Download Twelfth Night - mrbanksbluevale

Twelfth Night
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Twelfth Night: Historical Context
 It is believed that the play written by Shakespeare
sometime around 1601
 The basic plot of TN is not original to Shakespeare.
 This play was inspired by several Italian comedies
that appeared in the decades prior to TN’s first
performance.
 The first recorded performance of Twelfth Night took
place on February 2nd, 1602 but the play itself was
not published until 1623
Elizabethan Comedy
 A genre named for Queen Elizabeth I, the ruling
monarch during Shakespeare’s time.
 Elizabethan comedies included the following
conventions:








A lighthearted tone
Mistaken identities
Multiple plot lines
Frequent use of puns
A clever “fool” or servant
A conflict between propriety and debauchery
Young lovers who overcome obstacles to their relationship
A happy ending that includes marriages, reconciliations, and
reunions.
What’s in a name?
Twelfth Night is the only one of
Shakespeare’s plays to have an
alternative title: the play is actually
called Twelfth Night, or What You
Will. Critics are divided over what
the two titles mean, but “Twelfth
Night” is usually considered to be a
reference to Epiphany, or the
twelfth night of the Christmas
celebration (January 6). In
Shakespeare’s day, this holiday was
celebrated as a festival in which
everything was turned upside
down—much like the upside-down,
chaotic world of Illyria in the play.
Plot Summary
 A young woman named Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria.
During the wreck she loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian,
who she now believes is dead. Viola decides that in order to protect
herself she must assume the disguise of a man. Taking the name of
Cesario, Viola enters the service of the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Orsino is
convinced that he is madly in love with a woman named Olivia, who
refuses to consider taking a suitor because of the recent deaths of her
father and brother. Things become complicated when Orsino asks
Cesario to act as a messenger between he and Olivia. Ultimately, Olivia
falls madly in love with Cesario, not realizing that his Viola in disguise.
To make matters worse, Viola finds herself falling head over heals for
Duke Orsino.
AND IT JUST GETS MORE COMPLICATED FROM THERE….
Setting
 City of Illyria
 Known to Shakespeare as an
actual region off the coast of the
Adriatic Sea (present day
Albania)
 It acts as a generically exotic
setting for a play full of
romance and intrigue
 The word “Illyria” brings forth
associations like “illusion” perhaps things are not always
what the seem in this strange
land