washington, DC.