Satire in Shakespeares Twelfth Night - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Satire Course: Institution: Date: Satire Described as the use of humor or exaggeration in literal works such as novels, plays and films to criticize issues that are controversial and even weighty in the society, satire is a vital element of literature that allows the satirist to criticize the ideals and behavior of the society while using wit and humor and in so doing, allowing the audience to question their ideals and behavior in question and change accordingly (Schiffer, 2010). This forms the basis of this essay that analyzes the use of satire in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: or What You Will and in Alexander Pope’s mock-epic poem, The Rape of the Lock. Satire in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night A satirical play written during the Elizabethan times, Twelfth Night: or What You Will is a Shakespearean play that uses satire to interlink two major plots emerging in the kingdom of Illyria, which includes a complex love triangle between Viola, Olivia and Orsino and the well-orchestrated plank played on Malvolio (Schiffer, 2010). Written by the legendary playwright William Shakespeare, the play Twelfth Night or What You Will, which is simply referred to as Twelfth Night uses satire by blending in wordplay, irony, humor and some of the character’s clueless actions to not only dramatize the play and keep the audience glued to their seats and entertained but also, engage the audience in pondering about controversial and important issues in the society such as gender, love, sexuality and social class among other (Pennington, 2000). The different disguises used by the characters in the play and the misfortunes that befall them heightens the tension, suspense and intrigue in the play and mounts up the play’s satiricalelement by providing bewilderment, confusion and hubbub amongst the characters that is grasped as satirical, which borders comical by the audience. A Play Title That Disconnects With the Content of Play The element of satire can be felt from the start. The play is titled Twelfth Night or What You Will and themeaning of the main title of Shakespeare’s play has little or nothing to do with what the play is about as supported by Pennington, (2000). The fact that the playwright decided to call the play, Twelfth Night when in actual sense, there is little or nothing within the play that represent or give reference to the Twelfth Night other than the partying, drinking and role playing done by the play’s characters, brings out some degree of humor and exaggeration. A Christian celebration marking the twelfth night after the celebration of Christmas (Birth of Jesus), Twelfth Night commemorates when the wise men went to give Jesus Christ gifts (Pennington, 2000). Since the title has nothing to do with the content, Shakespeare decides to add a subtitle to the title of the play, What You Will, which suggeststhe subtitle, is either an afterthought or an invitation for the audience to name the play whatever they like or alternatively interpret the content of the play whichever way they like (Pennington, 2000). Disconnect between the title and the content of the play may point to the playwright’s humorous way of telling his audience to have an open mind when interacting with the play and not to take the play or life for that matter, so seriously. On the other hand, it may be a simple and yet exaggerated way of the playwright telling his audience that things are not always as they appear and just because the title is Twelfth Night, the play does not necessarily have to be linked to the twelfth night celebration in anyway (Schiffer, 2010). Similarly, when someone either claims to be this or that or they appear to be something, it does not necessary mean they actually are who they claim or appear to be respectively (Pennington, 2000). This argument is best evidenced by the continued deception that goes on throughout the play where characters appear to each other to be what they are not. Viola is to his master Orsino, Cesario, a eunuch and under this disguise; Viola gets to win the confidence of her master and becomes his love messenger to Olivia. Few characters seem to be who they claim they are (Schiffer, 2010). Undeniably, Olivia falls head over heels with Viola, thinking she is a man and the plot thickens when Olivia confesses her love to Sebastian, confusing him for his fraternal twin Viola in disguise as Cesario. Just to show the audience how things are not always what they seem, Sebastian does not tell Olivia that she is confusing him for someone else and instead, he enjoys it and wishes that if what Olivia is telling him is a dream, for the dream to continue; ‘What relish is in this? How runs the stream? Or I am mad, or else this is a dream. Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!’(Shakespeare, 2009). Ironically, in a separate incidence, in an earlier rejoinder to Feste, Sebastian is truthful about who he is and cements the argument that there are things that are not what they seem. He states in Act IV, ‘No, I do not know you; nor I am not sent to you by my lady, to bid you come speak with her; nor your name is not Master Cesario; nor this is not my nose neither. Nothing that is so is so’ (Shakespeare, 2009). It is humorous that for a play that has a religious title, the content are exaggeratedly far from being religious and includes themes such as deception, homoeroticism, lust, intentions to kill, exclusionary love and self-importance.For instance, in scene i in Act V, Cesario is threatened by Orsino who vows to kill Viola when the latter thinks that Cesario is Olivia’s lover. On the other hand, Antonio becomes sexually attracted to Sebastian, Viola’s brother. The intentions to kill and sexual attraction among individuals of similar gender are notions that are prohibited and not condoned in the Christian faith, in which the title of the play is based on. Pursuit of Love In pursuit of happiness, individuals are pushed to do the most foolish things if not wicked things and the playwright skillfully uses satire to criticize how people pursue love as their key to happiness in the most unlikely places and from the most unlikely people. In addition, going to extremes of violence and intimidation to force others to do what they want (Schiffer, 2010). Schiffer, (2010) suggests that Shakespeare goes to great lengths to exaggerate the intensity of pursuit of this happiness and love in his characters. In the play, Orsino is sick in love and for a governor of Illyria who ought to be thinking and focusing on important issues affecting those under his administration; he is so absorbed in pursuing Olivia to accept him in a bid to attain his happiness, he does not realize what a fool he makes of himself. Taken from the era of puritanism where a group of believers known as Puritans took living a holy and conservative life to a whole new level, Shakespeare wittingly uses satire to introduce the audience to the puritan of the play Malvolio, who is an administrator in Olivia’s house (Schiffer, 2010). Malvolio is exaggeratedly absorbed in self-importance and he sees himself virtuous and better than others such as Maria and Sir Toby. He looks down on people such as Feste until a time when he is in problems and realizes that he (Malvolio) is the bigger fool (Pennington, 2000). Malvolio is so caught up in pursuing love and what he assumes to be his rightful place in wooing Olivia for himself, he forgets that they belong to different realms and Olivia can never be his. This blindness to facts and reality prompted by Malvolio’s pursuit of love makes it very easy for Maria to set him up by giving him a forged letter supposedly written by Olivia instructing him to do certain things to win Olivia’s heart (Shakespeare, 2009). Ironically, Malvolio with his pride and perceptions that he is great, equal to Olivia and deserves greatness does not see the letter for what it is, a plank, and the audience cannot help but laugh as they watch Malvolio obey the fake instructions that ultimately see him humiliated. When Malvolio swoons to Olivia in his attempt to impress Olivia with his new mannerism and clothes, the audience can only sit back and savor the satirical episode as Olivia states ‘God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand so oft? Thy yellow stockings!’(Pennington, 2000). Orsino is so sick in love it is safe to argue that he is not in love with Olivia, Cesario and Viola but he is in love withpursuing love. It is satirical that at one point Orsino is consumed by the love he fills for Olivia where he describes it in Act 1 as an ‘appetite’ and commands the musicians ‘If music be the food of love, play on’ in a bid to show how in love with Olivia he is only toeventually settleand marry Viola (Shakespeare, 2009). Although Orsino has professes love for Viola, by the end of the play he refer to her using her disguise male name Cesario stating in Act V ‘Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times / Thou never shouldn’t love woman like to me,’ which implies he is still in love with the disguise Cesario. Orsino continues to state in line 372 to line 375‘Cesario, come— For so you shall be while you are a man; But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen’ (Shakespeare, 2009).This indicates that he cannot stop himself to pursue what he think is love even if it means from different people and at the same time. It is important to note that the playwright makes Orsino appear somewhat desperate to be in love and it is in his pursuit for this love that he falls in love and even plans to marry someone, who moments earlier, he had sardonically, vowed to kill. In earlier lines 120-131 of Act V, Orsino had planned to kill Viola only to profess his love for her later on in lines 372. He states in lines 125-131 ‘But this your minion, whom I know you love, And whom by heaven I swear, I tender dearly, Him will I tear our of that cruel eye Where he sits crowned in his master’s spite. Come, boy with me. My thoughts are ripe in mischief I’ll sacrifice the lamb that I do love, To spite a raven’s heart within a dove.’ The characters in the play go to great lengths to pursue what they perceive to be love and happiness and Shakespeare wittingly uses satire to criticize their foolish pursuit that blinds them from seeing reality. So long as Olivia is young, beautiful and rich, Sebastian is willing to overlook the fact that he knows she is mad as he states in Act IV, ‘For though my soul disputes well with my sense That this may be some error, but no madness, Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune So far exceed all instance, all discourse, That I am ready to distrust mine eyes And wrangle with my reason that persuades me, To any other trust but that I am mad, Or else the lady’s mad…there’s something in’t / That is deceivable’(Schiffer, 2010). On the other hand, Sir Toby is willing to marry Maria despite her devious ways and he says ‘I could marry this wench for this device…And ask no other dowry with her but such another jest…’ and he goes ahead to describe her in lines 207 and 208 as ‘thou most excellent devil of wit.’ In a bid to pursue love and happiness, Shakespeare uses satire to show how people willingly look for it in the most unlikely places with Antonio seeming intent to love Sebastian despite being of the same gender and the fact that Sebastian was involved with someone else and the social norms could not permit them to be together (Pennington, 2000). On the other hand, Olivia switches her love between Viola disguised as Cesario and Sebastian as she pursues happiness and love.It is satirical that she decides to love and even marry a person she sees as a ‘merely a boy not in love with her,guilty of greatly deceiving his employer and friend’ and when Olivia finally realizes she married a different person from the one she had infatuation about, ‘a stranger’, she does not quit the marriage and instead,overlooks the deception and hopes for happiness(Schiffer, 2010). Use of Satire in Alexander Pope’s Mock-Epic Poem, The Rape Of The Lock Satire is described as an attack or criticism of the moral, social, political and economic systems of the society using elements such as humor and irony with the view of ridiculing people’s attitudes, values and behaviors (Hammond, 2005). Primarily, there are two major types of satire that are used in literature, which include juvenalian satire and horatian satire. Juvenalian satire is when the satirist uses sharp, bitter and even hostile words to criticize the society or individuals and more often than not, there is no humor (Hammond, 2005). Satirists who use juvenalian satire say one thing when they are implying something else. On the other hand, horatian satire occurs when the satirist exposesidiocies and vices in the society or individuals but they are fond of the objects of their satire (Hammond, 2005). The mock epic poem The Rape of the Lock uses horatian satire and as a mock epic, the poem satirizes its objects by taking an insignificant thing as if it was larger than life (Hammond, 2005). Mirroring the life of the fashion conscious and self- absorbedmen and women of the 18th century’ s aristocratic class in England, the poem The Rape of the Lock was composed and written by Alexander Pope in 18th Century (Gee, 2008). This was in a time when wit and reason overshadowed everything else in literature and was presented in form of satire to expose the moral corruption, hypocrisy and superficial irrationality of the society under neoclassical system as argued by Hammond, (2005). According to Hammond, (2005), in the poem The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope attempts to use satire to expose the flaws of the society in the 18th century that was well camouflaged by the enlightenment values of knowledge, rationality, order and political supremacy pursued at the time. The poet relies on horatian satire to delicately show the foolishness and arrogance of the aristocrats. Instead of directly attacking the self-important upper class, Alexander Pope opts to paint a picture where the reader has a new view from which they can see the conduct of the characters in the poem as stupid bordering outrageous (Hammond, 2005). The poem successfully uses horatian satire to gently and delicately mock the British aristocrats. The poem seems intent to encourage the high society of the 18th century to laugh at their own foolishness. To drive his point home and to expose the frivolities and farcicalities of the upper class where the lives of beautiful women such as Belinda are limited to chasing after the dukes and their lives revolves around sexually alluring men, sleep, clothes and jewelry and is crowned by cheapness, trivialities, submissiveness and mischievousness, Alexander Pope uses a playful tone while exaggerating the most trivial and unimportant things. When referring to Baron’s act of stealing Belinda’s lock of hair, the poet exaggerates the act and refers to it as ‘raping’ (Gee, 2008). In lines 153 to 156, the poet exaggerates the cutting of the hair using words that gives greater depth to the action being carried out by the characters. This exaggeration is important in showing the reader how foolish the society is in placing value and importance on things such as beauty and hair and using them to define women (Hammond, 2005). He states ‘The meeting points the sacred hair dissever from the fair head, forever and forever! Then flashed the living lightening from her eyes, and screams of horror rend the affrighted skies’ the exaggerated wordings carries with them the critical aspects of horatian satire injected in the mock epic (Pope & Rogers, 1998). The poet uses personification to give life to his satire and to put more focus on the apparently transcendent effects of what is happening in the story. He uses personification to exaggerate the terror experienced by Belinda as Belinda’s screams of horror ‘rend the affrighted skies.’ The mere act of cutting Belinda’s lock is satirical in the fact that it seems to have detrimental and even supernatural implications. For instance, when she realizes one of the locks of her hair is stolen, she begins to rant and to exaggerate her tantrums, the poet gives life to non-living things by stating in lines 155 that there was ‘living lightning’ flashing in Belinda’s eyes (Gee, 2008). There arevarious points in the poem where the poet uses personification to add to his satire. For instance, in lines 85 and 86, Umbriel comes back from the Cave of Spleen with a flask jam-packedwith ‘fainting fears, soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears’ (Pope & Rogers, 1998). Although the poem seems keener on satirizing the society of the 18th Century and it is impersonal in nature by not inflicting against any particular person, there are instances when the poet cannot help but to satirize particular groups of people and individuals in the society such as the judges who make hurried verdicts (Hammond, 2005). The poet states ‘The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.’ In addition, the poet satirizes friends whose friendships are lustful and politicians whose only goal is to drive their own personal interests by developing and implementing policies that will help them achieve their ends (Gee, 2008). Satirizing the nature of man to be weak when they see beauty, Alexander pope uses horatian satire to criticize men who goes to great lengths even behaving foolishly at the altar of beauty (Hammond, 2005). He satirizes men who only see women as trophies who they pursue with all zeal only to forget about them when they obtain them (Gee, 2008). In line 40, Baron has an altar where he put ‘all the trophies of his former loves’ but he burn it when he sees something else to pursue, which is Belinda’s lock and he states in line 44, ‘soon to obtain, and long possess’(Pope & Rogers,1998). The poet does not spare husbands who have little faith and trust in their wives and their feet are always quick to jump to conclusions such as suspecting their wives of infidelity (Hammond, 2005). Wives are not spared either and with delicate mockery, Alexander shows how wives are more in love with their lap dogs than with their own husbands with the death of a lap dog and the breaking of their china ware generating more grief and shock than the death of a husband(Gee, 2008). Conclusively, Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock satirizes modern society where women are fashion struck, focused on follies that add no value to their lives and they are willing to trade their honor and chastity for social class, fame and men. On the other hand, men see women as toys they can play with for their pleasure and they see women as conquests. Bibliography Gee, S. The Scandal of the Season: A Novel. London: Scribner, 2008. Hammond, B.S. Pope amongst the satirists, 1660-1750. London: Northcote House, 2005. Pennington, M. Twelfth Night: A User's Guide. London: Nick Hern Books, 2000. Pope, A. & Rogers, P.Selected Poetry.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Schiffer, J. Twelfth Night: New Critical Essays. London: Routledge, 2010. Shakespeare, W.Twelfth Night: Or, What You Will. London: The Floating Press, 2009. Read More