full title
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
author
William Shakespeare
type of work
Play
genre
Comedy
language
English
time and place written
Between 1600 and 1602,
England
date of first publication
1623, in the First Folio
publisher
Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount
tone
Light, cheerful, comic; occasionally frantic and melodramatic, especially
in the speeches of Orsino and Olivia
tense
Present (the entire story is told through dialogue)
setting (time)
Unknown
setting (place)
The mythical land of Illyria (Illyria is a real place,
corresponding to the coast of present-day Albania—but Twelfth
Night is clearly set in a fictional kingdom rather than
a real one)
protagonist
Viola
major conflict
Viola is in love with Orsino, who is in love with Olivia,
who is in love with Viola’s male disguise, Cesario. This love triangle
is complicated by the fact that neither Orsino nor Olivia knows that
Viola is really a woman.
rising action
The mounting confusion, mistaken identities, and professions
of love leading up to Act V
climax
Sebastian and Viola are reunited, and everyone realizes
that Viola is really a woman
falling action
Viola prepares to marry Orsino; Malvolio is freed and
vows revenge; everyone else goes off to celebrate
themes
Love as a cause of suffering; the uncertainty of gender;
the folly of ambition
motifs
Letters, messages, and tokens; madness; disguises; mistaken identity
symbols
Olivia’s gifts; the darkness of Malvolio’s prison;
changes of clothing
foreshadowing
The role of love and use of disguises; patient love vs. fickle love; arrival of Sebastian, mistaken identities, and the reunification of the twins.
