Shakespeare's Comedy of Manners

Sometimes life’s misunderstandings lead to awkward situations. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, such situations can be distressing. The city of Illyria’s social scene is unfulfilling. A heartbroken Duke, Orsino, seeks the love of a powerful countess, Olivia. But, to his great pain, she is not interested. She marvels his merits yet concedes to his faults.

I suppose him virtuous, know him noble,

Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth;

In voices well divulg’d, free, learn’d, and valiant,

[. . .] but yet I cannot love him.

(1.IV. ll 242-44; l. 246).

Meanwhile she mourns for her recently bereaved brother, retreating to her palace and ignoring any other male suitors – save one unlikely candidate. The Duke’s messenger, a woman in disguise named Viola, wins Olivia’s unwanted attention.

Playing the part of a devoted eunuch, Viola’s aims are not clear. But her part in Twelfth Night is a clear play on gender. The traditions of male-female courtship lead to a deeper misunderstanding, preventing Orsino from meeting Olivia face-to-face. Instead, a woman disguised as a man usurps his place as a potential suitor. His love loses, and the customs of social hierarchy (i.e. the messenger is a servant and therefore among the lower orders) prevents Olivia from getting up close and personal, revealing Viola to be a woman all along. Her gaze from afar tricks her into love.

The social codes of Illyria’s ruling classes drive the controversies and conflicts of Twelfth Night. The Duke’s pursuit after Olivia’s admiration is central to the play’s movement but is never full realised. It takes an outsider to point out the foolishness and comedy of Orsino’s mediated relationship. That outsider is Cicero, Olivia’s clown admired by everyone in Twelfth Night for his wit and insightful commentary. Cicero trumps both Orsino and Olivia’s intelligence in the play, proving Olivia the fool for mourning for a brother who has passed successfully into heaven (!) and demonstrating his penchant for rational arguments when the Duke's attempt to outplay him on the question of friends and enemies falters.

Indeed, Cicero is smarter than he looks. Shakespeare uses this character to introduce major themes in the play – namely the double-edged nature of language, how it can both elucidate and befuddle. Later Cicero claims that is not Olivia’s fool, ‘but her corrupter of words’ (3.I. ll 33-4). In a social world where none of the characters seem to get their exact meaning across, Cicero emerges as a voice of reason. Language has the potential to confuse, and he is hyper-aware of this potential, stating that ‘word are very rascals since bonds disgrac’d them’ (ibid. l. 19). Both the Duke and Olivia shy away from their peers and become so wrapped up in their own worlds that words coming their way never seem to have the impact they deserve.

Twelfth Night’s wayward conclusion (i.e. the play ends with each character deciding that they love someone else) seems to emphasise a sense of un-fulfillment. The sophistication of both households belonging to the Duke and Olivia, their dedication to upper class customs, prevent the characters from getting what they really want in this comedy of manners.