Twelfth Night

20 Pages 4931 Words

Critical Analysis of Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare

Précis

Characters:
Orsino, Duke of Illyria. Is madly in love with Lady Olivia. He is a kind and gentle man.

Viola/Cesario, Young girl who has found herself in Illyria after being shipwrecked. She is disguised as a boy to insure her safety in a strange land.

Lady Olivia, a young and wealthy aristocrat who falls for the young Cesario.

Sebastian, Sebastian is at first believed to perhaps drowned in the shipwreck. He is the fraternal twin to Viola and is mistaken for Cesario. Olivia falls instead for Sebastian , since the siblings resemble each other so much. Sebastian is much more impetuous and emotional than his twin, Viola appears to be.

Sir Toby Belch, “uncle” to Olivia and a chronic drunk. He lives with his niece and amuses himself at Olivia’s house by playing tricks on others. He is basically a con artist.

Sir Andrew Aguecheek, A foolish and dense knight who is encouraged by Olivia’s uncle to woo her.

Malvolio, Malvolio is an assistant to Olivia and secretly is in love with her. He cannot stand the excessive partying of Sir Toby. Sir Toby uses Malvolio as the butt of one of his pranks.

Maria, She is the chambermaid, so to speak, to Lady Olivia. Maria (muh-RYE-uh) is cunning and quite intelligent, as she herself decides to play a trick on Malvolio.

Feste, Olivia’s clown/jester who in reality is no fool. He is very intelligent himself.

Valentine, attendant to Duke Orsino.

Curio, another attendant to Orsino. The roles of chambermaid and attendant were not low stations in life back then. They were of the “gentleman/woman” stature in society.

A sea captain, He is a man who helps Viola with her disguise as a boy and promises not to tell anyone.

Antonio, this sea captain aids Sebastian. Viola doesn’t help Antonio in his time of need. This is confu...