※ [本文转录自 Theatre 看板 #1C_vTrZl ] 作者: lance0904 (黄川) 看板: Theatre 标题: [心得] Twelfth Night: One Mistaken Identity Case 时间: Wed Dec 8 22:34:24 2010 William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night is famous for its gender- reversing plots, which bring unimaginable chaos and amusing effect. In the play, the heroine Viola is dressed up like a man and uses a pseudonym, Cesario, as a new identity to live independently after a shipwreck. She is accepted as a servant by Duke Orsino, who is pining for a young lady, Olivia. Since Cesario's charming character, Orsino and the servant gradually become close; then, he shares his trouble on love affection with the countess. The way Cesario sharing with Orsino's burden is going to woo the lady in stead of the Duke, because Orsino thinks Cesario is quite a charmer and can take the wooing errand excellently. In fact, the latter outcome proves the handsome servant doing too well, and make Olivia strongly love Cesario. However, Cesario can not accept Olivia's love for he is she, and she herself has affection on her master Orsino. The other mistaken identity case happened in the latter plots make the play more complex. For example, Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, is alive actually, and is recognized as Cesario by Olivia. Then the whole play becomes a mistaken identity case intertwined with another mistaken identity case. Superficially, the whole play is just one carefully designed comedy. And it also coordinates with the social background of the age. The "twelfth night" can be referenced to the twelfth night after Christmas Eve, and during the period, people will join a festival, which is dominated by Lord of Misrule. Then the original social order is turned upside down that the high become low and vice versa. The setting of the play Twelfth Night corresponds to the tradition; this is why the mistaken identity can be the story plot. And in the end, the chaos is mended by the happy ending, just like the destined finale of the tradition of Lord of Misrule-the social order returns. Nevertheless, if you care about not only the main characters in the play, you can find there is one person who gains tragic end after the return of the order----Olivia's steward, Malvolio. In the play, Olivia's uncle and one of Olivia's pursuers Andrew conspire to insult Malvolio. And they successfully make the poor guy believes his mistress wishes to marry him and hope him wearing yellow stockings cross-gartered for pleasing her. Malvolio is strongly convinced because the others show him a faked love letter. In the latter plots scene, when Olivia sees Malvolio's bizarre deed, she considers the possibility that the guy is out of mind. Therefore, according to how people deal with a nut at that time, Malvolio is locked in a dark cellar. Even though the truth is revealed in the end of the play and Malvolio is free, he is the only one character who gets no peace in this play. If Malvolio's case is compared with others' troublesome situations, we can find that they all belong to the identity problem. To Viola, Orsino, Olivia, and Sebastian, they are involved in the mistaken identity trouble. To Malvolio, he intends to become a master by marrying his mistress, and his awkward dressing in yellow stocking is a symbol of identity change. However, Malvolio is fail and punished and the others are successful. Through the comparison, the enigma appears. I think the most possible answer is the play's sarcastic arrangement on the issue of the cover up. Apparently, one theme of the play is identity problem, and it is applied further more on the topic of how people deal with the concealed truth. To Olivia, when she discovers that Sebastian is not Cesario, who is a female like herself, she "easily" accepts the truth and marries Sebastian. To Orsino, when he discovers Cesario in fact is a lady named Viola, he abandons his further will to woo Olivia, and marries Viola. These cases are really unnatural because not only the gender identity is turnover; the concept is also turned upside down at the last moment. When it comes to Malvolio, we can find that it is because he does not will to "change" his attitude, he is upset in the end. Therefore, the story seems to reveal that the hypocritical attitude is the best resolution to mend up the misunderstanding; then, we will have "happy ending" like merry characters in the play. -- ◢ ◣ ⊙ ⊙ ── Untrodden Path: http://blog.roodo.com/s3300750 ◤ ◥ --

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