Feste from Twelfth Night: the deception of being fool

Within the multiplicity of characters that one may identify as minor in the five plays studied,
the option fell on Feste, Olivia's household jester.

The character of the jester in the dramaturgy of the time, portrayed a type of staff member of
families of a high social level whose function is primarily to entertain the owners of the house
and their guests, making scathing jokes, singing, being generally witty and offering good advice
under a layer of ignorance, performing in the structure of the play a function equivalent to that
of the chorus in Greek tragedy.

As we seek to demonstrate in the exposition that follows, Feste’s wisdom and erudition are
not even just apparent, Feste ostensibly proclaims his intelligence: “I wear not motley in my
brain” (1.5.50-51), his intellectual and moral superiority: “The more fool, madonna, to mourn
for your brother's soul being in heaven” (1.5.64-65).

In the absence of rigorous criteria of literary science to accurately establish, on the one hand,
the distinction between main and supporting or peripheral characters, and on the other, in an
endeavour to demonstrate the centrality of Feste's character, analyzing the “space” occupied
in the plot by this character in opposition, by way of example, to one of the so-called main
characters: Viola, one verifies that Viola appears immediately in the second scene of the first
act, whereas Feste is introduced to the public just three scenes ahead in the same act.

Throughout the plot, Feste has 100 lines, in contrast to Viola, who has no more than 120 lines,
only 20 more than Feste. The first interaction between Feste and Viola takes place in Viola's
fifty-fourth line and Feste's fortieth line. Statistically, there seems to be no great cleavage
between Viola's character, who is the author of the mischief that sets the whole plot in
motion, and the supposed complementarity of Feste's character.

The jester interacts with nearly all the characters, except Antonio, Valentine, Curio and the
Captain. The same cannot be said of Viola, whose scenes are mostly with Orsino and Olivia,
and which is absent from the entire side plot that leads to Malvolio's humiliation.

The unquestionable affirmation of Viola as one of the main characters, endowed with
enormous perspicacity, sensibility and intelligence, contributes to cement the relevance of
Feste's character, the author uses none other than Viola, to expressly recognize Feste's
prominence and wit:

“The fellow is wise enough to play the fool,

And to do that well craves a kind of wit:

He must observe their mood on whom he jests,

The quality of persons, and the time;

And, like the haggard, check at very feather

That comes before his eye. This is a practice

As full of labor as a wise man’s art:

For folly that he wisely shoes is fit;

But wise men, foly-fall’n, quite taint their wit” (3.1.57-65).

Going deeper into the task of collecting evidence and clues that support the relevance of
Feste's character, let us dwell on a necessarily brief analysis of his interventions in the play: act
1, scene 5, act 2, scenes 3 and 4, act 3, scene 1, act 4, scenes 1 and 2 and act 5, scene 1.
In the first scene in which he appears on stage, one witnesses a demonstration of tremendous
wisdom on the part of Feste, who responds nonchalantly, with humor and intelligence to
Maria's reprimand and intimidation:

“Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and,

For turning away, let summer bear it out” (1.5.17-18).

The first sentence resembles the proverb “Better be half hanged than ill wed”, while the
second sentence seems to be a reformulation of “As for unemployment, may sunny weather
make it tolerable”, in a clear demonstration of wisdom made of life experience.

Extremely relevant to be highlighted in this scene is the fact that, using all his skill and wisdom,
he confronts Olivia with the lack of coherence between her suffering and her faith: if she
believes that her late brother is in heaven, then she is foolish to mourn and grieve over his
death.

When he returns to the stage a second time, Feste joins Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew
Aguecheek in folly, drinking and singing, yet still demonstrating his wit: “Youth’s a stuff will not
endure” (2.3.48).

On the fourth scene of the second act, Feste mocks Orsino with a sad and dramatic song
poking fun of his melancholy, without him noticing and even rewarding Feste for his
performance.

When the plot comes to the first scene of the third act, the spectator/reader sees Feste
ridicule the state of mind and behavior of lovers. Right after Toby, Andrew, and Maria laugh at
Malvolio's expense, the jester seeks to remind the audience that noble lovers are not
necessarily any less ridiculous than Malvolio.

Feste is also a victim of the deceit created by Viola in the first scene of the fourth act, when, as
a result of Viola's disguise, he confuses Sebastian with Cesario and expresses his surprise:

“Vent my folly! He has heard that word of some great

Man, and now applies it to a fool. Vent my folly! I am

Afraid this great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney” (4.1.10-12).

Feste's intervention in the second scene of the fourth act is decisive to the parallel plot devised
by Maria to deride Malvolio. Disguising himself as Sir Topas, Feste takes an active part in the
conspiracy to declare Malvolio insane, trying to trick Malvolio into believing that the dark room
he is in is lighted, and testing his sanity and intelligence with a question about the philosophy
of Pythagoras. At the end of the scene, already stripped of his Sir Topas disguise, Feste returns
to Malvolio's cell and takes him the candle, pen and ink that he asked for, but not without
making fun of him. The grotesque situation of a superior being mocked by an allegedly
uncultured and ignorant subordinate.

In the last scene of the play, Feste is the bearer of the letter written by Malvolio that ends up
never being delivered, due to the appearance of Malvolio who threatens to take revenge on
everyone present. After all the characters leave the scene, only Feste remains, ending the
presentation with a song in which he proclaims that despite the happy ending for the lovers,
life will still follow its course and death and sorrow awaits. The play comes to a closure with
this "minor" character alone on stage in a reference to the inversion of hierarchy associated
with the real Twelfth Night festival.

From the brief journey through Feste's interventions one may conclude that this character has
a psychological density that is clearly superior to most of the others, a sharp, observant, wit
and wise character. He displays an impressive degree of knowledge, culture and erudition; an
extraordinary command of language, namely when he uses a Latin expression: “Cucullus non
facit monachum” (1.5.49-50), with which he expresses a pearl of wisdom, meaning the cowl
does not make the monk; condemning the act of judging by appearances; providing advice and
guidance: “Two faults, madona, that drink and good counsel will amend” (1.5.37-38); as well as
in the same scene of the same act appealing to the philosophy of a supposedly unknown
philosopher “Quinapalus”; using syllogisms, even resorting to Pythagoras philosophy.

Feste's character, in addition to the usual characteristics of a fool, such as singing, making
jokes and satirizing other characters, has yet still a dramatic aspect, as mentioned above, he
not only collaborates in the scheme to humiliate Malvolio, but also plays a main role in
tormenting that character, revealing a special perversion and cruelty.

In a brief final appreciation, one can conclude that, the character of Feste is a brilliant creation
of the prototype of a fool of the renaissance dramaturgy, he is much more than he appears to
be, and his name suggests: he moves freely among others characters, he displays a moral and
intellectual superiority, making fun of them, even censoring, criticizing and saying outrageous
things, as happens with Olivia, counter ordering the servants, (1.5.46-47), whom despite that
constantly asks for the jester’s opinion.

Feste moves in and out of the plot, he may somehow be considered the very presence of
Shakespeare on stage, he is the observer who hovers above the others, makes moral
judgments, points out flaws, presents an impartial and equidistant point of view as a judge
would, establishes a connection with the audience, brings it into the narrative and provides
the necessary information so that the reader/spectator can fully comprehend the events.

All the arguments expounded, sustain the claim that Feste may not be regarded as a minor
character, rather a fairly central one.

After reading Twelfth Night, not only from a playful perspective, but from a moral point of view
that the author would have wanted to convey, the analysis couldn’t be concluded in any other
way than Feste's own words: “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrown upon them”. (5.1.360-361)
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Twelfth Night. Edited by Cedric Watts. Wordsworth Editions Limited 2001 .
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Internet Shakespeare Editions. Available at: https://library.acg.edu (accessed 02
February 2023).
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Folger Shakespeare Library. Available at: https://folger.edu (accessed 03 February
2023).