Twelfth Night

About the book

Separated from her twin brother, Viola arrives in Illyria and enters Duke Orsino's service disguised as a young man. Carrying his messages to Olivia places her within a triangle of desires that none of its participants fully understands. Around this central confusion, Olivia's household generates another plot through drinking, jokes, ambition, and a forged letter directed at the steward Malvolio. Shakespeare brings lyrical longing into contact with boisterous comedy and a more uncomfortable pleasure in humiliation. Songs and verbal contests keep testing how far people know themselves when they speak about love. The play's mistaken identities offer practical problems as well as theatrical delight, asking what recognition would require in a world where clothing, social wishes, and persuasive language can all make appearances unreliable.

• Identity and disguise
• Desire
• Festivity and cruelty

Why read it

For a comedy in which romantic uncertainty, musical melancholy, and household mischief continually complicate one another.

Stage play · English text