Melancholy in Twelfth Night

wholeness-twelfth iniquity is the merriest of Shakespe bes ro valet de chambretic passdies, it is overly the saddest. The Christian associations of the championship suggests the carpe diem theme which runs finished the black market. Epiphany, according to Christian mythology, is the time when the shepherds recognized the birth of Christ. The scatter of epiphany is the blend in festival of the Christmas season, after which expiration takes oer. This cycle of vivification is an extension of the antediluvian patriarch pagan fertility rituals. The biliousness is standardized in Keatss To Autumn, Hedge-crickets let the cat out of the bag and straightway with a treble wacky The red-breast whistles from a garden-croftAnd gathering sw every last(predicate)ows twitter in the skies. Only, Keats finds reassurance in the fact that sw in entirely in allows will return, tho Shakespe argon is concerned with the cessation of animateness which looms over the whole sportswoman. H ere the recognition is of the transience of life, unlike in Cymbe gillyflower whither the rediscovery of Perdita maps the rediscovery of nonp arils soul. Significantly, Twelfth iniquity is the last of the romantic comedies. After this Shakespe atomic number 18 moves on to the tragedies and the problem prevails this is the last play where joy is non alloy with problems of evil and anti-life.Everything that is subject to time is valueless, this was the chivalric conception. thence during the middle ages all human activity was directed towards God. Man was effrontery little importance. wherefore with Renaissance came neertheless undiscovered knowledge. The pertly astronomical discoveries allowed man to explore the universe independent of the scriptures. With this was innate(p) mans pride in being man in the baneful universe. And thus man became conscious of the saucer and transience of life. This removed the concept of life everlasting from the framework of eternity. This introduced the prominence of mortality. The saltation of death was now to a greater extent fe atomic number 18d than ever. overbold questions more or less human existence took form. drollery seeks to find answers, a meaning of life yet Shakespeare deports a frail feeble background to his actions. wizard of the main governing thoughts in Twelfth Night is the slightness of life. This is the play of youthfulness, intimately all the reference works are young, and this generates the affliction. Shakespeare asks all to enjoy fleeting life, remove the most of the twelve daylights, scorning the Malvolios.A pattern emerges from all this lot which gives life some meaning. Twelfth Night, despite all its laughter, seems to play upon the keys of loss, grief and deep bewilderment, which sounds through the gentle watcher of the romance convention and the festive humour. The bonded family language father, br other(a), sister signifies absence, loss of security and a longin g. It is this thought of irreparable loss, and the mild panic that all this efficiency prove to be a dream provides the poignant dream-like impression which pervades the play.The loss is internal as tumesce as external. The recognition of unmatchables self is a dominant theme, and almost all theatrical roles are haunted by this and hunt for their selves as well as their missed grapples. Orsinos languorously unquenchable desire for hand over sex and food of hit the hay in the first scene presents a parodic statement of the omnipresent sense of want. The inquisition pun serves to express the search which is already begun. Nevertheless, Orsinos linguistic process set the pique of the play, which, even through all the caterwauling of the kitchen group, never fades. Orsino saysThat strain again, it had a dying diminution O, it came oer my ear like the dessert sound That breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour Orsinos passion is soon satiated. The m edicine loses its appeal and his adore for love becomes evident. Even the hunting date takes on contemporary significance Diana becomes the cutting truth which makes Acteon wild. This is a parody of Petrarchan conceits and it is fitly addicted to Orsino, who, like all in Illyria, is in a state of illusion. sustain to Platos Symposium love is a hole, an absence longing to be filled.So Twelfth Night is a play of classn Orsino for Olivia, Olivia for genus genus genus Viola, Viola for Orsino, and comically Sir Andrew and Malvolio for Olivia. This emphasis on pining invokes the classical myth of Narcissus and Echo, and makes a narcissistic triad of self enclosed loneliness. all(prenominal) of them playing simultaneously Narcissus and Echo with treasure to others. They seek their own reflections in the others face and own ricochet in the others voice. plainly more melancholy than this love- herb of grace is the insularity of love ones by real or apparent death. This again can be traced to the sense of romantic lack as somatic in this state of primary loss.Nearly all characters stockpile traces of such loss from the father- sidekick loss which provides similar traumatic experiences for Viola and Olivia, trim down to the farcical yet nostalgic ecphonesis of Sir Andrew I was adored once, too. While Violas sorrow is genuine, Olivias ban to come up her face veiled for cardinal years seems more like a ploy to ward off Orsinos unwanted advances. Otherwise her whole doings is comically excessive in authority of being melancholy. Seven years in black violates the Elizabethan mourning etiquette which positivist a period of one year for a brother.Olivia closely parallels Orsino both in her reclusiveness more alleged than borne out and as a willing victim of self-examining melancholia. Olivias un establishd brother fades from the draw near of the play. only(prenominal) if his spirit continues to haunt. For no in the beginning has the theme of brother loss been sounded in the minor key than it recurs in the major. The eye-off terminale seawater of tears gives way to the sea. Olivias brother fades into Violas. In a bid greatly concerned with wholeness of identity, the agree heroines are each presented as halves of a pairing, cloven away from the male counterpart with whom she started life.In Jungian terms, when Viola assumes the male disguise, it is as if she recapitulates in her own person the lost other, dressing exactly like Sebastian, and as if Olivia overly locates her own in Viola. herein lies the fact that both of them are in an illusory solid ground, it is only the presence of Sebastian which allows a happy resolution, otherwise the imminent outcome was definitely tragic. There might be an autobiographical element in this brother-sister separation theme. Shakespeare himself was the father of boy-girl twins of whom the boy died in advance the composition of this play.The twins were eleven and half(prenomina l) years old when death isolated them. Shakespeare must have mat at heart the wistful sadness in the eyes of Judith the surviving child, which he invest to viola. Twelfth Night contains a calm, attractive elegy, and a myth of rebirth. It feigns that Hamnet, the boy twin, is non dead, further lingers in the unknown, washed up on the shores of Illyria, the land of illusion and lyricism. express adjust, imagination, O prove true This is non only Violas, but also Shakespeares heartfelt cry. Thus Violas sadness resounds with a new meaning. Her exclamation at her entry is,And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. Her brother comes back to her, but Hamnet does not. Unlike Sebastian, Viola controls herself and centres her thoughts on spry problems. Her wit allows her to obtain a cling to in an alien and unfriendly manhood. But her wit also has a get through of the late-ripening in keeping with the autumnal note of the play. And even in her sorrow she can s ympathise with others. She understands Olivias plots instanter in place of scorn, shows tender understanding, she says, Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we, For such as we are made of, such we be.Her identification with Olivia is subdue in more ways than one not only both of them are lovesick, but also they long for a brother figure. But Violas pathos is more touching. She has to bear messages to her foe from the man she loves. This she does without a murmur and with all sincerity. Her praise of Orsino comes straight from her heart. She is pained to the extreme, and almost fractures herself when Orsino calls women less faithful and lacking in depth of emotion. She tells the Duke My father had a little girl lovd a man, As it might be perhaps, were I a cleaning lady, I should your lordship.Thus secretly professing her love. But her conquer agoneny is felt when she tells Orsino the supposed refinement of her non-existent sisters love whose score was, she tells Orsino, A bl ank, my lord she never told her love For she never expects to have Orsino and she dares not draw a bead on to the impossible. As when her brothers name is mentioned she fears to hope for the best. Shakespeare saves the play from ending in total disaster by carry in Sebastian and thus allowing Viola to have a happy end, in an meat with Orsino. In the first scene orsino begins with an resource of flowers.And the scene ends with flowers Away before me to refreshing beds of flowers Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers. The ascertain of flowers comes again and again throughout the play. Flowers symbolise transience momentary truelove, something that does not last. So Feste tells Olivia As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so beautys a flower. Re estimateing her that times are never always bad, thus to keep on mourning for something that is past is to excess precious time and no one has world plenty and time. Orsino talks about womans beauty, asking Cesario to fleet in love with some woman younger than he,For women are as roses, whose elegant flower Being once displayd, doth pass off that very hour. Viola has to agree. She admits that death comes when one has just reached perfection. Speaking not only for women but for all man variety. The flower imagery stresses the carpe-diem theme of the play cease the day before it ends. This theme is also propagated through the music of the play. In Twelfth Night music plays a vital role, establishing the eminence of the play. Through music the emotive grounding of human existence is emphasised, which is to be felt rather than perceived cerebrally.There is rare music in Viola. She does not sing, but her words carry poetic inspiration. She echoes Shakespeares sonnets when she tells Olivia Lady, you are the cruellst she alive If you will lead these graces to the rotund And leave the world no copy. interchangeable the early married couple sonnets the theme here is of beauty perpetuated through marriage. But the character who is full of music and is truly melancholy, though not in his attitude or expression, is Feste. Feste is the first true fool of Shakespeares plays. One of the functions of the clown is to sing. He sings to Toby and AndrewWhat is love? Tis not hereafter, Present mirth hath present laughter Whats to come is still unsure. In delay there lies no plenty, Then come kiss me sweet and twenty dollar bill Youths a fill will not endure. The fragility of youth and shadow of death this is in line with the plays theme and mood and also Festes character. His other call, which he sings to please Orsino, is equally sad, Come away, come away death, And in sad cypress tree let me be laid. Fie away, fie away breath, I am slain by a fair cruel maid. This breed continues to reveal Festes own bleak approaching.He is outdoor(a) the action, an objective onlooker. There is no involvement. He is poor, has no security. He begs to acquire money. For a man of his intellectual capacities this must be disgusting. He has no past, no future and no considerable present. He is a relic of the past, from Olivias fathers time. He is constantly threatened with issue which is as bad as wall hanging for him. But he lets summer bear it out. Only his mental strain betray his state. Thus in his songs the thought of hereafter is subordinated. In the final scene everyone leaves except Feste, who stays to give the audience a song.A song in which he is transformed from the character to the actor. His final song marks the ending of the play, the ending of the twelfth night. Deaths reign starts from the next day. Festes song is nostalgic, he recalls when folly was not as unacceptable or threatening. He also gives a misanthropic view of marriage as an unwanted responsibility. This casts an oblique aspect on the centrality of marriage in the play as a symbol of concord and resolution. A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, But thats all o ne, our play is done, And well strive to please you everyday. Thats all one signifies from one sentiment that since nothing is really important enough to worry about, pleasure and folly are the only activities worth undertaking. From another, similar, perspective the dialect can be read as hopeless, despairing resignation, pleasure and folly are doomed attempts to escape from an intolerable intellect of futility. In our play is done, it is more about the innocent activities than about the play itself. It is a nostalgic recognition of the dribble innocence state. Festes song in all likelihood takes place on a dark, empty, motionless stage, encapsulating Festes loneliness.His life is really as empty. He is as much an castaway as Malvolio, only he is not embittered. He is the artist. Isolated, presenting life, but not be to it. His song is a very cynical comment on human existence. To Feste the world does seem like a drool Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. The song is a reminder of the theme of the play youth and its subjection to time. The question which arises is whether this kind of existence is worth the strife. With this question the mantle descends on Shakespeares romantic world.The final song, which brings together all the melancholy passages in the play, leaves a yearning in the subscribers mind. A tinge of sadness which fills the heart and leaves a deep impression, is given to the whole play. This song marks a turning point in the world of Shakespearean drama. The playful attitude is done, now it is time for serious businesses of life, which involves the greatest of calamities. maybe at the moment Shakespeare himself identified with Feste. He who even with his immeasurable height of mind had to be the publics fool and servant. Perhaps for an idle moment he wondered, if all this is worth the complications or not.