Reading Shakespeare is almost like going down into the basement of literature and examining the foundations.

So often I find the origins of what has become trite and overdone, and yet Shakespeare was the fountain from which so much springs. This is especially true of Twelfth Night, it is apparent that so many comedies and romances over the centuries were heavily influenced by this play.

Very entertaining.

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4 out of 5 stars to Twelfth Night, a comedy written in 1601 by William Shakespeare. There are more reviews written about Shakespeare than either of us know what to do with, on, over or about. So you're not getting a review from me. What I will say is the following: Love him or not, the man can create brilliant plots and characters. Twins. Mistaken identities. Tomfoolery. Witchcraft. A chain of "who's on first" when it comes to which character is in love with which other character. Confusion knows no bounds here. But I love it. It's hilarious. If you're not used to Shakespeare's style and rhythm, this wouldn't be the first play of his I'd recommend. Or if you really want to read this one, you might want to watch a film version first, just to get the plot down -- as it's more convoluted than any soap opera out there. And I should know, I've watched nearly all of them. It's got a little bit of everything, but if you can see it happen first, then read it... it'll come across even better as you can concentrate on the words and images that come to mind, rather than trying to comprehend which person is in which disguise when they are talking. I have to imagine he talked to himself a lot when writing this one, adding voices and different character attributes to even be sure he understood what he had going on!

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When I was in college a professor once told me this was one of Shakespeare's least interesting and a "skip-able" play. That statement boggled my mind. I know this is an extremely unpopular opinion, but it's honestly my favorite of his plays.

Why does this one work so well for me? First off, I think it's downright the funniest work he ever wrote. Some of the lines/scenes are laugh out loud funny. In particular I'm rather fond of the following:

Viola: Save thee, friend, and thy music: dost thou live by thy tabour?

Feste: No, sir, I live by the church.

Viola: Art thou a churchman?

Feste: No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.

Twelfth Night is a screwball comedy from the 30s that just happened to be written in the 1600s.

On a more serious note; I love the quote "I was adored once too" said Andrew Aguecheek. I love this line so much, as in an otherwise comedic play, it adds a depth and melancholy to one of the more foolish characters. It's not the most well known line in the play, but it's one that when delivered properly just kind of stops the show as it makes the viewer almost uncomfortable about having mocked this character.

It also it a lovely meta-comedy as in Shakespeare's time, it would have been all male actors. So, we have a lead, played by a male, whose character is female, and pretending to be a male. I imagine at that point that Shakespeare just delighted messing with his audience a bit.

Is it his greatest work? No, of course not. It was intended as a silly comedy... it just happens that this specific silly comedy just works for me. A full 5/5 stars.

It had all sorts of twists but the ending ruined it.
Sir Toby, Maria and the fool kept the humour going but at some point they went too far in a way that what they did wasn't funny anymore.
By the way the quote "some are born with greatness, some achieve greatnes and some have greatness thrust upon them" is not what you think it is. Stop using it out of context.

Una comedia muy buena que he logrado entender con mejor exactitud gracias a lo que hemos trabajado en uno de mis seminarios del master.

Me gustaría mucho ver la obra de teatro pronto. ¡Tiene que ser divertidísima!

Además ha sido muy interesante ver como Shakespeare juega con el lenguaje para confundir a los actores, y no solo eso, como ha usado el vestirse de hombre para abrir un pseudo-discurso sobre una mujer enamorándose de otra, y que significa realmente ser hombre o mujer. Que es masculino y femenino.

Necesitas un buen contexto para entenderla del todo, pero esta edición, con sus notas a pie de página, ¡ha ayudado mucho en eso!

Muy divertida :)

The genius of Shakespeare was not how he thought and could play around with gender identity, sexuality and gender roles in 17th century and got away with it, but how he enabled people to indulge in their hidden fantasies in a game of pretense for a couple hours, all the while had slithered into the crevices of their mind.

Twelfth Night, penned between 1598 and 1600, is often held to be the last of the 'happy' comedies, and Shakespeare was soon to write Hamlet and the great tragedies. Twelfth Night is a comedy --- it has a contented ending, and no-one is killed in the action. However, it also contains an astounding number of references to violence, death, and loss, and hints of a darker and more sombre world occur throughout the play.

It was visibly tempting for Elizabethan and Jacobean authors to write parts in which the leading female characters dressed up as men, because all female parts were played by boys, and the adoption of a boy acting a female wearing men's clothes allowed the author to engage in considerable irony. There is a proposition that the play as we have it, was altered at some stage. Viola announces that she will go to Orsino's court as a eunuch, which implies she will sing to him, but no further reference of her singing is made. When the song is sung in Orsino's court, the credence of the audience can be overstretched by the fact that Feste is sent for to sing it. Viola would be a much more obvious choice for singer.

The impulsive appearance of Fabian as a character is also anomalous. He comes, as if from nowhere, and takes the part in the orchard scene that one might well imagine Feste playing. One conceivable (and unprovable) clarification is that the voice of the actor playing Viola broke prior to a performance of the play, and that whilst he was still sufficiently treble to cope with the spoken word, singing was beyond him. Thus the songs had to be transferred to Feste, and Fabian's part written in to take on some of the extra load. Speculation such as this does no harm, provided it is carefully treated, since it focusses attention on the fact that Shakespeare was writing for the live theatre, where circumstances are erratic and sudden changes have to be made.

For starters, ‘Twelfth night’ is the last day of Christmas feasting, and the play is often described as a 'festive comedy', written unambiguously for performance on that festive day. In the comic sub-plot, there is a square clash between those who support feasting, eating, drinking, and general corporeal enjoyment (Sir Toby, Feste, Sir Andrew, Maria), and Malvolio, the puritan figure who stands for abstemiousness, cautiousness, and restraint.

Malvolio is humiliated at the end of the play, but those belonging to the other group are also punished. Feste is condemned for his involvement in the Malvolio plot, Sir Andrew has his head broken, and Sir Toby has to get married quickly to avoid retribution. It would seem likely that Shakespeare is not prepared to give either viewpoint his total support, and that although he tends towards the party of feasting and fun, it is with the reservation that they too have things to learn.

Self-knowledge is conceivably the most momentous theme in Twelfth Night. At the start of the play, only Feste and Viola have a reasonable degree of self-knowledge. Orsino believes, he’s in love with Olivia, but the falsity of this belief is shown by the fact that when they finally do meet, they are arguing within a few seconds.

Orsino never goes to meet Olivia, but sends messages to her through others, and it is the ‘idea’ of being in love, that attracts him. His lack of self-knowledge means that he cannot come to a realistic appreciation of anyone else's character. It takes most of the play for him to realise that he is really in love with Viola.

Olivia believes her desire to withdraw from the world is a result of grief at the loss of her father and brother, whilst in reality it is the fear of a cruel world and a desire to lock herself away from danger that prompts her. She does not realise this about herself, and so is defenceless against the first person (Viola) who dares to challenge her and presents her with a slice of the real world.

It is a subsidiary theme of this play that those who do best in life are those who face it and live it to the full, not those who try to hide away. In a tragedy Olivia's lack of judgment would lead to her death; as it is, she has to suffer, but is allowed to fall in love where that love can be met by someone who will prove a true husband to her.

Malvolio lacks self-knowledge, and hence knowledge of others. He cannot see that he is only a steward, and thus can deceive himself into thinking that Olivia really is in love with him. It is not so much a question of Malvolio being duped and trapped by Sir Toby and Maria; rather, it is his own vanity that stops him from perceiving the truth, until it is cruelly but comically forced upon him by his enemies.

Viola knows herself, but chooses to adopt a disguise and thus cover her real nature from the world. Understandable as this is, it is still held to be a fault in a play, which demands complete honesty about oneself. As a result of her self-imposed disguise, Viola is forced to agonise about the apparent impossibility of her love for Orsino ever being recognised, and is forced by her loyalty into the unenviable position of acting as marriage broker and go-between for the man she loves. Olivia's falling in love with her is merely another added complication, but one which reinforces the message that honesty about oneself is the only sure way to avoid the problems of relationships.

Feste has a shrewd insight into his own nature and that of others, but is condemned to be the ‘Fool’, whilst he is probably the most perceptive character in the play. He knows himself, but it is open to argument whether or not he can control himself over his hatred for Malvolio. When Viola says "Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness, / Wherein the pregnant enemy does much," she is pointing to the central issue of ‘Twelfth Night’ --- people who disguise themselves from themselves, or from other people are courting disaster. Self-knowledge and honesty are the oil which causes the wheels of society to run smoothly, and which allow people to live in harmony with each other.

Concluding words then!! Romantic comedy is a peculiarly Shakespearean genre. It is different from the classical comedy approved by Aristotle in that it defies the classical unities of time, place and action. Shakespeare's romantic comedies are normally tales of love beginning at first sight and ending with the peals of marriage bells. They take place generally in Shakespeare's country of imagination be it Arden or Illyria and this is nowhere more radiantly apparent than in the Twelfth Night.

This tome, is the loveliest of his comedies. It maintains only one classic unity, that of place which is Illyria on the sunny shores of the Adriatic. The atmosphere is surcharged with laughter and fun and unsurpassable mirth and inimitable poetry interposed with music "which is the food for love."

The play, as we’ve stated before, was written for the madcap festival close to Christmas feasting and revels, the twelfth night that comes as a climax of the Christmas holidays and as such the world within the play displays the same spirit of hilarity and entertainment so favourable to a romantic comedy of Shakespearean variety.

In actual fact, John Masefield has called it the best English Comedy.

Give it a go!! You’ll feel like falling in love.

I liked the dialogue in this one a lot more than the first one we read for class (A Comedy of Errors). I love the whole "girl poses as a guy in order to trick misogynists into letting her participate in their society" trope, and I just in general loved Olivia and Viola as characters, so I was super into this. My only complaint is that the ending wraps up too swiftly for me and a few of the plotlines were just kinda smooshed into one grand finale, but I was left wanting more.

Not the best Shakespeare I've read (but I mean, NOTHING compares to hamlet), but still an enjoyable read that I didn't dread picking up.

A fun play! But I didn’t feel the depth to it? It’s just an enjoyable, comedic read but I didn’t feel any particular type of way about it. Studying it I know we can look into gender and sexuality a lot, but it just wasn’t captivating me. I think it’s one that is probably better on stage and in performance than reading it. I was entertained by having a character called Olivia.

Reasons why I LOVE this play :

1. It's so gay. Like SO gay. That only is enough to make me love a book.
2. Sir Andrew and Sir Toby literally asked Maria to step on them because they were so impressed by the way she fooled this idiot of Malvolio.
3. It's just hilarious ( Act II, Scene V is everything I needed in life )
4. Sir Andrew is such a himbo, i love this man

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

Delightful and witty. I don't know if I'm getting better at this “Shakespeare via audiobook” thing or if Twelfth Night just has simpler language than some of his other plays, but I really enjoyed listening to this one and had no trouble keeping the storyline and characters straight. The BBC recording with David Tennant as Malvolio is fantastic, although I was ever so slightly annoyed that they moved some of the scenes around.

Also, I'm now determined to work “But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit” into a conversation. It'll be extra hilarious because I'm a vegetarian.

So, yeah. Another excellent play by the Bard of Avon.

“[Shakespeare] … before I go I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I.”*

*I realized hours after the fact that Christopher Eccleston said this and not David Tennant, but whatever. I'm leaving it. Take away my Doctor Who fan club card if you must.

Well, phooey. I remember liking this one more. I know I've watched and read "Twelfth Night" several times over the years, and I just don't recall Duke Orsino coming across as such a psychopath before.

Generally speaking, I'm not too keen on the comedies, or the cross-dressing stuff, or the love triangles. But Viola is a spunky gal, and Olivia is pretty tolerable, and the whole “teasing Malvolio” thing is quite entertaining – much better than the usual clowning sub-plot. For some reason, though, Orsinio's obsessive desire for Olivia, despite her repeated if polite rejections, irked me, and then for Olivia, who has such a clear illustration of how obnoxious such harassment is in Duke Orsino, to turn around and fixate in the same creepy way on Viola/Cesario is rather bizarre. But the crowning moment of ickiness is (and there is a spoiler ahead, but this is Shakespeare, so I don't really have to hide it, do I?) in Act 5, when the Duke, furious that Olivia loves Viola/Cesario, says he's going to kill her/him just to bug Olivia and Viola says that's just fine with her – whatever makes him happy. Ewww. Three stars despite the horrible ending because the previous four acts were pretty good.