THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 205
Viola laments that it has become
“too hard a knot for me t’untie”
(2.2.41). But we have just seen
exactly how the knot will be
loosened, for Viola’s twin Sebastian
has turned up, not drowned after
all. While Viola’s genuine distress
becomes ever more poignant, the
play becomes a comedy for us,
because we know how it will all
work out. We laugh as Sebastian is
mistaken for Cesario and Cesario for
Sebastian, causing comic confusion.
All seems about to turn dark,
however, when Olivia, soon after
marrying Sebastian believing him
to be Cesario, comes to Orsino—
only to find that Cesario, in what
seems a terrible betrayal, denies
all knowledge of the wedding
and pledges allegiance to the
baffled Orsino. Within moments,
all is revealed as Sebastian
and Cesario appear together, and
everyone stands in wonder as their
remarkable likeness appears: “One
face, one voice, one habit, and two
persons, / A natural perspective,
that is and is not” (5.1.213–214).
The solution is simple. Olivia
stays married to Sebastian, and
Viola can reveal herself as a woman
and marry her love Orsino. It is
neat, but the ambiguities of gender
haven’t quite vanished. As
Sebastian says to Olivia, “You are
betrothed to a maid and a man”
(5.1.261), while as Orsino and Viola
leave the stage together at the end
of the play to be married, Viola is
still dressed as a boy, described by
Orsino as his “master’s mistress.”Gender bending
It is perhaps not surprising that
many critics have explored Tw e l f t h
Night for homoeroticism. Indeed,
because Sebastian and Antonio
express their love for each other
so ardently, many modern theater
productions have played theirs as
a homosexual relationship, and
looked for similar undertones in
Olivia’s relationship with Cesario.
Yet notions of sexuality were
different in Shakespeare’s time.
Close relationships between two
men could be considered the ideal
of friendship. Shakespeare may be
exploring our double nature: the
elements of “man” and “woman” in
all of us. As Orsino says: “Cesario,
come—/ For so you shall be while you
are a man; / But when in other habits
you are seen, / Orsino’s mistress, and
his fancy’s queen” (5.1.381–384). The
play’s subtitle, “What You Will,” may
be a message for us all to embrace
love wherever we may find it. ■One face, one voice,
one habit, and two persons,
A natural perspective,
that is and is not.
Orsino
Act 5, Scene 1Malvolio
Malvolio is a dark shadow
version of the story of Twelfth
Night, his name a twisted part
anagram of both Olivia and
Viola’s names, meaning in
Italian “evil” (mal) and “I
desire” (volio). Malvolio’s inner
world turns ever bleaker as
the outer world wakes up to
pleasure, and this puritan who
believes everyone else is foolish
is shown to be the real fool.
Sir Toby, Maria, and their
friends conspire to trick
Malvolio into believing that
Olivia is in love with him—
and he, pompous and self-
deluding, all too easily falls
prey to their games. They fool
this somber puritan into
dressing up in garish jesterlike
clothes (including yellow cross
garters) and smiling inanely
at Olivia, who employed him
because of his seriousness.
He foolishly thinks the letter’s
words, “Some are born great,
some achieve greatness, and
some have greatness thrust
upon ’em” (2.5.140–141) must
be for him. Yet the joke can
begin to seem cruel—and in
his final humiliation, when the
trick is exposed, we almost
sympathize with his parting
words, “I’ll be revenged on the
whole pack of you” (5.1.374).The 2006 film She’s the Man moved
the action to an American school called
Illyria. Viola enters her brother’s school
pretending to be male in order to play
with the boys’ soccer team.