Salinger (1974) calls Twelfth Night a "comedy about comedy" in which Shakespeare demonstrates his "fundamental debt to the earlier Renaissance tradition of comic playwriting and his constant sense of detachment from him. (p. 242), and it is from this point that this essay will discuss the functions of comedy as it relates to Shakespeare, respecting and departing at various times from traditional Renaissance comedies and in what category of comedy Twelfth Night can be placed. It will also explain how realism contributes to the function of comedy in the play in the particular case of Twelfth Night, this function being above all a celebration of both joy and Shakespeare's comedy for its own sake. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Traditional Renaissance comedy is clearly present throughout the text, such as the mocking laughter aimed at Malvolio wearing crossed garters at the bottom yellows or unsuspecting Sir Andrew in the simulated duel. The audience laughing at Malvolio serves to further ridicule him for his folly, but also has comedic value in distinctly Shakespearean terms; we mock Malvolio to chase him away and show our dislike for him because he spoils the fun. This is what Charlton (1966) considers to be definitive of a Shakespearean comedy, namely that the characters “inspire us to be happy with them; they don't just make us laugh at them" (p. 277) and so our ridicule of Malvolio is not so much a condemnation of his character but a way of putting the audience on the side of the play's entertainment-seekers, notably Sir Toby. who boasts many comedic strengths in the play despite his relatively flawed character compared to the puritanical Malvolio. Malvolio is ridiculed because he represents the Puritans of the time (for example, by his clothing); as the Puritans were largely against the tradition of comedy in the theater (Barton 1972, p. 164), Shakespeare represents them against revelry and pleasure in general. So we're on Sir Toby's side and against Malvolio, not because of their character, but because as an audience we don't want the fun to stop. The characters, too, are desperate to continue having fun and seek new pleasures, which for Shakespeare implies marriage as the ultimate goal when it is accepted that love has great power to awaken the mind to new pleasures (Charlton 1966, p. 277). ). This, for Charlton, makes Shakespeare's plays more imaginative than those of his rivals, instead of seeking existing pleasure and maximizing pleasure. Shakespeare has his characters constantly striving for ideals and, through love/marriage, becoming "finer and richer representatives of human nature." " (Charlton 1966, p. 283). The primacy of love in enriching the mind and opening new avenues of pleasure, as discussed in the preceding paragraph, is influential in the comedy of Twelfth Night as , if music is "the food of love" (Shakespeare 1993, p. 29), then it takes a lot of music to nourish the mind and it is the most musical of Shakespeare's plays. Music therefore plays a. major role in the play, from the Duke's players to the clown's songs, and adds to the noisy, carnival atmosphere that the play itself is a celebration of. Much of the farce (paragraph below) adds. to the comic celebration on stage, for example Malvolio's humiliation scene and Viola's cross-dressing farce would be a joy to performas much as to see. Tillyard (1958) classifies comedy into three sections. ; farce and two variations of picaresque comedy. It can be argued that Twelfth Night fits into each of these categories to some extent. The farce comes from the play's many moments of laughter provided by the clown's pranks and ironic humor. The fact that Twelfth Night is also a cross-dressing comedy adds further farce to the multiple disguises of a male actor playing a female character who in turn plays the role of a man. Add in the less-than-identical identical twins, the loud ambiance created by the music, the pranks mentioned above and all the elements of a prank are there to see. The farce, however, does not serve the primary function of this play because there is little celebration of joy in a farce. Although the audience may laugh heartily, the comic devices described below must be combined with intense realism if the play is to have an effect on its audience; that is, an incredible farce cannot get the audience to celebrate the characters because the empathy is simply not present in sufficient quantity. The first variety of picaresque comedy, effectively focusing on the underdog, Tillyard pretends to be absent in Twelfth Night but the principals remain; Clown is our outsider who is left alone (single, but also literally left alone on stage) and the collective group, with the exception of Malvolio and his threat of revenge, fills the outsider role of righteous "and only right" (Tillyard 1958, p. 6). survive the disaster. This feeling is heightened during the final confrontation when Shakespeare suddenly shifts from prose to verse to tie in with Sebastian arriving with a solution to rush toward a happy ending. Once again, this does not fully give the piece the celebration of joy that is its primary function. Certainly, we can sympathize more with the madman without necessarily pitying him (and perhaps even see him as a bridge between Illyria and the everyday world) but there is still not the feeling of belonging that the audience has with, for example, Sir Toby. For this, Shakespeare requires a mixture of comic strategies, and it is the second variation of Tillyard's picaresque comedy (ibid) that is most evident for Twelfth Night, being the desire to cast off the burden of duty towards yourself and towards society without paying too severe a price. price...[grateful]...perhaps with regret, that we can't get by forever, that vacations are only vacations because they end, that humanity must after all toe the line and that duty has the last word… [but also finally convince the reader that the escape has]… had a fairly long run and that this duty must now reaffirm itself (Tillyard 1958, p. 6) Which, although not providing not so much convivial laughter as pure farce, is used by Shakespeare to lighten the mood and spirits of his audience. Even though duty and the real world have the last word, it is a renewed reality we are entering. The title itself refers to a "celebratory and critical passage of time" during which characters are "swept from their previous selves and brought into a new harmony with a natural order and sequence of life" (Salinger 1974, p. 13), which is to say that the numerous marriages promise harmonization with the natural order but also, above all, a return to the normal state of things. Everything that was taken from the characters by disguise, deception, the “season of mismanagement” (Salinger 1974, p. 8), and the tragedies of the shipwreck is wonderfully restored with added value; for example, Viola finds not only her brother but also a lover. Viola's trust in natural forces andhuman nature when it leaves time to untie the knots that it cannot (Shakespeare 1993, p. 48) trusts in the natural balance having the capacity to regenerate itself and, until the end, to give something more to those whose minds are enriched by love (see previous discussion). Here then, the audience can finally celebrate joy with the characters now that the entirety of the play and its range of comic strategies have added to its realism. While realism serves to add to the celebration of joy that is the function of comedy in Twelfth Night, comedy also reciprocally serves to add realism to the play while providing what today would be called a suspension of disbelief; just as a tragedy teases the audience with false hope before the disaster, Twelfth Night teases us with a false disaster before the happy ending. This, according to Barton (1972, p. 164), adds to the realism of Twelfth Night while remaining faithful to the conventional social point of view of a comedy. In Twelfth Night, the false disaster suggested during the final act's stalemate occurs when reality begins to re-enter the room and the celebration draws to a close. For Sir Toby, he is refused the surgeon he needs because the surgeon is drunk. We finally witness the reaffirmation of Tillyard's duty (1958, p. 6); It is because of the excesses and late-night celebrations in which Sir Toby played such a significant role that he is now denied the practical aspects of medical care that were not necessary in the utopia of bad governance. Furthermore, Barton (1972) suggests that Sir Toby's marriage to Maria is comparable to Sir Andrew's repentance; they both pay for their vacation “in a way that has real consequences” (p. 175). Fortunately, for the audience and the characters, disaster never strikes. However, the realism brought by the recognition of its possibility makes the ending easier to accept while also providing a sense of avoiding disaster (the first division of Tillyard's picaresque comedy, see above). This relief, once again felt by both the audience and the characters, adds to this celebration of joy; instead of accepting Barton's argument that knights are obligated to pay for their vacations, it can be argued that the opposite is true and that Sirs Toby and Andrew are in fact celebrating the most satisfying and joyful human feeling: s 'get away with doing something wrong. The comedy value here is only increased by Malvolio's final curse and promise of vengeance. Sir Toby (and his sympathetic audience) have once again gotten the better of him although it is doubtful whether he deserves it or not, after all, Sir Toby depends on him. on others like Malvolio to keep him in his life of leisure. Even though Clown's final song refers to marriage becoming tedious and the passage of time painful, the audience's optimism remains despite this realization; the couples in the play may be in distant, mysterious Illyria, but that place is brought back into the audience's reality now that the holiday season is ending thanks to the aforementioned realism that Shakespeare brings to this comedy. Barton (1972, p. 164) describes the period of the title as a time when the world is turned upside down and there is a constant holiday spirit. At the beginning of the play, it is the captain who presents Illyria as a place where madness can be expected, but it is during the Clown Song that Illyria approaches England; disguises and deception disappear and the natural order (and, arguably, rule) is restored with intact characters, redeemed minds, and happy endings. By maintaining realism throughout the play in such a location