In Shakespeares gender comedic farce Twelfth Night, the character that undergoes the deepest transformation throughout the storyline would be the straitlaced and priggish steward of Lady Olivias household, Malvolio. In the beginning of the play, Malvolio comes off as an insignificant minor character, not holding much depth; however as the play progresses, Malvolio begins to transform into a more complex and fascinating character that connects with the audience on numerous levels that the other characters do not seem to create with the reader. Additionally, the transformation of Malvolio from a piteous and faithful servant to a blithering, love-stricken idiot seems to hold as an amusing sub-plot to the main focus of the play; the Duke/Olivia/Viola love triangle. Despite the characters rise and downfall during the play, Malvolio provides an amusing and eccentric outlook to love and infatuation that is reminiscent to our own society.
Shakespeare transformed the character of Malvolio into several different personas as the play progresses, displaying the different emotional and mental levels within the character. Twelfth Night begins with introducing Malvolio as a very simple person- a puritan, a stiff and proper servant who likes nothing better than to spoil other peoples fun. He has a poor opinion of drinking, singing, and recreational amusement, which becomes annoying and highly irritating to some characters.
My masters, are you mad? Or what are you/ Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty but to gabble/ like tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an alehouse/ of my ladys house that ye speak out your coziers/ Catches without any mitigation or remorse of voice?/ Is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you? (2.3 lines 82-87).
Malvolio is the epitome of a party pooper in this scene; however he seems to judge and persecute these individuals publicly to somehow gain acceptance in Olivias eyes. In addition, the conversations between the trio of friends at the bar quietly suggests that Malvolio has a deep hidden desire that Lady Olivia will love and marry him, improving his social rank greatly. Unfortunately, Malvolios priggishness and haughty attitude earns him the enmity of the zany and drunken Sir Toby, his friend Sir Andrew, and bar maiden Maria. With the combination of Malvolios piteous ways and his hidden obsession with Lady Olivia, the trio of friends quickly transform Malvolio into their pawn in a complex romantic ruse that continues for the remainder of the play.
After Malvolio discovers the forged letter from Olivia, which is actually penned by Maria, it seems to offer some glimmer of hope to his hidden ambitions, causing Malvolio to undergo his first transformation in the play. Malvolio changes from a stiff and wooden embodiment of priggish propriety into a personification of the power of self-delusion.
Tis by fortune, all is fortune/ Maria once told me she did affect me/ and I have heard herself come thus near/ that she would fancy/ it should be one of my complexion/ Besides she used me with a more exalted respect than anyone else that follows her/ what should I think ont? (2.5 lines 21-26).
Within this scene, the audience can see that Malvolio exhibits contrasting attributes to his puritan philosophies. He makes great effort to pride himself on his physical appearance, which he seems to assume is one to be admired, as well as placing himself on a pedestal above all but his sweet Olivia, through purposely using language above his station, seemingly memorized from books. These contrasting views foreshadow the beginning transformation of Malvolios character within the play.
The letter written by Maria in her ladys hand refers subliminally to each of Malvolios character weaknesses and thus ensures that he is fooled by its meanings. His vanity and value of appearance are both fed by the order to wear yellow stockingsever cross gartered, while his lack of humor and puritan philosophies are tormented by the request for continuous smiles which apparently become him well. The romantic ruse orchestrated by Maria and her friendly knights became a catalyst for Malvolio to abandon his former ways of proper conduct and behave like an utter fool; the same type of fool he has so preached and pitted against. Simply through succumbing to such a prank and carrying out the orders of the letter, Malvolio is being punished to an appropriate extent. Through believing and acting on them shows him to be obtuse, gullible, and ironically, lacking in the superiority of mind that Malvolio so adamantly believes he possesses.
In the scenes where Malvolio is acting out the requests from the forged letter, Malvolio comes off as ridiculous as he capers under in the yellow stockings and crossed garters that he thinks will please Olivia greatly, while at the same time he approaches the audience as being pitiable. He may deserve the humiliation, but there is an uncomfortable universality to his experience. Malvolios misfortune is a cautionary tale of ambition overcoming good sense and the audience winces at the way he adapts every event- including Olivias confused assumption that he must be mad- to fit his rosy picture of his glorious future as a nobleman. Malvolio becomes joyful in a pursuit of a false dream, which shadows his former values of dignity, decency, decorum, and good order when he believes that he has a chance with his beloved Olivia.
Our pity for Malvolio only increases when the vindictive Maria and Sir Toby confine him into a dark room in the last scenes of the play. As he desperately protests that he is not mad, Malvolio begins to seem more of a victim than a victimizer; a second transformation. It is as if the unfortunate steward, as the embodiment of order and sobriety, must be sacrificed so that the rest of the characters can indulge in the hearty spirit that suffuses the whole play. As he is being sacrificed, Malvolio begins to earn our respect as a character and person because there is a kin of nobility, however limited, in the way that the deluded steward stubbornly clings to his sanity, even in the face of Festes insistence that he is mad. Malvolio remains true to himself, despite everything; he knows that he is sane and he will not allow anything to destroy this knowledge.
The third and final transformation of Malvolio within the play is no way better than the original configuration of the character. By the end of the Twelfth Night, Malvolio suffers a great injustice at the hands of his tormentors and is notoriously abused beyond the brink of mere teasing. He does not deserve his latter treatment, as his only crime and infliction towards the other characters was his undesirable character and the fact that he wronged his peers with words alone. Ironically, after having been released from his cell, it become clear that his ways have not improved in the slightest and that he is now filled with resentment for his abusers, as well as for Olivia. Malvolio departs at the end, promising to be revenged on the whole pack of them. No rewards are gained and no lessons learned from his great unnecessary suffering. His exit strikes a jarring note in an otherwise joyful comedy. Malvolio has no real place in the anarchic world of Twelfth Night, except to suggest that, even in the best of worlds, someone must suffer while everyone else is happy.
In conclusion, the character of Malvolio is immediately affected by the implications of his name; meaning literally I mean ill will. His personage is implied directly to be one of negativity and somewhat disagreeable nature, which is continued and supported throughout the play, leading to his downfall and mockery; both initially seem to be thoroughly deserved, due to his numerous defects of personality. In addition, his personality is the reasoning behind his many transformations throughout the play because his lifestyle and values were so easily corrupted and modeled to fit the ruse orchestrated by Malvolios foes. Despite his many transformations and ultimate downfall, Malvolio was an intricate part of the play Twelfth Night and his character served as a message to its audience; wherever there is happiness, there is ultimately suffering.
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