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Have you ever worn a mask before? Maybe the mask wasn’t a costume mask but a mask to make you seem happy or anything to make you seem like something you are not normally. Trying to fit in with “the” crowd, a mask is used to obtain the things we cannot reach with on our own. Masks are especially common today because of the pressures to succeed. They are used to find out what people are for real on the inside. Shakespeare’s play uses imagery which refers to the sprit of disguise that surrounded renaissance festivities, in which the normal rules and order of society were suspended or else deliberately reversed. The comedic elements of the play draw from the tensions created between common social restraints and the unruly forces of love. The characters of Twelfth Night are at cross purposes. They not only create dramatic comic misunderstandings but also change the stability of appearances and gender roles. Twelfth Night is full of moments that contain a light hearted atmosphere and some of the subplots point out the problems of society. It is imperative but to allow for empathy to incorporate gender roles and social mobility. It is also largely about social concerns and the message clearly spells out a need for balance in life. It points out that appearances should not be judged because they could just be an act of role change. In the twelfth night many relationships are forged or sabotaged for the protagonists and as a result these relationships are made comical. The use of disguise causes deception and misunderstandings which leads to love where its nit meant to be. Foolery lead the characters into inescapable traps which causes chaos with their emotions and finally pure physical attraction lead some characters into falsely believing they were in love. Viola the main character literalizes these themes through her transformation from an upper class female into a male servant named Cesario. Viola seeks to hide herself away under the guise of cesario until she is able to come to terms with her circumstances. In the following lines she states her objectives “O that I served that lady/And might not be delivered to the world till I have my own occasion mellow.” (Act 1Scene 2 ln35-39). Unfortunately by taking another identity she creates another self. She wears this mask swinging between the two identities in emotion and character and decides to adopt this mask because she thinks it would give her more freedom in society. This is evident when Orisino accepts her as a male.
Approximate Word count = 1703
Approximate Pages = 6.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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