Context - Twelfth Night

What was the poltical landscape like around the time twelfth night was being written

• 1601 twelth night written

• elizabteh was in her late sixties and would die in 1603 with no husband or heir, country had heightened anxiety about future of england

• Shakespeare may be resolving in fiction what hasn't been in real life - play begins complicated+ topsy turvy, ends resolved with class appropriate and heterosexual marriages

what about malvolios yellow stocking could be personally hinting to for Elizabeth I

Olivia hates malvlios yellow stockings (with olivia perhaps representing Elizabeth I) - both after Catherine of aragons death and Anne boleyns, Henry VIII and his court celebrated with Henry wearing both times bright canary yellow to dance with his new respective wives - this could be dismissed as a coincidence yet Elizabeth I may have intreptereds this mockery

who could Elizabeth I be represented through in the play

Olivia - independent, powerful woman on her own account similar to Elizabeth I

What was Puritanism like during Elizabeth's reign and how much of a real threat was it to her

Wanted to purify the church and remove all traces of Catholicism, many had fled the country when Mary I was queen and returned at the ascension of her sister Elizabeth, Elizabeth was a Protestant making the country Protestant once more but still allowed some catholic traditions of worship, puritans weren't a great threat to Elizabeth since they didn't on a whole want to overthrow her and put the country in extreme poltical turmoil but she still didn't appreciate their challenge to her authority - in 1583 puritan John Stubbs released a phamplet criticising Elizabeth's ongoing marriage negotiations with catholic French kings brother, he was sentenced to having his right hand removed

How does Elizabeth's attitude toward puritains reflect in twelfth night

Malvolio, the puritan in the play, is punished rather harshly as a joke by Maria Sir Toby reflecting the fact that despite puritans not being a real threat to Elizabeth she still dealt with them rather harshly like Malvolio being an irritating character in the play but the punishment he received seemed to be over the top

how was twelfth night celebrated in Elizabethan england

twelfth night was a time of topsy turvy celebrations inverting social order : boys were crowned in mock religious processions, heavy drinking and lavish feasting, parody and misrule replaced stern morality, it was also marked by songs and performance

Links to twelfth night celebrations to twelfth night play

Topsy turvy nature of Illyria - viola cross dressing, the lavish indulgence of sir Toby paired with his misrule and drinking as well as the singing and merriment of feste reflecting celebrative nature of twelfth night

Homosexual seeming friendships in Elizabethan England

Same sex friendships often between males was often expressed at the time in language that seemed romantic to the modern reader. Friends spoke and wrote to one another about their love and longing for each other, close friends were expected to be physically affectionate meaning it wasn't at all unusual for them to kiss/share a bed. Non sexual love between same sex friends if anything was encouraged

View on homosexuality in Tudor England + example

Buggery act 1533- made same sex punishable by death

Women's legal and societal rights in the Elizabethan era

No legal rights whatsoever- could only inherit land from father or husband and couldn't buy land, couldn't vote, couldn't go to school or university, fiercely patriarchal society, societal expectations of women were very repressive (sermons and books written in Elizabethan times encouraged women to be silent and obedient to male authority whether that be their father or husband)

What was marriage like in Elizabethan England

Reflected patriarchal society - girls as young as 12 could be married with parental consent until the marriage act of 1653, women had no say whatsoever in who they married especially in the aristocracy where marriages were for poltical advancement not for love

How did a female monarch help increase women's demand for freedom especially in marriages + example but why did this end up not helping

• Elizabeth's success as a ruler inspired other women to demand more freedom particularly in their marriages - between 1595 and 1620 saw a sharp increase in the number of disputes and separations between aristocratic wives and their husbands by the same token

• the rise in women's dissatisfaction with the constraints of marriage gave rise to the trope of the 'shrew' that is an aggressively assertive women who speaks her mind. The trope of the shrew in turn reinvigorated the idea that husbands need to discipline their wives again renewing patriarchal norms

• Backfired

How does the idea of the shrew link to Olivia

Olivia is the power source of her household due to her brothers death and is enjoying the usually male position of head of house yet by the end of the play she marriages Sebastian ending this like how the shrew trope ended all hopes for women's freedom

what medical opinion in the 16th and 17th centuries links to orsinos idea of unrequited love for Olivia

friendship was defined in treatises as something that could only exist in its perfect form between men of intellect, moral courage and ethical firmness since only the male frame was seen and being capable of withstanding the rigours of powerful emotions - such a misogynistic view was established as medical opinion - orsino says to viola that his woeful devotion to the impassive Olivia is a one sided affair "there is no women sides can bide the beating of so strong a passion"

What was courtly love

Marriages was considered more for political gain than love so courtly love (brought to engkand by Eleanor of Aquitaine) was a way for ones need for romance to be found outside of marriage as long as the rules relating to chastity and fidelity were strictly adhered to for example married ladies would often show their admiration for knights by giving them their token ti wear in medieval tournaments

What were sumptuary laws of 1574?

Defined what a particular person could wear dictating fabrics garments and accessories that could be worn of ppl with different social status to help set out visual distinction between different statuses of Elizabethan society - "if you couldn't tell a milkmaid from a countess at first glance the very fabric of society might unravel" these laws effectively prevented ppl from dressing up as something that they were not - though these laws didn't seem to be particularly reinforced

How problematic would cross dressing be in Elizabethan society

On the axis of social class or gender cross dressing could have disruptive potential for the stability of the highly structured hierarchy of Elizabethan society

What's a Petrarchan lover

One whose undying love for another isn't returned - often when a man's undying love for a women isn't returned making her seem cruel by rejecting her suitor and leaving him in misery

• As represented in the sonnets of Petrarch

how would viola have been played in the elizabethan era and what effect would this have

in the elizabrthen era viola (a woman) would have been played by a man however she dresses as a man in the play complicating gender roles further - Shakespeare uses the comical aspect of mistaken identity here and confusion to show the hypocrisies and complexities regarding gender identity + stereotypes

what did the chritisan festival of twelfth night symbolise

fun, mischief and general anarchy and chaos - social roles often relaxed on this night with masters waiting on their servants and men and women swapping identities - sewing the play around this time contextualises the dressing up and disguises

what were fools given the potential for that most others weren't

considered an outcast to a degree the fool was frequently given reign to comment on society and the actions of his social betters

history of Illyria and how this relates to twelfth night

in the ancient greek era there was a region called Illyria now in including parts of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia - Shakespeare choosing this setting served a number of purposes with the foreign exotic nature of the location piqued the audiences curiosity

Twelfth night setting + emerging theories

Written around the end of the renaissance - fuelled by discovery

• Discovery of America and its peoples - earth larger and stranger than thought

• Copernicus’ speculation that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the universe - challenges century old belief that earth and humans were at centre of universe

• Religious movement of Reformation broke from Roman Catholic Church - individual conscience over church authority as the centre of religious life

Shows how nothing is impossible……

Conventions of Petrarchan love poetry

• Addresses a lady with a classical nome (Olivia)

• Praises woman's qualities with vivid depictions of beauty

• Presents himself as passionate and impetuous

• Contradictory and oxymoronic phrases/ imagery

Productions of the play: modern vs traditional

• Modern more feminine and erotic - National theatre

• Traditional more in touch with original shakespeare productions - global theatre

National theatre's twelfth night costume

• Sir Toby /Andrew one feminine - pink and purple

• Adds homoerotic undertones to friendship

• More sexuality + freedom:

• Olivia low cut seducing viola -empowering

• Feste turquoise metallic swimsuit

Global theatre's twelfth night costume

• Malvolio dark colours - Puritan servant

• Feste vintage baseball outfit, cowboy out fit orsino, ballgown Olivia, proper renaissance page boy outfit cesario

• Randomness and inconsistency - everyone comes exactly as they are with little concern for others approval

Comedic stock characters

• cunning servant who motivates action (Viola, Maria)

• Young lovers (Viola/orsino, Olivia/sebastian)

• Twins mistaken identities

• Pedant or hypocrite (Malvolio)

• Fool who mocks superiors (Feste)

Slapstick comedy and physical comedy

• Sir Toby + Andrew - names (aptronyms), bawdy language (working class appeal) SLAPSTICK

• Duelling and drunken behaviour - inept + fearful - PHYSICAL

Lord of Misrule

• A figure appointed to manage Christmas festivities

• period of anarchy where normal rules didn’t apply

• Hierarchy swapped

• Twelfth Night biggest of the misrule feasts and festivals

• Malvolio cross dressing, Toby Christmas night into alcohol drinking and lechery

Comic resolution

Typical features of Shakespearean comedy

• usually involving marriage

• Social hierarchy restored

• Mildly subverts this trope with disharmony in Feste’s final song

Greek comedies

• ending of wedding and rejoice

• Farcical episodes shown through Malvolio breakdown, Sir Topas, Olivia loving Cesario

Roman comedies

• Stereotypical characters (grumpy, dummy, lovers)

• Sub plot (Sebastian)

• Mistaken identities

• Comic servants

• Long lost siblings returning

Medieval comedy

• pokes fun at society

• Themes of religion and social control

• Bawdy + puns

Tripartite structure of comedy

1. Order: background characters + events

2. Disorder: element that adds difficulty/conflict

3. Order + resolution: loose ends tied up, questions answered

The four humours

Believed the 4 humours had to be balanced (Feste)

• Blood: sanguine (optimism, social, active) - Viola

• Phlegm (calm, slow, passive) - Cesario, Andrew

• Yellow bile (angry, ambitious, energetic) - Maria

• Black bile (thoughtful, sad, introspective) - Orsino, Malvolio, Olivia

The fortune wheel

The Wheel of Fortune dates back to Ancient Romans

• instability of life + changeability of one’s fortune