The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1753 Monday, 17 October 2005
From: Jodi D. Clark <
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
>
Date: Friday, 14 Oct 2005 08:22:18 -0400
Subject: Questions on Festivity, esp. on Twelfth Night!
Festivity in Twelfth Night has been a topic I have long been interested
in. I directed a production of Twelfth Night in Brattleboro, VT, which
I set in 1920s New Orleans during Mardis Gras, to give you a sense of
how strong the festive imagery resonated with my interpretation of the
play. There are many images of festive misrule within Twelfth Night
which are related to traditional festive activities both in England and
throughout Europe. There is cross-dressing for starters. In a
production of the play during Shakespeare's time, it was even more
confusing since it was a man, playing a woman who is dressing as a man.
But cross-dressing was an activity very popular during festivals such
as the Lord of Misrule Day. Also on that day, it was traditional for
leaders of the lower-class folk to be deemed the "Lords of Misrule" who
were in charge of the festivities, thus elevating lower-class members of
society up from their traditional role for a day or so. Malvolio fits
into an example of someone who considers himself elevated in the first
place, and Sir Toby and company play with that notion and get Malvolio
into trouble with that notion by egging him on with the fake letter
which encourages him to put on the airs and act upon his presumed
notions of greatness. Malvolio is also a Puritan, which is completely
antithetical to Sir Toby's disposition of festive drunkenness all the
time (and is frowned on in Elizabethan England), which plays upon what
is often referred to as the battle between Carnival and Lent, which
Michael Bristol discusses in his work. What is interesting to me is
that Viola's cross-dressing is forgiven by the characters as she
ultimately renounces it and goes back to her former and "proper" role in
society and Malvolio's presumptive greatness is not forgiven, though he
is pitied for it. Because his intent is to marry Olivia in the guise of
his put on "greatness," this is a transgression which he plans on
keeping and not letting go in a timely fashion. Additionally, his
Puritanical nature is something that is so frowned upon and his excess
of it is punished. Whereas Sir Toby's excess is chastised, but in the
end, he is rewarded by getting married to Maria.
Even Orsino is guilty of excess in his obsessive love for Olivia. And
Olivia has her excess of grief to which she clings. Excess in general
abounds in this play, which is inherently, a festive theme.
There is Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, who are the
self-appointed lords of the misrule in their drunkenness and trickery.
And finally, Feste, who by his very nature is a festive, though often
melancholy character, depending on how he is played. The line that best
describes both Malvolio and Feste are given by Olivia in 1.5, 89-95:
O: O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste
with a distempered appetite. To be generous,
guiltless, and of free disposition, is to take those
things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-
bullets. There is no slander in an allowed fool,
though he do nothing but rail; nor no railing
in a known discreet man, though he do nothing
but reprove.
There are several other books I want to recommend to you, and I'm
certain other members of the list will have even more than that, but
here are some others which may prove helpful on this topic:
_Shakespeare's Festive World: Elizabethan Seasonal Entertainment and
the Professional Stage_ by Francois Laroque
_Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater: Studies in the
Social Dimension of Dramatic Form and Function_ by Robert Weimann
_The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England_ by Jean E.
Howard (which has sections on Twelfth Night and the roles of desire in
that play)
_Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe_ by Peter Burke
_Vested Interests: Cross-dressing & Cultural Anxiety_ by Marjorie
Garber (which has a wonderful chapter on cross-dressing in Shakespeare)
I hope this is helpful! Good luck!
-Jodi Clark
Marlboro, VT
_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the
editor assumes no responsibility for them.
|
