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TWELFTH NIGHT
This comedy is built around the typical Shakespearian conflict between true and false emotion. Duke Orsino tries to convince himself that he is in love with Countess Olivia, literally hypnotizing himself into an "ideal" passion, modelled after Petrarchi sonnets, and growing more absorbed by his feelings after each rebui received from her. In her turn, Olivia is in deep grief for her dead brother, having renounced all joy of life. In Shakespeare's opinio this is treachery to human nature, a view that is shared by Sir Tob; Belch and Maria Ima'raial, the comic characters that personify the ontimism of the Renaissance. "The villain of the piece is Malvolio", a stuck-up hypocrite; in this figure Shakespeare caricatures rigid Puritan ethics, showing the contrast between Malvolio's outward morality and his inner dishonesty, cruelty and stupidity. "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Sir Toby asks him. It must be remarked that Shakespeare's irony in depicting Malvolio is not bitter, and for all our antipathy to him, Malvolio remains a humorous rather than a satirical figure; otherwise me light vein of the play would be unbalanced.
After the plot has been quite tangled up, its solution is provided by the twin sister and brother, Viola and Sebastian; the marriage of Orsino to Viola and Sebastian to Olivia brings the desired happy ending, with the true passion in each case driving out the artificial one.
Viola is one of the famous Shakespearian comedy heroines, a true woman of the Renaissance: she is brave, adventurous, clever, witty, and capable of deep feeling. We see that in "Twelfth Night" three types of emotion are contrasted: the genuine and active love of Viola, the self-inducted infatuation of Orsino,, and the so-called "love" of Malvolio, born out of his desire for gain and social elevation.
The play is written with great skill; the comic sub-plot of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew Ague-cheek, Maria and Malvolio is intermingled with the lyrical story that forms the main plot, by the hand of a truly great master. Comedy and poetry are, so to speak, brought to a common denominator. The songs in "Twelfth Night" are probably the best Shakespeare ever wrote.
The songs are sung by Feste, Olivia's jester. He strikes a sobering note in the play. The wisest of all, he is able to see through all pretence, and the play turns on pretences, conscious or unconscious. An onlooker in all the events, he is the only character who finds no personal happiness in the final count. He gains nothing for himself, and the merry comedy ends with his sad song about "the rain that raineth everv day"...