Shakespeare Novels Twelfth Night English Literature Essay

One of Shakespeare novels, Twelfth Night indicates a great theme and biggest role in the novel which is deception. There are many characters in the novel that suffer from deception, Three example, Viola who she disguises as a man for her own benefits, also Malvolio deceiving himself, and last but not least Duke Orsino suffers by believing that he loves the countess Olivia. Deception leads to misery, while enlightenment relieves suffering.

The first example of deception is the main character in Twelfth Night; Viola, whom suffers from Duke Orison’s love. Viola disguises as a man for the benefit of her survival. She dresses and acts like a man, and goes by the name Cesario. “I’ll do my best To woo your lady. Yet, a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” [TN. I .iv.40-42] Theses last lines which Viola says, shows us that Olivia is not just hiding her disguise from duke but also her love and affection for him, she explains that it would be a struggle for her to woo Olivia when she herself loves him. When Viola starts working for Duke Orsino, helping him woo Olivia, Viola falls in love with Orsino, while Olivia falls in love with Viola who is really Cesario. Thus, makes Viola suffer by not being able to reveal her love for the Duke, in addition to not being able to tell Olivia why she cannot love her. When the truth came out, Viola was able to be with Duke Orsino, and marry him, she did not suffer anymore for her love for Orsino. Viola’s deception and disguise causes many deceptions and confusions to people.

Another character example of deception is Malvolio, by deceiving himself mentally and physically. Although Malvolio is a servant, he strongly believes that he is in a higher social class than the other servants. “Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night Do ye make an alehouse out of my lady’s house, that ye squeak out of your cozier’s catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?” (TN. II.iii.82-89) Malvolio does not think very highly of drinking and having fun, when catching the Sir Toby, Maria and Andrew singing at night, he threatens them. his snobby attitude towards Sir Toby Blech, Maria, Sir Andrew, and Fabian, lead to them playing a horrid trick on him, to make a fool of him, here Malvolia’s deception was by the others. Making him believe that Olivia is in love with him, which gives him desires to be in an upper social class. Toby is not only rude, says Malvolio, he’s also breaking rules of social levels. Malvolio’s belief that he is in a high social class, will lead him to be in misery and never be happy with himself. When the truth comes out, and notices his self-deception, he will not be tricked or joked by anyone, and people in the household will respect him. Malvolio desires to be respected, to be taken seriously, and have control over the other characters hence, Malvolio suffers from both deception by others and self-deception

The Duke Orsino’s belief that he is in love for the countess Olivia is also another Varity of deception. This causes confusions and problems for himself and the countess Olivia. Orsino is involved because he thinks he is genuinely in love with Olivia, and worships her, even though he has never had an actual conversation with her. He sees her from far and announces ‘The noblest that I have. O, mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence. That instant was I turned into a hart’ [TN. I.i.19-23]’. In this line, which happens in the first act shows us how Orsino is a passionate for love but he does not realize that he is in love with the idea of being in love, and that Olivia is just an icon or symbol to show that. When the truth came out, Orsino was able to see Viola who has been suffering for his love, and made him realize that he did not really love Olivia has he claimed to have said earlier, he was not fooling himself or others anymore. Like Olivia, he quickly embraces the fact that Viola is a lady, and forgets all about his love for Olivia. Later on in the book, it shows the reader Orsino’s self-deception.

As stated above, lies causes trouble while the truth relieves suffering self-deception comes in many types and forms. Deception in any form or in any case is not to be messed around with, because it causes many problems and serious consequences. Shakespeare expresses those consequences through some of the main characters in the novel.