English 154/180
Bill Harlan
PLOT SUMMARY
OF TWELFTH NIGHT
Viola and Sebastian, twin brother and sister who exactly resembled each
other, were separated when the ship on which they were passengers was wrecked
during a great storm at sea. Each,
thinking the other dead, lands in the mythical kingdom of Illyria.
Viola
arrives first, befriended by the Ship Captain
who saved her from the waves. Viola
learns of another young woman, the Countess
Olivia, who has just lost her brother
as well. Olivia has declared that she
will lock herself away from the outside world for seven years to grieve for her
brother. Viola wishes she too could
observe a period of mourning, but she is a single, unprotected female in a
strange land. She decides to dress as a
man to protect herself and with the captain's help to get a job as a page in
the household of young Duke Orsino
who rules the country. She takes the
name Cesario and becomes Orsino's
personal attendant. Impressed by the
young man's good looks and genteel speech, Orsino sends him as an envoy to win
the love of Olivia for him.
Olivia
has a household which includes her waiting woman, Maria, her business steward,
Malvolio, her dead father's jester,
Feste, and her drunken uncle, Sir
Toby Belch. Toby has picked up a
friend whom he has brought to stay with him, Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Sir
Andrew is incredibly stupid but wealthy, and Toby has convinced him that if he
just gives Toby enough money, he will get Andrew a date with his niece. Mainly Toby and Andrew spend most of their
time carousing and being entertained by Feste and supplied with drink by
Maria. Malvolio, a self-righteous
Puritan, is appalled by their behavior and tries to stop it, even threatening
that Toby will be asked to leave the house.
He also insults Feste in front of Olivia, who tells him to lighten
up. She enjoys Feste's company.
When
Cesario/Viola arrives at Olivia's, he is insistent that he be allowed to speak
with her. His brash manner intrigues
Olivia, and she allows him to see her.
Cesario passionately and poetically declares Orsino's love for Olivia,
but the more ardently the young man pleads, the more completely Olivia falls in
love with him. After he leaves she sends
Malvolio to deliver a ring to him, telling her manager that Cesario had left it
as an unwanted gift. Malvolio does as he
is told, and Viola realizes that Olivia has fallen in love with his disguise as
Cesario and sent the ring as a signal.
This unexpected event is further complicated when Viola reveals to us
that she has fallen in love with Orsino.
Trapped in her own disguise, she cannot reveal the truth to either
Olivia or Orsino but must play out her part in this unlikely love triangle.
Meanwhile,
Maria proposes a practical joke to put Malvolio in his place, once and for
all. She writes a love letter that
appears to be from Olivia to Malvolio, declaring her passionate love for the
business manager. She drops the letter
in the garden and arranges for Toby, Andrew and Fabian, another servant with grievances against the Puritan, to
eavesdrop on him when he reads the letter.
Malvolio enters and, even before he finds the letter, reveals that he
fantasizes about being married to Olivia, although he sees such a marriage
primarily as a way to become a count and exert control over Toby and the
others. When Malvolio finds the letter
he immediately assumes it is legitimate and vows that he will do everything he
is asked to do in the letter to reveal his love for his employer: to wear
yellow stockings, to tie his garters in a particularly outrageous manner, to quarrel
with the other servants and to smile constantly. He appears before Olivia in this fashion,
quoting from the letter which makes no sense to her at all. She concludes that he has lost his mind and
orders that Maria and Toby take care of him.
They take great delight in publicly proclaiming him a lunatic and
locking him in a dark room, standard treatment for insanity at that time.
When
Cesario tries to warn Orsino that Olivia may not return his love, the duke is
adamant that he must have her. When
Cesario tells him that women are capable of great passion and commitment,
Orsino laughs at the idea and tells him women are flighty and easily distracted
in love. Cesario/Viola tells the duke
that he had a sister who loved a man but was never able to declare her love and
apparently died of a broken heart.
Orsino is impressed by the story but sends his page back to Olivia.
Meanwhile,
Viola's brother Sebastian lands in
The
countess now openly declares her love for Cesario and throws herself on his
mercy. The young man insists that he
will never give his heart to a woman, but Olivia demands that he return to see
her daily to continue to press Orsino's suit, just so she can be with him. Her affections are so obvious that even Sir
Andrew Aguecheek realizes that he's not going to get a date with her and
decides to return home. In order to hold
on to his meal ticket, Toby convinces Andrew that Olivia has deliberately
pretended to favor Cesario in order to enflame Andrew's ardor. Andrew must now challenge Cesario to a duel
for Olivia's love. Toby and Fabian
deliver the challenge to Cesario and refuse to allow either him or Andrew, both
cowards, to escape a duel.
The
sword fight is a comic stalemate between two reluctant combatants, until
Antonio enters and mistakes Cesario/Viola for her brother Sebastian. He draws his sword to protect his friend, but
the police arrive, recognize him as a wanted criminal and arrest him. When Antonio asks for his purse back, Cesario
has no idea what he's talking about.
Antonio assumes that Sebastian is pretending not to know him and accuses
him of ingratitude. Toby and Andrew
decide to punish the young ingrate by waylaying him on his way home. Meanwhile Viola has her first inkling that
her brother may be alive.
Toby
and Andrew come across Sebastian and, thinking him the cowardly Cesario, start
a fight which the young man quickly makes them regret. As Toby is fighting with Sebastian, Olivia
enters, stops the combat and orders her uncle out. She apologizes for what has happened and begs
the young man to come into the house with her.
Beguiled by her beauty and intrigued that she seems to know him,
Sebastian agrees. Meanwhile Malvolio,
imprisoned in a dark room, is forced to ask help of Feste who brings him ink
and paper to write a letter of protest to Olivia. Sebastian emerges from the house, confused by
Olivia's behavior but clearly in love.
When she asks him to go with her to pledge before a priest his
willingness to marry her, he agrees.
Orsino,
accompanied by Cesario, finally comes to Olivia's house. The police escort Antonio by, and the captain
once again accuses the page of ingratitude and treachery. The duke denies that Cesario is guilty of
betraying him. Olivia enters, ignores
Orsino's protests of love and instead calls Cesario her husband. Enraged by what he takes to be his page's
treason, he orders that the youth quit his sight forever. The love-stricken
Viola refuses to be separated from her master.
Then Andrew and Toby enter, having both been beaten soundly by
Sebastian, who follows them in and apologizes for having had to hurt them.
Sebastian spies Antonio and greets his old friend, who asks how he has been
able to divide himself in two parts, pointing to Cesario. Viola finally reveals her true identity,
explains her disguise, and tells how she and her brother had been
separated. The twins joyfully
embrace. Orsino, seeing that the page of
whom he had grown so fond is in reality a woman, asks that she don her feminine
attire. He announces that Viola will be
his wife. Malvolio's letter to Olivia is
delivered in which he protests that she has abused him. Fabian explains the practical joke and how
Toby has married Maria in appreciation of her part in the plot. Malvolio does not accept the news of the
trick of the letter with good humor and storms out swearing he will be revenged
upon everyone. Feste is left to sing a
song reminding the audience of the examples of human folly found in the play.