Nature and Love
Just as we talked about the relationship between love and nature, and the idea of "love as a plague" in Decameron, Twelfth Night explores whether love is a necessary and civilizing force or an uncontrollable, natural force. In the opening of the play, Orsino says "And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me" (1.1). Here, desire is depicted as a natural force, much as we have seen before. However, I found it interesting that desire is not something which consumes or overcomes an individual, but rather something that Orsino is "pursued" by, and thus it seems is trying to escape. On the other hand, "hounds" are hunting dogs presumably owned by nobility, so being pursued by hounds is slightly different than being pursued by, say, wolves. This nuance relates well to the play's generally more favorable treatment of love as a force which, though it may cause individual unhappiness, is ultimately acceptable and favorable. This is echoed near the end of the play, when, after recognizing her brother, Viola says "Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love." (3.3, near the end of the scene). Here, she recasts something natural and brutal-tempests- as something "fresh" and "kind." This switch in the depiction of nature occurs at the end of the play when love "plays out," that is, Viola finds Sebastian and reveals her true identity as a woman, and is able then to marry Orsino. Perhaps this transition from depicting nature as chaotic to characterizing it more positively echoes the shifting role of love from a catalyst of chaos to an enabler of actual happiness.
In several instances, Twelfth Night more explicitly references the relationship between civilization and love. In Act 1 Scene 4, Orsino instructs the disguised Viola to "Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds/ Rather than make unprofited return" (1.4.267) in her attempts to woo Olivia. Here, Orsino's passion explicitly leads to degeneration of "civil bounds," not simply for himself, but for those surrounding him. This illustrates that while love may ultimately be a positive force, it certainly leads to disorder and uncivilized conduct. This relates to nature in that humans' natural state is chaos rather than civilization, so love, as a natural force, understandably causes regression from constructed society.
Another interesting contribution to the characterization of love comes from Orsino at the end of the play. After Sebastian appears and Viola's identity is revealed, Orsino says, "One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons, A natural perspective, that is and is not!" (5.2415). Though this refers to the Sebastian/Viola resemblance, it also echoes the idea that true love comes when two bodies are occupied by a single soul (much as in Aristophanes' speech in Symposium). If this is the message, it is slightly complicated by the fact that it blurs the lines between familial love (between Sebastian and Viola) and romantic love. However, it does provide a way to understand love in the context of Viola's fluid gender in the play: if the "face, voice and habit" are what is important, then it is understandable that Orsino could so quickly go from seeing Viola disguised as a servant to loving her romantically. However, this idea that "bodies" are of lesser importance simultaneously makes it more tragic that Olivia's love for Viola must necessarily dissipate the moment Viola's gender is revealed.
Women
Much like Lysistrata, this comedy contains strong female characters, namely Viola. However, the attitudes towards women are still far from favorable. Early in the play, Aguecheek asks "What's that?" about Maria (1.3.162), referring to her as an object rather than a human. Though I think this is intended to be funny, it is nonetheless very insulting. Similarly, Belch later says to Maria after they were plotting against Malvolio, "Good night, Penthesilea" (2.3), Penthesilea being a brutal female warrior. The fact that a clever, cunning woman must be compared to a warrior illustrates a lack of acceptance, and maybe even fear, of intelligent women. On the other hand, Belch seems attracted to Maria's mind, and Aguecheek and Belch joke that they could marry her after hearing her scheme, making it unclear whether or not these characteristics are acceptable for females.
Further insight into the views of women is revealed through the difference between the female-female (Olivia-Viola) and the male-male (Antonio-Sebastian) attraction in the play. Olivia questions Cessario (Viola) about whether she is from a noble family, and is initially attracted to her delicate form and her beautiful face. On the other hand, Antonio's (arguably homoerotic) loyalty to Sebastian seems less superficial. He follows Sebastian to Orsino's court despite the fact that he knows he is in danger, saying "that danger shall seem sport (2.2). Later on, in a very sweet gesture, he gives Sebastian his purse, saying "Haply your eye shall light upon some toy" (3.3). The fact that this male-male relationship seems more genuine than the female relationship and rooted in actual love rather than just attraction casts females in a comparatively unfavorable and shallow light.
In an additional jab at women, Orsino says "For women are as roses, whose fair flower/ Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour" (2.4). Though this depicts women favorably in the sense of being "roses," this comparison alludes only to beauty and not to substance, and essentially says that when a woman's beauty withers (which happens quickly) there is nothing valuable left. Thus, despite what appears to be a progressive premise for the play, a woman acting like a man, it is nonetheless relatively misogynistic.
Fools
The role of fools is quite different in Twelfth Night than in King Lear. Because this is a comedy, the fool seems much less out of place in the context of the plot and other characters. Whereas in Lear, the Fool provides subversive commentary, in a comedy this is unnecessary because everyone already more or less seems to speak their minds. Because the whole play is more lighthearted, Feste occasionally provides a somewhat sad counterpoint to the plot line. For example, his song at the end of the play (after everyone else is happily married) talks about his own rejections (being turned away from gates), providing a dose of reality that prevents the ending from falling into corniness.
Because this is a comedy, foolery itself is far more prevalent than in Lear. Feste says, "Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines every where" (3.1), illustrating that while he may be the officially designated fool, everyone else is acting just as foolishly (if not more so). Whereas in Lear the Fool's character did highlight others' insanity and poor choices, here Feste serves to draw attention to everyone's hilariously misguided actions. In a sense, everyone plays "fool" at some point. In particular, Malvolio becomes a secondary fool after Maria tricks him into acting so bizarrely. However, while Feste gets away with his madness because it is his job, Malvolio is imprisoned. Again, in this case foolery provides a reminder about the role of madness in the world: though everyone is acting somewhat madly in the play, Malvolio reminds us that in fact this cannot work in society.
While in Lear, the fool provides insight while everyone else lacks it, Feste is more directly recognized for his perceptiveness. Viola says, "And to do that well craves a kind of wit: He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time" (3.1). Perhaps being slightly mad themselves, whether crazed by love, trapped in another gender, or so on, enables the characters to understand the importance and value of the actual fool.
Other interesting things I noticed
-Perspectives about mourning and death: Feste says, "The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven." (1.5.361). Feste points out that in the living world, it is not our job to be concerned with those who are dead. For Olivia, this inappropriate consideration of death interferes with what should and does consume the living world: love. By saying that considering those are dead is foolish, Feste also implies the pointlessness of seeking glory after death and worrying about your own afterlife. Finally, it seems we have moved totally beyond kleos!
-Class Mobility: When Malvolio gets the letter allegedly from Olivia, he imagines what it would be like to be ruler, "I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my familiar smile with an austere regard of control" (2.5). The absurdity and hilarity of this scene in which Malvolio acts as a king illustrates both the extent to which lower classes are looked down upon, and the impossibility of actually climbing the social latter, even by marrying into wealthier class.
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