Tweltfh Night Reader/Watcher Response Act V

As you know , Twelfth Night is a comedy and comedies are `supposed` to have happy endings . Indeed the ending is quite happy for most of the characters including Orsino , Olivia , Viola , Sevastian , and even Toby and Maria . The ending is far less happy , however , for a few of the characters including Antonio , Sir Andrew , and especially Malvolio . The question is : do you see this as a flaw in Shakespeare 's work or perhaps a feat maybe cause Shakespeare was trying to deliver a more complicated message than the form of a typical comedy

might allow ? When answering this question , make certain to reference Festes song at the very end of the play and the mood that it creates . And , as usual discuss your response in detail

The beauty of being a writer is that you allow your reader to interpret your work in a variety of ways . Being a reader , we will never truly know what Shakespeare 's true intention is when he wrote the play . But , in this person 's opinion , Shakespeare was successful in this play

Twelfth Night : or , What You Will , is one of Shakespeare 's most popular plays . It is as if Shakespeare , for his last unadulterated comedy showed us through a woman the best way to love . The situation of the clever , gentile , and disguised Viola recalls Rosalind from As You Like It . Feste , the clown of Twelfth Night , is but another variation of the fool , Touchstone , in As You Like It , who "speaks wisely what wise men do foolishly " Here , as in all of Shakespeare 's romantic comedies , women get what they want and men get what they need . Even Olivia , has made the mistake of falling in love with a woman disguised as a man , gets the man she wants in the form of the disguised woman 's twin brother , Sebastian Orsino , who opens the play with his heart-sick lamentations about music and love , gets what he needs : a woman who is capable through lasting love of bringing him out of his self-indulgent melancholy into the real world , in this case , of comedy . In this sense , one might call Shakespeare quite successful since he is able to bring about very different emotions and fuses them to show the reality of life and the complexity of emotions in relationships involved in everyday life

On the other hand , Feste 's concluding song tells about the sorry tale of those who do not end up happy or satisfied with their situation in the conclusion . Along with the indictment of Malvolio are other happy endings in the form of marriages . Although these events are delightfully optimistic , Feste 's final song lessens the hope of a completely happy ending . The refrain of this song , which states "the rain it raineth every day " insinuates that at any time the happiness that now occupies the characters in Illyria could at any time be swept away . It seems that in the form of a comedy , Shakespeare still wanted to...