Elements Of Twelfth Night Essay

Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Shakespearean comedy always involves multiple plot lines, cleverly intertwined to keep the audience guessing. These unexpected twists are always resolved in a happy ending. The play “Twelfth Night” is one of his most beautiful, opal-like comedies. “Twelfth Night” explores the ‘madness’ that results from love; Shakespeare incorporates a rich mix of disguise, gender ambiguity, mistaken identity, appearance versus reality and comic characters. He uses a range of dramatic techniques such as juxtaposition of characters, characterization, imagery, dramatic irony, language (verse and prose) and soliloquies highlights the varied themes.
“Twelfth Night” was written in the Elizabethan era where the society was a patriarchal one; Women were expected to be submissive and were considered inferior to men who possessed authority and domination. Despite the fact that the ideal of women’s chastity, silence, and obedience was proclaimed in early modern England, the women of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” are strong and outspoken, still yielding to male power, but firm and cunning enough to outwit the opposite sex in the most critical situations. In the play, Viola, cross-dressing as a man enables her to speak and act freely, where as being a woman she reverts to silence and obedience. Viola’s disguise evokes numerous complications within the play; a love triangle is formed as Olivia the Duke’s love, falls for Viola as Cesario, while Viola is secretly in love with the Duke, “Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife”....