My deepest condolences and sympathy for all those who cannot find peace.
On the bright side, though, our gracious Lithum instructor has replaced Cervantes' ridiculously gargantuan Don Quixote with Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; the added bonus--it's written originally in English.
In fact, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is a comedy--a double bonus! No more dead bodies and dark portrayals of humanity's capacity for evil. If I remember correctly, we discussed in class at some point about the purpose of comedies. The Comedy, as opposed to the Tragedy, is not only described by its comic and humor, but also by its ability to produce constructive chaos.
In other words, the chaos of jests and bawdy scenes help drive the plot forward while introducing the more 'serious' themes of truth, justice, love, gender roles, and so on.
So, in Twelfth Night, I found this chaos to be centered around the theme of deception. More specifically, I found the chaos of this deception best represented in the gender confusion of Viola. She dresses like a boy and gains the trust of Count Orsino, thus forming a close relationship with the Count (and one that is faintly homoerotic). Using the guise and alias of Cesario, Viola inadvertently causes Olivia to fall in love with her/him. Finally, Viola's long lost twin, Sebastian, in an incredulous twist of events encounters Olivia, who mistakes him for Cesario. The confusion engendered by this gender inversion drives Malvolio to act unlike himself, which raises questions around the futility of human ambitions.
Of the many human ambitions, love has been a timeless pursuit and perhaps the most powerful and mind-boggling of human emotions. Malvolio, the "puritan," abandons his strict and conservative background for "dressing in cross-garter," wearing obnoxious "yellow stockings," and "smiling" manically in his comic and futile pursuit of Olivia's love. He doesn't realize that Maria deceives him by forging Olivia's handwriting, and nonetheless highlights the hilarity of the madness that love can inspire.
Orsino's abrupt and prompt decision to make Viola his mistress shows powerful sway of love even in light of her duplicity and deception. In fact, while Viola pretends to be Cesario, Orsino already treats him/her very fondly, and even says "That say thou art a man: Diana's lip | Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe | Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound, | And all is semblative a woman's part" (I. 4). Despite Viola's nifty guise, Orsino already seems to be falling in love with her. When he commands Cesario to "Unfold the passion of my love" and "Surprise her [Olivia] with the discourse of my dear faith" (I. 4), his intense passion is directed at Cesario so that Cesario could deliver such passion to Olivia; needless to say, this passionate love could subtly have been directed at the messenger Cesario/Viola herself. Count Orsino finally offers his hand to Viola at the play's conclusion, but his promptness reveals that he is not merely in love with Olivia, but perhaps seeks love for its own sake--love as its own end. Viola's deception and attempt at veiling her identity, then, appears futile and fruitless in comparison to the wild and uncontrollable force of love.
Moreover there is Feste the Fool, whose official purpose is to trick and deceive his audience, which hopefully elicits laughter. In a later part, Feste adds a new dimension to his role as lead Deceptor by dressing as Sir Topas the curate to meet with the imprisoned Malvolio, and to cure him of his madness. A strange double inversion is created when Feste, who is officially supposed to be foolish, assumes the persona of a serious member of the clergy.
These are just a few points about the narrative play between the themes of deception and love. They are common human themes, and common narrative themes, but I hope some of these ideas will be of interest and insight to you.
[Malvolio gets pwned]
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