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Twelfth Night, Or, What You Will (Dover Thrift Editions) By William Shakespeare ( Dover Publications )
Release Date: 1997-01-10
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Product Description
Delightfully comic tale of mistaken identities revolves around the physical likeness between Sebastian and his twin sister Viola, each of whom, when separated after a shipwreck, believes the other to be dead. Filled with superb comedy, this entertaining masterpiece remains one of Shakespeare’s most popular and performed comedies.
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 User-friendly edition
Includes photos from multiple productions. Eye-friendly type-face. Plenty of room for notes. Useful suggestions for classroom involvement.
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No surprises here... ( inkredibles )
What can I say? I love Shakespeare! Cliff's Complete is fabulous for those of us in a new love affair with Shakespeare. Commentary and side notes along the way make it very understandable. Kenneth Branaugh's film and BBC audio books lend subtle interpretation which is very helpful as well.
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 What You Will
Twelfth Night or What You Will is the story of a brother and sister, twins, who are shipwrecked and each assume the other sibling has died. Viola, the sister, takes on her brother's appearance in order to serve the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Disguised as a man, Viola falls in love with Orsino, but Orsino is in love with the countess Olivia and sends Viola in his stead to woo Olivia for himself. This is Shakespearean comedy, so naturally, Olivia falls in love with Viola, believing her to be a man. More confusion ensues when Viola's twin brother Sebastian enters the action of the play and is mistaken for the man his sister has been pretending to be.
Twelfth Night is an amusing, if somewhat formulaic, comedy that is both endearing at times and disturbing at others. It leaves the reading wondering what to think. More than likely, this is exactly what Mr. Shakespeare intended.
The Cambridge School Shakespeare edition of Twelfth Night is obviously geared towards students, particularly theater and drama students as opposed to literature students. The text of the play is shown on one page while the previous, facing page describes the action of the play in addition to suggesting exercises to ascertain how each particular section could be played. My favorite part about this edition is the inclusion of all the photos, especially the photos showing how different productions handled the same scene. Personally, I prefer more in depth discussion about Shakespeare's plays than this edition offers, but it is probably ideal for a high school student or theater student studying Shakespeare.
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 Good, But Flawed
Many of you probably recall this play as the one Shakespeare began to write at the end of "Shakespeare In Love." As far as this movie goes, Shakespeare was to write something where love triumphed rather than failing as it did in "Romeo and Juliet." This comedy is often hailed as the best, but there are reasons I can not place it on the same level as "The Comedy of Errors," "The Merchant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "As You Like It," or others.
We meet Orsino the Duke who is love with Olivia. But Olivia chooses to avoid men. (She never quite got over the death of her brother and father.) We also meet Viola. She has survived a shipwreck but fears her brother Sebastian has died in the wreck. Fearful of being raped, she disguises herself as a man, and enters Orsino's service under the alias Cesario.
Shakespeare then introduces us to characters of a subplot. (Maria, Toby, and Andrew) They are planning a practical joke on Malvolio. Moving on, Orsino asks Viola/Cesario to woo Olivia for him. This is of course hard for her, since she loves the Duke, but she proceeds. To add to her problems, Olivia falls in love with her!
Later, we see that Viola's brother Sebastian has survived and we meet Antonio. Antonio is wanted in the area for theft, but his touching loyalty will not allow him to abandon Sebastian. There is a comical scene where Orsino has a man to man talk with Viola/Cesario.
Now here we come to a part I have a problem with. Maria, Andrew, and Toby plan an over the top practical joke on Malvolio. I find this to be beneath the comedy that is caused by human misunderstanding such as in "The Comedy of Errors."
Moving on, Toby pretends to want to try to stop a fight between Andrew and Viola/Cesario but keeps prompting the fight as well. Antonio mistakes Viola for Sebastian and saves her. But I have another problem here. Viola watches Antonio get arrested after he saved her, and she allows him to be taken to prison. Certainly she was close enough to the Duke to ask for this man who had been helpful to be released. (And she knows she was mistaken for her brother Sebastian!)
Eventually the errors of the day are sorted out when Sebastian comes on the screen married to Olivia. And Shakespeare allows us to infer that Antonio will not be punished. And of course Malvolio comes on stage screaming for revenge over what he feels he has suffered.
It is a good play with intertwined plots, comedy, and enough tragic elements to make it real. But there are some flaws that prevent me from placing this on the same level as "As You Like It," "Merchant of Venice," "Comedy of Errors," and some others.
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Maybe Shakespeare's Best Comedy ( oddsfish )
Last semester, I took a course on comedic drama in which the class read numerous classics of the genre. Twelfth Night was, in my opinion, pretty easily the best work that we read. While it's not necessarily Shakespeare's own best work, it is one of the true masterpieces of comedic literature, a work of surprising humor and depth.
The romantic plot is absurd, though of course, satisfying. In true comedic fashion, the play takes place is something of a fantasy world, with the laws of the world suspended. There is a chance for something divine to happen here, a chance for human masks to be torn away and for authentic connection to be made. Of course, something like that is what happens. Comedy (particularly that produced by the fool) pierces through the false barriers the people have build and allows for them to create for themselves a new life.
I think that's why I like the play so much. The farcical plot and the clever wordplay are delightful, but it's really that there is a subtle wisdom in this play that draws me irresistibly toward it. I think that you can read and reread Twelfth Night and always come away with a sense of something genuine.
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