William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night is famous for its gender-
reversing plots, which bring unimaginable chaos and amusing effect. In the
play, the heroine Viola is dressed up like a man and uses a pseudonym, Cesario,
as a new identity to live independently after a shipwreck. She is accepted as a
servant by Duke Orsino, who is pining for a young lady, Olivia. Since Cesario's
charming character, Orsino and the servant gradually become close; then, he
shares his trouble on love affection with the countess. The way Cesario sharing
with Orsino's burden is going to woo the lady in stead of the Duke, because
Orsino thinks Cesario is quite a charmer and can take the wooing errand
excellently. In fact, the latter outcome proves the handsome servant doing too
well, and make Olivia strongly love Cesario. However, Cesario can not accept
Olivia's love for he is she, and she herself has affection on her master
Orsino. The other mistaken identity case happened in the latter plots make the
play more complex. For example, Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, is alive
actually, and is recognized as Cesario by Olivia. Then the whole play becomes a
mistaken identity case intertwined with another mistaken identity case.
Superficially, the whole play is just one carefully designed comedy. And it
also coordinates with the social background of the age. The "twelfth night" can
be referenced to the twelfth night after Christmas Eve, and during the period,
people will join a festival, which is dominated by Lord of Misrule. Then the
original social order is turned upside down that the high become low and vice
versa. The setting of the play Twelfth Night corresponds to the tradition; this
is why the mistaken identity can be the story plot. And in the end, the chaos
is mended by the happy ending, just like the destined finale of the tradition
of Lord of Misrule-the social order returns. Nevertheless, if you care about
not only the main characters in the play, you can find there is one person who
gains tragic end after the return of the order----Olivia's steward, Malvolio.
In the play, Olivia's uncle and one of Olivia's pursuers Andrew conspire to
insult Malvolio. And they successfully make the poor guy believes his mistress
wishes to marry him and hope him wearing yellow stockings cross-gartered for
pleasing her. Malvolio is strongly convinced because the others show him a faked
love letter. In the latter plots scene, when Olivia sees Malvolio's bizarre
deed, she considers the possibility that the guy is out of mind. Therefore,
according to how people deal with a nut at that time, Malvolio is locked in a
dark cellar. Even though the truth is revealed in the end of the play and
Malvolio is free, he is the only one character who gets no peace in this play.
If Malvolio's case is compared with others' troublesome situations, we can find
that they all belong to the identity problem. To Viola, Orsino, Olivia, and
Sebastian, they are involved in the mistaken identity trouble. To Malvolio, he
intends to become a master by marrying his mistress, and his awkward dressing
in yellow stocking is a symbol of identity change. However, Malvolio is fail
and punished and the others are successful. Through the comparison, the enigma
appears.
I think the most possible answer is the play's sarcastic arrangement on the
issue of the cover up. Apparently, one theme of the play is identity problem,
and it is applied further more on the topic of how people deal with the
concealed truth. To Olivia, when she discovers that Sebastian is not Cesario,
who is a female like herself, she "easily" accepts the truth and marries
Sebastian. To Orsino, when he discovers Cesario in fact is a lady named Viola,
he abandons his further will to woo Olivia, and marries Viola. These cases are
really unnatural because not only the gender identity is turnover; the concept
is also turned upside down at the last moment. When it comes to Malvolio, we
can find that it is because he does not will to "change" his attitude, he is
upset in the end. Therefore, the story seems to reveal that the hypocritical
attitude is the best resolution to mend up the misunderstanding; then, we will
have "happy ending" like merry characters in the play.
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