It was my senior year of high school when my English professor asked us to watch the infamous Shakespeare play Twelfth Night. At the time, I didn’t realize that the play had such obvious doppelgangers and doubles, but as I thought about ideas for my blog, this play struck me with the use of twins.
Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy that focuses on a pair of twins who have been separated after a shipwreck. Viola, the twin sister, takes on the identity of a boy, Cesario, to become Duke Orsino’s servant. Olivia, a noble lady, falls for Cesario, who is actually Viola. But unfortunately, Viola has fallen for Orsino – who thinks that his servant is a man. Orsino is in love with Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for him, but Olivia ends up falling in love with Viola. The major climax point, in both romance and comedy, is that neither Orsino or Olivia know that Viola is a woman. With this identity struggle, Viola falls into many problems as the suitors of Olivia feel like Viola (Cesario) is not a suitable match for her – Viola ends up dueling someone.
Meanwhile, Sebastian, the twin brother washes up on the same spot as his twin sister. Everyone begins to mistake Sebastian for Viola (Cesario) and many mishaps occur. The play continues on with being a romantic comedy as these characters dance around each other’s identities and become as confused as we, the audience, become.
Finally, after all the confusion, Viola finally reveals herself as a woman and marries Duke Orsino, while Sebastian falls in love with Olivia. The idea of doubles was not within oneself, but rather, in different forms of love.
I have to say that I was a little disappointed that Olivia fell in love with Sebastian so quickly just because of the similar appearance he shares with his twin sister. But I shouldn’t be surprised because Shakesphere’s plays had cast men as all the characters, even as women. So I guess the modern version of this play had to stick to the original casting rules too.
Thank you so much for reading this week’s blog post! I am really excited for next week!
See you all soon!