Thinking about Malvolio in Twelfth Night
Dec. 19th, 2005 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, Lis and I were talking this morning about Malvolio and how he ends up leaving on the line "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you." And how that can give a rather somber and disturbing tone to the end of the play.
And we were trying to think of other ways you could read it, and you could play it.
We were thinking, what if Feste, Fabian, Maria, and Malvolio were old friends -- the four of them having hung out together and pranked each other back and forth -- and with Sir Toby Belch hanging out with them, too. And Malvolio, upon being made the steward and therefore the superior of Feste, Fabian, and Maria, began to get "too big for his britches," and that caused a split between them.
Is there any way that we can read Malvolio as realizing what happened, realizing that he HAS become too big for his britches -- that his supposition that he could marry Olivia was hubris and would be an upset of his natural place in the world -- and that his natural place was with his old friends. Can we find a way to read, and a way to play Malvolio so that his final line, "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you," means that he's going to become one of the gang again -- he's going to short-sheet their beds, and do humorous pranks on them. Can we read this as Malvolio saying that he's going to become playful, not bitter, and that he's going to be happy and antic in his proper place as a servant, rather than puritanical and bitter trying to be higher than he is?
First, does the text support that interpretation? Can we read the play and think it plausible that Shakespeare intended Malvolio's story to have a reasonably happy end? Second, whether Shakespeare intended it or not, do you think that it COULD be played that way, and how would you go about doing it? And third, would that interpretation be satisfying to you as an audience member if you saw it played that way?
And we were trying to think of other ways you could read it, and you could play it.
We were thinking, what if Feste, Fabian, Maria, and Malvolio were old friends -- the four of them having hung out together and pranked each other back and forth -- and with Sir Toby Belch hanging out with them, too. And Malvolio, upon being made the steward and therefore the superior of Feste, Fabian, and Maria, began to get "too big for his britches," and that caused a split between them.
Is there any way that we can read Malvolio as realizing what happened, realizing that he HAS become too big for his britches -- that his supposition that he could marry Olivia was hubris and would be an upset of his natural place in the world -- and that his natural place was with his old friends. Can we find a way to read, and a way to play Malvolio so that his final line, "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you," means that he's going to become one of the gang again -- he's going to short-sheet their beds, and do humorous pranks on them. Can we read this as Malvolio saying that he's going to become playful, not bitter, and that he's going to be happy and antic in his proper place as a servant, rather than puritanical and bitter trying to be higher than he is?
First, does the text support that interpretation? Can we read the play and think it plausible that Shakespeare intended Malvolio's story to have a reasonably happy end? Second, whether Shakespeare intended it or not, do you think that it COULD be played that way, and how would you go about doing it? And third, would that interpretation be satisfying to you as an audience member if you saw it played that way?
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.