Aphorism and Universality in Twelfth

Night: -
 Universality: -
Universality is that quality in a work of art which enables
it to transcend the limits of the particular situation, place, time, person and incident
in such a way that it may be of interest, pleasure and profit to all men at any time
in any place. The writer who aspires to universality therefore concerns himself
with primarily, aspects of human nature and behavior which seldom or never
change. Thus, the good satirist concentrates on the major diseases of the mind and
spirit-like pride and avarice, envy, hypocrisy, and lust for power. To claim that
Shakespeare possesses a universal genius, and that his play transcends culture, is at
least as old as the first published edition of his work. Ben Johnson quotes in his
Eulogy about Shakespeare that “he is not of the age, but for all times”. Ben
Johnson in the preface of his book1765 writes that Shakespeare plays had “long
outlived his universality” and argued that the secret of their durability was
universalism.
There are many instances of universality in Shakespeare’s writings, specifically, in
Twelfth Night. In this comic drama he discusses many of the generally known
phenomenon that the readers today can still relate to. Below will be discussed the
examples of universality that are embedded in the plot of this piece of literature.

1.Love as a Cause of Suffering

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy,
and romantic love is the play’s main focus. Despite the fact that the play offers a
happy ending, in which the various lovers find one another and achieve wedded
bliss, Shakespeare shows that love can cause pain. Many of the characters seem to
view love as a kind of curse, a feeling that attacks its victims suddenly and
disruptively. Various characters claim to suffer painfully from being in love, or,
rather, from the pangs of unrequited love. At one point, Orsino depicts love
dolefully as an “appetite” that he wants to satisfy and cannot (I.i.1–3); at another
point, he calls his desires “fell and cruel hounds” (I.i.21). Olivia more bluntly
describes love as a “plague” from which she suffers terribly (I.v.265). These
metaphors contain an element of violence, further painting the love-struck as
victims of some random force in the universe. Even the less melodramatic Viola
sighs unhappily that “My state is desperate for my master’s love” (II.ii.35). This
desperation has the potential to result in violence— as in Act V, scene i, when
Orsino threatens to kill Cesario because he thinks that -Cesario has forsaken him to
become an Olivia’s lover.
Love is also exclusionary: some people achieve romantic happiness, while others
do not. At the end of the play, as the happy lovers rejoice, both Malvolio and
Antonio are prevented from having the objects of their desire. Malvolio, who has
pursued Olivia, must ultimately face the realization that he is a fool, socially
unworthy of his noble mistress. Antonio is in a more difficult situation, as social
norms do not allow for the gratification of his apparently sexual attraction to
Sebastian. Love, thus, cannot conquer all obstacles, and those whose desires goun
fulfilled remain no less in love but feel the sting of its absence all the more
severely.

2. Bullying of Malvolio by the hands of other

characters.
Malvolio is a minor character in William Shakespeare's comedy
''Twelfth Night.'' Malvolio is a pompous character who is humiliated by other
characters in the story. In the play Twelfth Night, Malvolio is Lady Olivia's
steward and the target of a major prank. Throughout the play, he's characterized as
a fun-hating and overly serious character with no sense of humor. What he wants
most of all is status, mostly so he can make other characters stop doing things he
considers frivolous and silly. Because he can't take a joke, his efforts to improve
his own position in the world make him an easy target for the other characters and
drive his role in the plot and humor of the play. During the Christmas feast, the
other characters give Malvolio a forged a letter that tricks him into believing that
Olivia is in love with him and wants him to walk around wearing weird yellow
stockings and smiling. This plays right into Malvolio's desire to improve his status:
if he can marry Olivia, he'll have it made! But in fact, Olivia wants exactly the
opposite - she hates the color yellow, and her brother just died, so seeing Malvolio
acting obnoxiously happy all the time makes her think he must be crazy. She
assumes he's gone crazy and has him imprisoned, and the other characters have a
good time making fun of him before the play ends. Malvolio's characterization is
central to the plot, because his personality is what makes the trick work.
Throughout the play, Malvolio's lines characterize him as a very stern person who
hates anything he perceives as silly or frivolous. They explain why his plot arc
works and contribute to the humor of the trick. In this lesson, we'll look at how this
works in some sample quotations from the play, with a special focus on long
speeches called monologues.

Example Quotes:
'I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a
barren rascal… I protest, I take these wise men,
that crow so at these set kinds of fools, no better than the fools' zanies.' (Act 1,
Scene 5) Lines like this show that Malvolio doesn't see much value in fun and
humor. And he thinks this puts him above all the other characters: here's another
quote from Act 3, Scene 4:'Go, hang yourselves all! You are idle shallow things: I
am not of your element: you shall know more hereafter.' When Malvolio accuses
the other characters of being idle and shallow, he's setting himself above them. He
thinks he's better than everyone else, and he fantasizes about having power over
them.so he can make them follow his rules (one example is in Act 2, Scene 4,
when he imagine shaving the authority to scold Sir Toby for drinking too
much).This makes him the perfect target for the prank of the false letter, because
he's only too happy to believe it, and it takes him a long time to figure it out while
the other characters get to have fun at his expense. When he finally figures it out,
he's angry and wounded, which shows how seriously he took the fake love letter
and the idea of marrying Olivia. His last line is 'I'll be revenged on the whole pack
of you' (Act 5, Scene 1). Even the other characters have to admit that the joke was
cruel, because it hit him right in all his weak spots.

3.Deception, Disguise and Madness of various

characters.
I: Deception
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night various characters hide their identity
and show something else about themselves and everyone deceives one another in
various ways. Olivia deceives Orsino as she has vowed after the death of her
brother that she will not meet a stranger for seven years but she breaks her oath
when she sees Cesario. She falls in love with him at first sight. So, this is a very
clear kind of deception because at one hand, Olivia had vowed not to meet with
any stranger for seven years but all of a sudden, she breaks her oath and not only
meets Cesario (Disguised Olivia) but also falls in love with him. So, the point is
that she clearly deceived Orsino because Orsino was completely mad about her and
she was continuously rejecting his proposal. So, this is very universal all over the
world that people just hide their identity and they are not what they show. The
second thing is the disguise of Viola as Cesario: Viola changed her character to a
male character "Cesario". Now because of changing herself as a disguised
character creates a lot of problems and she was deceiving everyone specially she
was deceiving the Duke, and Olivia as well and because of her disguised character
Olivia also falls in love with her as she was assuming her as Cesario. So, here the
point is that this is a very common thing nowadays that people hide their identity to
manipulate others. Not only that she was also deceiving herself because of her
disguised character as she fell in love with Orsino and she was unable to tell him
because she disguised herself as a male and this is evident in the dialogue between
Orsino and Cesario (Disguised Olivia) when she was telling him about herself that:
My father had a daughter loved a man As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman I
should your lordship.
Being disguised herself as Cesario, Olivia also fell in love with her (Viola). So,
here the point is we are doing the same thing as Viola did. We are always ready
and willing to do anything to achieve anything in our life. It may be our goals or
some particular person to whom we love. We even don't care about other people
feelings and their emotions and not only that sometimes we are so much blind in
achieve something and we just don't even care about ourselves and we are so much
mad about that thing or person and we just forget the sense of reality and we are
deceiving ourselves continuously. We also found the character of Maria, Sir Toby,
Sir Andrew and company manipulating Malvolio by engineering a practical plan
that Olivia loves him. Actually, Maria wrote a letter, supposed from Olivia and
telling him that if he wants to earn her favor then he should dress in yellow
stocking garters, haughtily and smile constantly. Malvolio finds the letter and
dreams of marrying with Olivia. He behaves so strangely that Olivia thinks that he
is mad. Actually, Malvolio was not so much attractive and was belonged to a lower
class and everyone was believed about that he is not a noble blood. So, everyone
made him fool. If we compare these situations to our lives so many of us are doing
the same thing as Maria and company did. When we find someone unattractive,
poor, or one who belongs to lower class or the middle class of society so we just
play jokes with him and make fun of him or her which is immoral and
disrespectful.

ii: Disguise
Gender is one of the most obvious and much discussed topics in the
play. In this play Viola disguised herself as a male named Cesario in order to seek
the services of Duke and Olivia as well. So, this gender uncertainty creates a lot of
troubles and created the a love triangle which was full of mess. Orsino loves
Olivia, Olivia loves Viola and Viola loves Orsino. Not only that the character of
Feste also dressed up like Sir Topas which was a priest and he pretended to
examine the mad Malvolio. And nowadays people do the same. They just hide
their nature and every time they just manipulate and play with others feelings and
emotions without any thinking.

iii: Madness
The character of Malvolio portrays madness through-out the play
because without any thinking he gets tricked by the plan of Maria, Sir Toby and Sir
Andrew and he really believes that Olivia is really in love with him. Not only him,
the characters of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew show madness too, and it is evident
because when Sebastian who looks like disguised Viola when he appears on the
screen Sir Andrew and Sir Toby consider him as Viola. So, without any thinking,
they create a complete messed up situation and commit errors.

4.Fake vs Real emotions:

All the character smokescreen their identity
because of their conflict with themselves or due to the external factors. We have
already seen in the previous discussion that; conflict of the characters is universal.
Orsino in the start of the play falls for Olivia. If music be the food of love, play on,
give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. Orsino
wants to marry Olivia, but she is mourning the death of her brother and father.
Other characters include Olivia after Cesario and Clown after Olivia. They all have
the have feelings which turns comical after the arrival of Sebastian. After Sebastian
coms, they all go back to the real emotions and start a new life. Orsino marries
Viola and Sebastian marries Olivia. Also mourning is not for whole life, Olivia
changes her ambition in the play with the passing events. The line from Orsino
dialogues shows that man cannot achieve always what he planned, but every
decision is the subordinate of time and conditions. But when in other habits you are
seen, Orsino mistress, and his fancy Queen. This is what Shakespeare shows the
weightage of actual feelings and human nature as the changing subject of time.

5.Death and Mourning:

Twelfth Night begins in deepest mourning. After the death
of her father and brother, Olivia has called a halt to the forward motion of life.
Twelfth Night is considered one of his great comedies. It prefers to forget death
and the swift passage of time, and the fact that, on the whole, degree of
inevitability is also found there. We have read that Duke Orsino believes himself
very much in love with Olivia. Olivia, on the other hand, is determined to mourn
her brother’s death and has sworn to stay cloistered for seven years without
showing her face. Olivia thinks she wants to be left alone to mourn her brother,
until she also falls in love with Cesario. She then thinks she wants Cesario, until
she meets Sebastian. A lady richly left by his father is erotically paralyzed. And the
other is of slightly lower status but is also fatherless. We figured out that the father
of Olivia has left the wealth of estate for her but instead of celebrating, the play
reverberates with the sense of familial loss. As in a shipwreck voila has lost her
brother, thinking that he is dead and Sebastian is upset about her sister’s
disappearance, thinking of her as dead and on the other hand viola has sworn about
not seeing anyone for eight years. So, we have found 2 anagrammatic women
mourning for their brothers. Shipwrecked Viola, also has faced death and have just
escaped death by drowning.
“The youth that you see here,
I snatched one half out of the jaws of death.”
A song of death is being sung to Orsino, the love-sick duke that he is calling the
death now that I have already been killed by a beautiful girl. Come away, come
away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid; Fly away, fly away, breath: I am slain by a fair
cruel maid. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, Oh, prepare it! My part of
death no one so true Did share it. Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 4, line
52.

 Conclusion:
 Universality in literature is a theme controlling universal
phenomenon which include all humanity. It is the central and universal theme.
Some universal themes include man vs man, man vs himself, man vs nature, good
vs evil, and coming of age. In Twelfth-Night we have characters that transcend the
culture up to some extent and marginalize the time pledge; Malvolio. Viola is the
character who is in trouble of something universal, which is the conflict of
individual identity i.e. women identity. On the other hand, Duke Orsino wants the
heart which does not beat for him and universally it is valid that these efforts
mostly are in vain. Likewise, a
wise saying is that “dead are dead
and the living do their
tasks”. So, we found Olivia mourning but she ultimately accepts the
bitter truth of life. Recalling Johnson’s
saying about Shakespeare we meet with the result that yes; this story still appeals
the readers and most probably will appeal the latter audience too.
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