Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Deception, Disguise, and Performance - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Malvolio enters and berates Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew for drinking in Olivia's home. After Malvolio leaves, Maria tells them that she has discovered a way to trick him. She will mimic Olivia's handwriting and write Malvolio a love letter. Sir Toby is thrilled by this plot, and Maria responds with this line. She confirms the layout of the prank, by agreeing that her "horse" or "idea" is exactly of the kind ("color") Sir Toby is probably imagining. This moment brings reveals how deception and disguise can be used against an individual, to hurt instead of the help. The prank provides an important counterpoint to the disguises already happening in the play, i.e. Viola as Cesario.
- - - - Viola has disguised herself as a young pageboy named Cesario, and now resides in Orsino's court. Orsino has begun to rely on Cesario for advice and information on Olivia. He asks her to go to Olivia's home and woo her for him using any means necessary. In this moment Orsino tells Cesario that she may be able to persuade Olivia because she resembles and sounds like a woman, suggesting that Olivia may be more comfortable in the presence of a prepubescent boy than Orsino himself. Here Shakespeare notes the confusing nature of Viola's disguise and how it plays to the advantage of Orsino. Olivia has sworn off the presence of men, so Orsino uses the femininity of Cesario (Viola) to his advantage. There is also a sense of freedom that comes for Viola-as-Cesario. As a man she can walk the court freely and be independent, and she can also have a friendship with Orsino as well as be his confidant. This allows her to see Orsino as he truly is from the start; something she never would have been able to do as a young woman.
- - - - Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive
      - If you will lead these graces to the grave
      - And leave the world no copy.
    - - Make me a willow cabin at your gate
      - And call upon my soul within the house;
      - Write loyal cantons of contemned love
      - And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
      - Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
      - And make the babbling gossip of the air
      - Cry out 'Olivia!' O, You should not rest
      - Between the elements of air and earth
      - But you should pity me.
- - - - Let still the woman take
      - An elder than herself: so wears she to him,
      - So sways she level in her husband's heart:
      - For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
      - Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
      - More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
      - Than women's are.
  - - - My father had a daughter loved a man,
      - As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
      - I should your lordship.
      - Orsino: And what's her history?
      - Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
      - But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
      - Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
      - And with a green and yellow melancholy
      - She sat like patience on a monument,
      - Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
- - - - Because of his self-righteous behavior towards the other servants, Maria decides to play a prank on Malvolio. She writes a love letter to him from an anonymous lover, but does so in Olivia's handwriting, and she riddles the letter with obvious clues that point toward Olivia as the author. Here Malvolio finds the letter, and Maria and the other servants hide in a tree to watch him read it. Fabian says then says this line in hiding, calling Malvolio a "woodcock." During Shakespeare's time the woodcock was known to be a particularly stupid breed of bird, and easy to catch in a "gin" or trap. Thus by calling him this, he is making fun of Malvolio's ignorance and stupidity. As with all disguises in Twelfth NIght, whether shielding themselves behind a tree or behind a letter, they help characters tell each other what they really feel and think.
  - - - In an effort to embarass Malvolio, Maria writes a letter in Olivia's handwriting, telling him that she is in love with him. The letter is only signed with what seems to be the letters of an initial. Here, Malvolio reads lines of the letter aloud, which he will later deconstruct, in order to find out if it was Olivia that wrote it. This line is the first major hint that it could be Olivia. The person who wrote the letter both commands and loves the same person, suggesting that it is a master who loves her servant (Malvolio).
        The love letter is a symbol of the performative nature of love seen throughout Twelfth Night. Characters feel that the only way to properly share their love or express it is through extreme and over-the-top behavior, whether that be song, poems, laments, or letters. So, while this letter comes at a surprise for Malvolio, he is not put off or shocked that someone would express their love in this way. This is also another moment of deception in the play, as Maria uses deception as a mechanism to embarrass and punish Malvolio for his mistreatment of other servants and his self-righteousness.
    - - Malvolio reads the love letter that he thinks is from Olivia, as Maria, its true author, hides in a tree with Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, watching Malvolio embarrass himself. This iconic quote happens toward the end of the letter as an attempt to reveal who the author could be. Malvolio interprets this section to mean that he is one who could "achieve" greatness by marrying the noble-born Olivia (one who was "born great"). Thus the joke being played on Malvolio isn't just getting him to think someone loves him, but also getting him to attempt to rise above his station—flattering his arrogance and sense of superiority. Maria is trying to lift Malvolio up in order to ultimately persuade him to embarrass himself in front of the whole court and Olivia herself. Here we see both the power of words and just how far the performance of love can go in Twelfth Night. Malvolio becomes smitten by his secret admirer simply from her hyperbolic and romantic words.
- - - - Viola, dressed as Cesario, arrives at Olivia's home to speak to her on behalf of Orsino once again. When she arrives she meets Feste, who mocks Orsino's love for Olivia. After he exits, Viola says this line. Here, Viola comments on Feste's performance as a fool. She sees his behavior as an act, and she explains that only wise and witty people can be true "fools," as they see things that others can't see, and they are intuitive and insightful. Thus, the fools are very much un-foolish, quite possibly making them the wisest people in the court (as is often the case in Shakespeare). Shakespeare suggests in this moment that the disguises we put on, i.e. the wise man as the fool, or Viola dressed as Cesario, allow us to have the freedom to both see and tell (or in Feste's case comment on) the truth.
- - - - Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Fabian have entered the scene, all pretending to be concerned about Malvolio's state of mind (although they all know that he has in fact become the subject of a cruel joke). They express their concerns and Malvolio responds with this quote, telling them that they don't understand what he is going through. This shows that Malvolio is still as rude and arrogant as he was at the beginning of the play, and now even more so because of his sense of confidence in Olivia's love, and the letter's instructions to look down upon and criticize the other servants. The word "element" denotes social class, and as it is used here, Malvolio suggests that the other staff members are shallow and lazy, and that he is above them in both social and intellectual rank. The irony is that while he is behaving this way, he has also succumbed to Maria's trick and is currently dressed outrageously in his yellow stockings. He looks like a fool, and yet lectures the other servants on their own foolishness.
  - - - fter Malvolio tells the other servants that he is not of their "element," or is now above them in social class because he is supposedly worthy of Olivia's love, Fabian says this quote. Here he suggests that if this scene were a performance it would likely be considered fiction, as it is too ironic and unrealistic. Malvolio is chastising his fellow servants for being low class and stupid while he is dressed in the ridiculous clothing that the letter requested him to wear.
        Once again, performance becomes an important theme in this moment. Many of the characters in Twelfth Nightfeel the need to perform or hyperbolize their emotions. In this case, Malvolio is so convinced that Olivia plans to marry him (thus making him a nobleman) that he already starts acting arrogant and overconfident towards other. He has gone mad with love and the love of power, and has thus lost all sense of rationality. His story at this point thus seems too fictional for the stage—a throwaway comment that is also Shakespeare commenting on his own work in a slyly ironic way.
- - - - Why have you suffered me to be imprisoned,
      - Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest,
      - And made the most notorious geck and gull
      - That e'er invention played on? Tell me why.