Until I did some research on The Twelfth Night, I was
unaware that the Shakespeare drew his title from an actual holiday. The Twelfth
Night is typically celebrated on January 5th (12 days after
Christmas). I did not put two and two together that the “twelve days of
Christmas” song had any relation. This Holiday is also known as Epiphany.
Epiphany celebrates the arrival of the Magi, or The Three Wise Men to deliver
gifts to the baby Jesus. One might expect the Epiphany celebration to be
similar to the rest of Christmas Celebrations, but it is said that these
celebrations have been known to be pretty wild. When you think of an Epiphany
party, think modern day Mardi Gras.
Surely Shakespeare must have known about this holiday and
wrote his play based on it? Right?
And if Shakespeare knew about this, was his play supposed to
be performed on this night? Probably.
*Evidence can be said that the play was performed on January
6, 1602 for Queen Elizabeth and her guest Count Don Virginio Orsino. However,
this fact is debatable.
The Epiphany celebrations are known to be "a time of masques, revels, defiance of
authority, and general foolishness" which Shakespeare’s play clearly
suggests. The Epiphany parties are celebrated as a festival In which everything
is turned upside down or topsy-turvy. Traditional roles and behavior are
temporarily suspended. Thus making Twelfth Night and especially the plays
subtitle, Or What you Will, the
perfect title for a play written for an Epiphany party.
Are things similarly turned upside down in Illyria? Yes.
Secular and bawdy
themes are portrayed through Maria, Sir Toby, and Andrew’s antics. Their
treatment of Malvolio can be seen as bawdy, or obscene. Maria’s letter tricking
Malvolio to believe that Olivia is in love with him also fit into the amusement
and general foolishness. This also portrays an act of defiance because the
servants are tricking Malvolio, their social superior into making everyone
believe that he is a mad man who deserves to be locked away.
Another aspect of an
Epiphany party is masquerading which is captured in Viola’s plan to disguise
herself as a boy. Not only does this disguise fit into masquerading, it also
runs contrary to the social norms and captures the theme of defiance of authority.
The prevalence of disguise and the ambiguity of gender roles play a huge role
within this play. Violet’s gender reversal leads to a confusing love triangle
in which she ends up loving a man and being loved by a woman who does not
realize that she is in fact a woman.
Romance and lust is
portrayed through the multiple love triangles.
Finally, all of these
events take place within a setting in which anarchy and madness are everywhere.
This is super interesting! I’ve seen my fair share of cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies that feature some type of history behind the “Twelve Days of Christmas” so I have a fairly basic understanding of when Epiphany is, but I never put it together with this play. We never really hear about this holiday in Twelfth Night (which is also interesting) but this is so fascinating and I agree that Illyria could very well be a reflection of the types of events that would happen during an Epiphany celebration since everything does appear to be inverted and no one really cares a whole lot about it and is happy in the end. Would have maybe been nice to get a little more from Shakespeare as to what Twelfth Night actually is but that’s not really an option I guess.
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