Essay first draft

By effectively manipulating comedy and the satirical use of fun and humor, Shakespeare was
able to comment on certain aspects of Elizabethan society in his play Twelfth Night.
Shakespeare is able to entertain his Elizabethan audience with puns, irony, duplicity and satire
while commenting on many of the ideas and values surrounding their society. Twelfth Night
contains many classic elements of dramatic comedy. Central to its design is a series of
intertwined love interests (Orsino loves Olivia, Olivia loves Cesario and then Sebastian, Viola
loves Orsino, Sir Andrew and Malvolio love Olivia); the mask (the plot is based on Viola dressing
up as a male servant to survive a shipwreck on the coasts of Illyria); mistaken identities (Viola
and Sebastiano are so identical twins that no one can tell them apart); fraud and deceit; the
use of much song and dance and an ending where all confusion is resolved and the three
marriages are consummated.
The most obvious form of Twelfth Night comedy is that created by Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew
Aguecheek (whose names are the source of the humor) and their friends. The sense of humor
is immediately evident in their use of prose, impertinent language and singing, which would
undoubtedly have appealed to a working-class audience. Their banter at a midnight revelry in
Act 2 scene iii, where they drunkenly swear, mock Malvolio and sing at the top of their lungs,
reflects their fun and joie de vivre. Similarly, the physical comedy in the scene where Sir
Andrew and Cesario try to duel but turn out to be extremely inept and shy is clearly entertaining
and laugh-out-loud funny.
The really stupid character in the play is Andrew Aguecheek, whom Shakespeare creates to
play "the seagull". Andrew is often portrayed as a coward, inept and unintelligent. Unable to
understand the simplest of jokes or metaphors, he responds to Sir Toby's "I smell a device"
literally "I don't have it in my nose either". Maria aptly describes him as "stupid", "a great fighter"
and someone with "the gift of a coward". He is ludicrously led to believe that he could become
Olivia's potential suitor. Here he proves desperate, as shown when he tries to listen to Cesario
to learn courtship, thus becoming a parody of a courtier. Andrew Aguecheek is the central funny
character of Sir Toby's party and a character whose contempt is funny to both stage and theater
audiences. In the play itself, Andrew is a knight who is generalized in their society as brave,
noble, and a good swordsman, all qualities that Sir Andrew Aguecheek does not possess.
Shakespeare consciously portrays him in a way that challenges the views of Elizabethan
society on how a nobleman should act in their society. Andrew's cowardice, incompetence, and
general unintelligent behavior are all characteristics that make him vulnerable to the ridicule of
the audience, especially the lower-class audience, and the incredulity of the upper-class
audience, who find Andrews' behavior simply repulsive and disrespectful. .
The dominant character in a comedy is a fool. In the world of Twelfth Night, Feste is a licensed
and professional fool. He promotes the eponymous free party atmosphere by creating music,
song and fun. He is connected to Olivia's family, although he is a free spirit who often visits the
Duke's palace and sings to her. Feste embodies the delirious spirit in which the play delights,
and he is the author of madness - the opposite of the serious Malvolio, who, like a Puritan,
despises fun. But it's not just his witty puns that create comedy. He also reveals the truth to
other characters and the audience: he mocks Orsino's amorous behavior; he defies Olivia's
obsessive grief and proves, much to Malvolio's horror, that he is a "fool" in his witty repetition;
and he exposes Malvolio's arrogance by publicly humiliating him. Thus, it seems that he is able
to see the true nature of the people around him, mocking their weaknesses and shortcomings,
which leads to a comic resolution of the events. There is also humor in the fact that his role
gives him permission to poke fun at his superiors. Despite his sharpshooting status, he is far
more intelligent than his master ("clever enough," as Viola says, "to play the fool").