Hi world! Chris here. Not much to say today. I’m sharing another literary essay about Shakespeare just in case there’s anyone out there struggling with a school assignment or looking for a subject for a paper for English class. Obviously you can’t copy what I wrote, but it can give you inspiration.

Now this particular Shakespeare play can be a little confusing just because the characters use fake identities and they’re all in love with each other so it’s a very tangled web. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll try to help you out.

Now on to the play.

The Love of Lies in Twelfth Night

Throughout Shakespeare’s comedy play, Twelfth Night, there is a reoccurring theme of romance and deception. This deception does not necessarily come from one romancer to the other, and it’s not always an intentional lie, but it is necessary for the start of every relationship. Even the relationships that don’t last are begun by the telling of some dishonest message, whether on purpose or not. Shakespeare uses the three major relationships in the play to truly delve into the idea of building love on lies.

This first of these occurrences takes place when Orsino orders Viola, disguised as the male Cesario, to go to Olivia and recite a love letter he has written for her. Viola memorizes it and performs it for the lady who immediately responds that “it is the more like to be feigned” because she understands that it’s all pretty lies to make her marry him (343). Orsino isn’t intentionally trying to deceive her, but, as readers, it is known that he isn’t truly as in love with her as he’s in love with the idea of being in love with her. However, it is this well-meaning lie that allows Olivia and Viola to meet for the first time and thus inspires Olivia to fall for Viola in her disguise as Cesario, which, in turn, only brings up another lie that helps to create the romantic feelings in Olivia.

While Viola is dressed as a man, she herself admits to falling in love with the Duke when she says that she “[herself] would be his wife” at the end of act 1 scene 4 (341). This is something that more than likely would not have happened without the occurrence of her lying about her identity as she would not have been able to procure a job at his court as her regular, female self. This is a harmless lie at first as it’s only meant to protect Viola and it truly doesn’t affect Orsino, but it still allows for the first flames of love to spark in Viola even though they can not be reciprocated by Orsino because he still believes her to be a man.

Later in the play, love starts to spring from a maliciously planted letter of lies. The letter is not between two people who begin a relationship, but rather is written by Olivia’s servant, Maria, to her other worker, Malvolio. It’s a prank devised by Maria and Sir Toby to put Malvolio in his place after he has caused irritation and ridicule for both of them. Malvolio believes it to be a love letter from Olivia to himself and immediately follows the wild and preposterous orders it gives despite how mad they will make him appear. Because the idea solely belonged to Maria, Sir Toby is inspired into a fit of reverence for her, going so far as to say “I could marry this wench for this device” (352). Later in the play, he does. This instance of romance spares the two involved from deceiving one another and instead allows them to band together to deceive someone else. Despite the difference from the other cases, it is still a relationship spawned from the use of dishonesty.

In a much more complicated manner, Sir Toby’s lies also create another relationship towards the end of the play. He encourages Sir Andrew to duel with Cesario and has to use his cunning wit and deception to convince them both to have it out by convincing one that the other is “a very devil” and that other “will fight with you for’s oath’s sake” (360). However, at one point they mistake Viola’s twin, Sebastian, as Cesario and attack him. This gives Olivia opportunity to rescue him and have him marry her. If Sir Toby had not lied Sir Andrew into the duel, Olivia might have missed meeting Sebastian all together.

Of course, it should be noted that Olivia only married Sebastian after assuming he was Cesario. This can be seen as a form of unintended deception on Sebastian’s part which only increases the amount of lies that went into forming their union. However, were it not for their marriage, Viola would not have had the proper chance to reveal her “maid’s garments” to Orsino and they never would have ended up together (368). But even here, the play comes full circle to the fact that Viola never would have loved Orsino were it not for the deception she was using on him since the moment they met.

Note

1. William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”, in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington (Pearson, 2014), pp. 333-370. Future citations of “Twelfth Night” are to this edition and will be noted parenthetically by book and line numbers in the text.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. “Twelfth Night.” The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Edited by David Bevington, Pearson, 2014, pp. 337-369.