Twelfth Night

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Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, is a play rife with inversions and role reversals. Additionally, the bulk of these inversions and reversals is the result of a dissonance between either sight and reality or listening and reality. Thus, one of the most remarkable passages of the play is Act 3.1.1-25. In this passage, Viola and the Clown have an acute discussion about perception and reality, which seems to comment not only on their current predicaments, but the play as a whole. For example, the scene opens with a stage direction indicating that Viola and the Clown are playing the tabor. Understand, that a “tarbor” is essentially a drum—or musical instrument. Viola appears enthralled by the Clown’s musical acumen according to her dialogue: “Save thee, friend, and thy music. Dost thou live by thy tabour?” (3.1.1-2). The Clown responds to Viola’s question by stating that he “lives by the church.” In other words, the Clown has a literal understanding of Viola’s question. Both characters display a misunderstanding, or their perceptions don’t align with reality. …show more content…
Certainly, to make a living with an instrument, one must demonstrate an adeptness while playing it. Nevertheless, Viola is mistaken. Her eyes and ears conclude that the Clown is a musician, but this is not reality. Shakespeare uses stage directions and dialogue to illustrate yet another misunderstanding in a play of misunderstandings, and that is why this passage is so meaningful. The Clown’s ability with the tabor fools the eyes, much like Viola’s disguise as Cesario fools Orsino, and the ears, much like Sir Andrew’s embellished version of Sir Toby’s challenge fools

Twelfth Night

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Irony In Twelfth Night

In William Shakespeare's comedy, “Twelfth Night”, humor and irony are used throughout the play to convey the three major themes. The three major themes exhibited are gender is fluid, subversion of the natural order, and love causes pain and/ or suffering. Throughout the play, the theme of gender fluidity is portrayed as In act one scene four. At Orsino’s court, Orsino has just told Viola, disguised as Cesario, what to deliver to Lady Olivia to woo her. He compliments Cesario’s femininity and he…

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To what extent does ‘Twelfth Night’ offer an interpretation of human folly and greed? Throughout ‘Twelfth Night’, Shakespeare demonstrates both folly and greed through the characters in the play. Greed is a theme which has an impact on the characters in different ways and primarily centres around a need and desire or either love and consumption. Within the subplot, human folly is heavily interlinked with excessive behaviours as Feste, Sir Toby, and Maria in particular feel the need to gull others…

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TWELFTH NIGHT ESSAY

TWELFTH NIGHT William Shakespeare’s play ‘Twelfth Night’, is an insightful and entertaining play, which employs the use of comedy to both captivate and engage its audience. Shakespeare ingeniously explores a rich variety of themes throughout the play, which are approved with the use of both dramatic and language techniques. The use of comedy throughout the play encourages audiences that it is an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of work. A play to me is entertaining when it shows a great…

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Twelfth Night Decisiveness

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Greek Twelfth Night

modern age. His plays are still put on by high schools, colleges and professional play companies worldwide, and some of his works have even been made into motion pictures. His comedy Twelfth Night was made into a movie…

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Shakespeare Twelfth Night

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Twelfth Night Essay

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Twelfth Night Gender

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Words 236 - Pages 1