I think, just because the play is so good at mixing comedy and drama, good feeling and nastiness, love and hate, that slightly sour ending is important. that, even as they're celebrating their love, you have in your mind the cruelty that's percolating around that love.
You might compare Malvolio's treatment to that of Parolles in All's Well that Ends Well. He's another ridiculous, proud character who's had a pretty cruel trick played on him, but we actually hear his response. He says, "OK, I got fooled. Maybe I didn't deserve it, but I'll be OK." And then he has this great line: "Simply the thing I am shall make me live." I think Malvolio is the same way: he's made out of pride and self-importance, and for better or worse, that will propel him through life. Will he return to Olivia's house? Probably not, but I guess you never know. Anyway, as blind and egotistical as he is, he'll be all right.
A decent character parallel is with Shylock. Both are nuanced characters, but their functions in the play are as villains for the audience to hiss at, and they get their comeuppance because that's what happens to villains. it's a tribute to Shakespeare's writing that their punishment makes us uneasy, but in the context of Elizabethan drama, their place is clear. And they're both minority types: Shylock the Jew, Malvolio the Puritan (or at least supposed Puritan). Puritanism stands for absolutism, the opposite of everything theatrical and playful, and this is an anti-absolutist, playful play. The audience knows this kind of character from other appearances on the stage, and they know to root against them. If Shakespeare gives us more, if we wonder about Malvolio's revenge, well then, that's just good playwriting.
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malvolio
Date: 2005-12-20 05:23 am (UTC)I think, just because the play is so good at mixing comedy and drama, good feeling and nastiness, love and hate, that slightly sour ending is important. that, even as they're celebrating their love, you have in your mind the cruelty that's percolating around that love.
You might compare Malvolio's treatment to that of Parolles in All's Well that Ends Well. He's another ridiculous, proud character who's had a pretty cruel trick played on him, but we actually hear his response. He says, "OK, I got fooled. Maybe I didn't deserve it, but I'll be OK." And then he has this great line: "Simply the thing I am shall make me live." I think Malvolio is the same way: he's made out of pride and self-importance, and for better or worse, that will propel him through life. Will he return to Olivia's house? Probably not, but I guess you never know. Anyway, as blind and egotistical as he is, he'll be all right.
A decent character parallel is with Shylock. Both are nuanced characters, but their functions in the play are as villains for the audience to hiss at, and they get their comeuppance because that's what happens to villains. it's a tribute to Shakespeare's writing that their punishment makes us uneasy, but in the context of Elizabethan drama, their place is clear. And they're both minority types: Shylock the Jew, Malvolio the Puritan (or at least supposed Puritan). Puritanism stands for absolutism, the opposite of everything theatrical and playful, and this is an anti-absolutist, playful play. The audience knows this kind of character from other appearances on the stage, and they know to root against them. If Shakespeare gives us more, if we wonder about Malvolio's revenge, well then, that's just good playwriting.