Feste and Olivia’s 3 Suitors

• ‘I would I were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown’

  • Feste‘s comic aside
  • Undermines Church’s integrity through the laughter it provokes in the audience
  • Turns accepted authority into a subject of comedy
• ‘…and thus the whirligig of time brings his revenges’

  • Feste suggests time ensures justice
  • Reinforces theme of poetic justice, particularly in Malvolio’s downfall
• ‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit’

  • Feste highlights irony that those in power who consider themselves wise are often more foolish than the supposed fool
  • Mechanism of comedy: Puritan Malvolio vs licensed fool Feste
  • Despite being labelled a ‘fool’ by other characters displaying folly themselves, Feste is an omniscient, knowledgeable character himself
• ‘There is no slander in an allowed fool though he do nothing but rail’

  • Reinforces Feste’s role as the licensed fool
  • Feste has unique privilege of speaking truth through humour despite his lower class without facing consequences, showing role as both entertainer and truth-teller
• ‘I wear not motley in my brain’

  • Wears clothes of fool, but he is far from foolish
  • Emphasises intelligence and insight
• ‘Words are very rascals‘

  • Feste‘s role as manipulator of words
  • Shows power of words to deceive and manipulate, highlighting the play’s broader theme of deception and disguise
• ‘What is love?‘

  • Through his song, Feste questions true nature of love, contrasting play’s romantic themes with more cynical perspective
  • His song ‘O Mistress Mine’ mocks the foolishness of Orsino’s romantic pursuits
• Feste’s roles:

  • Commentator on action and therefore
  • Guide for the audience
  • Philosopher
  • To amuse
  • To represent Shakespeare writing it for comedy
  • To stand outside the action, above it…
  • And a second revenge plot with Malvolio – Puritanism v love of comedy, art, imagination 
• Act 2 Scene 3: ‘O mistress mine, where are you roaming?’

  • ‘Every … son’ —> every fool; an ironic allusion to proverb ‘A wise man often has foolish children’
  • ‘Sweet and twenty’ not a literal reference to beloved’s age but a conventional term of endearment
  • Metatheatrical ‘journeys end in lovers meeting’
  • Non binary interpretation: ‘they can sing both high and low’
  • Seductive tone ‘then come kiss me, sweet and twenty. Youth’s a stuff will not endure’
  • Stands outside the plot, knows everything and philosophises
  • ‘In delay there lies no plenty’ – traditional ‘seize the day’ meaning
• Act 2 Scene 4: ‘Come away death’ song

  • Ridicules Orsino’s pose as a lovesick aristocrat; ridicules desire:
  • e.g ‘sad true love never find my grave’, ‘to weep there’, ‘I am slain by a fair cruel maid’(archetypal, standard poetic line), ‘my paper of death no one so true did share it’, ‘ sad cypress’, ‘black coffin’, ‘not a flower’, ‘not a friend’
  • Orsino being challenged – comedy as corrective
  • Feste’s role in the play —> tries to help Orsino correct
• Act 5 Scene 1: ‘For the rain it raineth every day’ song

  • Metatheatricality – ‘that’s all one, our play is done’ ; no longer Feste, he is just the actor playing Feste; play emerges from being a play into the real world where it ‘rains’ every day; breaks bridge between play world and ordinary world i.e a world where homosexuality is allowed and cross-dressing is comedic
  • Idea of theatre as an escape from ordinariness where non-binary and homosexuality is more accepted, a servant can have big dreams etc; theatre as a place of imagination
  • ‘Hey, ho’ – traditional phrase in Elizabethan folk songs
• Truly foolish character in play is Sir Andrew Aguecheek, crafted by Shakespeare to play the ‘gull’. He is a cowardly, incompetent and frankly unintelligent man.
• Aguecheek is unable to understand simplest of jokes or metaphors, seen when he responds to Sir Toby’s ’I smell a device’ with the literal ‘I have’s my nose too’.
• Maria aptly describes Sir Aguecheek as a ‘fool’, ‘a great quarreller’ and one who has the ‘gift of a coward’
• Andrew is ludicrously led to believe he could be a potential suitor for Olivia - he is ‘gulled‘ by the drunk Sir Toby. In lieu with this, he proves to be a hopeless parody of the courtly lover Orsino, as evident when he attempts to listen in to Cesario to learn how to woo.
• Andrew Aguecheek = figure of fun central to Sir Toby’s revelries; his character’s denigration is amusing for both stage and theatre audiences
• Andrew Aguecheek as an effeminate man, seen when he duels Cesario to no avail - a comedic spectacle of two unmanly opponents

  ‘Will either of you bear me a challenge to him?‘
• Hint of pathos in Aguecheek’s words ‘I was adored once, too’ and in severity of Toby’s rejection of his help at the end. Audience may feel sorry for him.
• Aguecheek is fundamentally hedonistic in nature; reflective of spirit of the play:

  • ‘Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?‘ ‘It’s dry, sir’
  • ‘Shall we set about some revels?’
  • ‘Does not our lives consist of the four elements?‘ ‘I think it rather consists of earthing and drinking’
  • ‘As good a deed as to drink when a man’s a-hungry’
  • [On Malvolio’s puritanism] ‘O if I thought that, I’d beat him like a dog!’
• Andrew adds to play’s concern for fundamentally superficial and performative nature of both gender and class. But, when judged on his station, he should be masculine and heroic but is instead the play’s most effeminate and immature character, showing playful changeability of social positions in Illyria

  • ‘Good Mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance‘
  • ‘Front her, board her, woo her, assail her’
  • ‘Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has’
  • ‘He is knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier’
  • ‘Devil’
  • ‘Great eater of beef’
• Act 1 Scene 5 – Malvolio’s Introduction

  Malvolio introduced as a very stern figure who doesn’t like the jester, art, or creativity. He’s all pomposity. Establishes Malvolio as the opposite of Feste the spirit of comedy. Non-binary character presented as looking over everything in some presentations of the play.

  • ‘Barren rascal’
  • ‘Unless you laugh […] he is gagged’ – like Shakespeare in a way

  Malvolio does not like Feste as he is outside the class system and talks to ‘ordinary fools’ but Malvolio is hyperaware of his place in the class system
• Act 2 Scene 2

  Malvolio starts making things up

  ‘You peevishly threw it to her’ – him as a messenger, hypocrisy and pomposity
• Who is Malvolio in the context of the play?

  A pompous puritan servant
• How does Malvolio's attitude differ from Maria's when addressing Sir Toby?

  Malvolio is male and confrontational
• What does Malvolio mean by ‘Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you’?

  He questions the decorum of Sir Toby and others
• What does Malvolio accuse Sir Toby of regarding his lady's house?

  Making an alehouse of it
• What does Malvolio mean when he says, ‘Sir Toby, I must be round with you’?

  He intends to speak frankly and directly
• How does Malvolio feel about telling Sir Toby that ‘She is very willing to bid you farewell’?

  He enjoys reprimanding Sir Toby
• How does Sir Toby respond to Malvolio's reprimand about farewell?

  He sings back to mock Malvolio
• What role does Feste play in the scene with Malvolio and Sir Toby?

  He adds to the comedy by joining the song
• What does Malvolio imply by saying ‘This is much credit to you’?

  He sarcastically questions someone's actions
• How does Malvolio's interaction with Maria reflect his social status?

  He targets someone of slightly lower class
• What does Sir Toby remind Malvolio of when he says, ‘Art any more than a steward?’

  He reminds Malvolio of his lower status
• Maria, Andrew and Toby discuss Malvolio and the motives behind his actions. Large religious discussions as Maria assesses his Puritanism and his contradiction against his supposed faith to win Olivia over.

  • ‘Sometimes he is a kind of puritan’ – Maria
  • ‘The devil a Puritan that he is […] time pleaser […] best persuaded by himself’ – Maria; says Malvolio has a false goody too shoes façade and only does what is best to get on Olivia’s good books
• Maria makes the plan and designs the plot – she is almost the playwright, as Feste is with his control over the humour and audience and his knowledge of characters.

  • ‘Maria once told me she [Olivia] did affect me’
  • ‘He’s an overweening rogue!’ – Sir Toby; class-based comment about how Malvolio is aiming too high and should stay in his place
• What does Malvolio fantasize about?

  Rising to power
• How does Malvolio view servants when he fantasizes about power?

  He wants them to know their place
• What is ironic about Malvolio's desire for power?

  He wants to oppress others like he is oppressed
• What does Malvolio's behavior do to the audience's perception of him?

  It pits the audience against him
• What are some symbols associated with Malvolio's character?

  • ‘Branched velvet gown’
  • Left Olivia sleeping on the day bed
  • ‘Rich jewel’
  • ‘Seven obedient servants’