Feste, the mad character from Twelfth Night, in many ways represents a playwright figure and embodies the scope and tools of theater. He critiques, manipulates, and entertains the other characters while making them think about their life situations, which is similar to how a playwright like Shakespeare interacts with his audience. Moreover, more than the other characters in the play, he achieves this in a highly performative manner, involving singing and clever wordplay that must be decoded, and therefore particularly reflects the mechanisms at the playwright's disposal. Feste is a representation of the medieval fool, strong in his inferior status and capable of speaking the truth of the kingdom. A playwright tells the truth using fictional actors and characters, who are in a parallel lower status compared to the audience, because they lack the dimensionality of real people. Thus, the role that Feste plays in the lives of the characters in the play resembles the role that the play itself plays in the lives of the audience watching the show. This essay will explore this comparison first by analyzing the similarities between the way Feste interacts with other characters and the way the playwright interacts with the audience, and then focus on the similarities between the goals and content of these interactions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Perhaps the simplest aspect of the way Feste communicates with other characters, which resembles the communication of theater itself, is the overtly performative nature of his character. A clown, Feste is often depicted in productions with elaborate makeup or in a sophisticated jester costume. In this sense, it is almost a caricature of the way actors take on new identities as they become the characters they portray. Dressing Feste in a fun way draws attention to the fact that he is a fictional character. Likewise, a playwright “dresses up” his ideas by staging them, asking actors and actresses to show them, rather than simply telling them. In four of the seven scenes in which he appears, he sings, prompting the other characters to congratulate him and marvel at his talent. . He sings of love to Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in 2.3.35-48 as well as with them in 2.3.64; he sings an "idiot" about the pains of love in Orsino in 2.4.50-65; he sings a traditional song appropriate to Malvolio's illusion of love to attract his attention in 4.2.65-72; and he sings that even happiness is not safe from the rain to end the piece at 5.1.376-395. Orsino, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew all reward him with monetary compensation for his performances. By singing, Feste brings the words to life to move his audience. This is similar to how actors, in a broader sense, bring the script to life and convey the meaning of a play only by performing it. The simple text of a play is not enough to represent what a playwright wishes to convey, just as reading the simple lines of a song does not have the same effect as listening to it sung. Feste in particular expresses this fact, because as a "performer", his singing voice is specifically called upon, and none of the other characters can convey ideas through song as well as he can. In fact, when Orsino asks for a song in 2.4, Curio responds by saying "isn't he there? He should be the one to sing it", and goes to find Feste (2.4.9). If anyone else tried to sing the song, Curio realizes, they would fail to "relieve the passionsof Orsino”. With his unique ability to move other characters through performance, Feste symbolizes the actor who moves his theatrical audience by bringing the storyline to life. In addition to the use of song, Feste dazzles the other characters in the play with his use of clever wordplay. Her wit contrasts best with that of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who in 1.3 communicate with Maria through puns that are confusing due to an apparent lack of understanding of what each means. Feste, on the other hand, is a smart jerk and, in 1.5, engages Maria in a quick battle of words. For example, his sentence “Well, to those who have it, may God give wisdom; and to those who are foolish, let them use their talents” (1.5.13) hijacks a parable from Matthew 25 about working with goods, where “talents” refer to money. Here he implies that fools should work with and develop their foolish abilities ("talent"). He then makes an appropriate pun on the word "hanging", which refers to both killing and sexual prowess. Feste also impresses Viola with his mastery of the language in 3.1, so much so that she rewards him with payment. For example, she asks him if he lives “near” his tabor drum, and he makes the pun that he lives “near the church,” as in nearby; he also makes a pun on the word "shameless", which Viola uses to describe mischievous use of words, saying he wished his sister didn't have a name, so she couldn't be manipulated in an obscene manner. Another related way Feste demonstrates his deep understanding of language is through his ability to change linguistic personalities when appropriate. For example, he adopts a proverbial pseudo-religious tone when addressing Olivia when she mourns her brother in 1.5, mocking her supposedly pointless mourning. When he first meets Sebastian and believes him to be Cesario, he is disconcerted by his haughty language and parodies his phrase "Please take your madness elsewhere" by responding "Please now take your strangeness." (4.1.13) Indeed, for Feste, "a sentence is only a horse's glove for a good mind." (3.1.10) Essentially, he is able to change his voice at will. Feste's mastery of language and his ability to convey any meaning through it parallels the mastery of language required by a playwright such as Shakespeare. A playwright, like Feste, must know all the properties of words to convey the message he wants. He must know the tones and vocabulary that each character needs for his role to be fleshed out, which in turn illuminates the meaning represented by his character in the larger organism of the play itself. Essentially, Feste and a playwright demonstrate a wealth of linguistic tricks, which allow them to get their message across. The depth doesn't just have to come from the complicated language shown by Feste; rather, the understanding demonstrated by Feste shows how a playwright understands how to use different tones for different effects. For example, Shakespeare gives Malvolio lines whose language reflects his arrogance. As Maria points out, he “counter-states without a book” (2.3.131), that is, he uses pretentious phrases without necessarily knowing their meaning. He also speaks with condescending legalistic language, such as when he tells Sir Toby "If you can part with your misdemeanors, you are welcome in the house" (2.3.89), which shows how much he takes himself seriously. Because of his keen understanding of language, Shakespeare chose lines for Malvolio that emphasize his character's status as a symbolof self-esteem. Finally, Feste personifies the idea that truth can be conveyed very effectively through the mouths of lowly characters. Traditionally, fools in medieval courts were the only individuals allowed to criticize the king or queen, and it was their low status that exempted them from any possible punishment. Yet in their enigmatic jokes there were seeds of truth that no one else dared to express. At Olivia's court, Feste calls her a fool several times, blaming her for mourning her brother. This is a fair criticism that no one else can make. Olivia and other characters like Sebastian take advantage of the fact that he is a clown to fire him. While some characters admire his wordplay and singing ability, almost no one seems to recognize the profound truths he spouts. For example, Malvolio fails to appreciate the relevance of Feste's song about the love of a man loving another man, and none of the characters are on stage to hear his song at the end of the play, this which reflects how one should interpret all comedy. Just as the truth is conveyed through the low persona of the madman, the playwright conveys the truth through the actors in a play, who are by analogy “low.” The characters in a play necessarily have a lower status than the audience, since they are fictional directed entities, who exist only to perform. Some characters are "low" themselves, such as the vain Malvolio, but Shakespeare nevertheless uses his ensemble of confused and misguided characters to tell a true story. Overall, Twelfth Night, while being a comedy filled with entertaining misunderstandings and clever puns, at the same time raises important points about love, misunderstandings, the folly of self-esteem, etc. . In this sense, all the actors are like fools whose lines are riddles containing truths that the audience must solve. In summary, Feste is like a playwright in the sense that they both convey their messages through performance, incorporate complex wordplay, and tell truths through lowly characters. In addition to the similarities in how Feste and a playwright communicate, they also both intend to convey the same thing. kinds of messages. My understanding of Feste's philosophy on deception is perhaps best represented by his statement to Orsino in the final scene: "My enemies tell me plainly that I am an ass, so that by my enemies, sir, I take advantage of my knowledge of myself. " (5.1.16) In other words, by being directly criticized, Feste believes, one can improve, which is why he responds critically and without inhibition to most of the characters with whom he interacts. One way to understand theater is to conceptualize it as a kind of critique of human behavior. This type of analysis may at least be appropriate for understanding Twelfth Night, due to the presence of the extensive subplot in which Feste and others attempt to teach Malvolio a lesson about self-love. Just as Feste attempts to put other characters in their place by making fun of them, theater productions like this aim to teach the audience about themselves, through subtle critiques of characters who, in turn, represent aspects of behavior inherent to human nature. The goal of these critiques would presumably be to get audience members to walk away with a better understanding of themselves. Like the clown Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste reflects the other characters in the play and serves as a truthful judge of their character. He is able to see things in people that others cannot see.For example, it is suggested that he realizes that Viola is only pretending to be a man, through his sentence: "Now, Jupiter, in his next hair, sends you a beard". (3.1.39) Viola notices his great skill of perception and considers that "he must observe their mood on whom he jokes / the quality of the people, and the weather / and like the haggard, check every feather / that precedes his eye. " (3.1.55-58) Likewise, a playwright implicitly passes judgment on the behavior of the characters in his play, and it is entirely appropriate that Feste represents this quality. Like the playwright, Feste's ultimate goal is to get others to reconsider themselves, given his assessment of their flaws. Feste criticizes a number of behaviors, some of which are then corrected throughout the play. He tells Olivia that her plan to ignore the court so that she can mourn her brother's death for seven years is foolish, and at the end of the play she decides to marry Sebastian. He tells Orsino that his "mind is a very opal" (2.4.74), that is, he is too sullen while at the end of the play he is content (albeit naively, like the final song suggests) that things are settled. good for them all. Obviously, through Feste's criticisms, the playwright also criticizes these behaviors. Feste's handling of Malvolio's caricatured self-esteem is perhaps the most striking example of the correlation between Feste and the playwright. Just as the playwright aims to manipulate the audience into reconsidering themselves through the use of fictional characters, Feste aims to manipulate Malvolio into losing his self-esteem by adopting the role of a fictional priest and convincing his that he is mentally ill. Sir Topas, the priest, is born from the imagination of a character born from the imagination of the playwright and is therefore a caricature of a fictional character. He speaks in an unconvincing false tone (“Bonos dies”) and is authoritative (“the old hermit of Prague”) (4.2.11). The fact that the person being spoken to isn't even on stage when Feste speaks his lines perhaps best demonstrates that this scene is a microcosm of a play itself. Malvolio represents an audience too involved to realize what is happening around them and which remains insensitive to the masked “truth” of the imbecile. It is fitting, then, that he finds himself “in the dark,” no matter how hard Feste tries to teach him otherwise. Because he is unwilling or unable to understand what Feste is trying to show him, Malvolio represents someone who is incapable of learning. to watch a theater production. His tragic self-esteem can be interpreted as implying a kind of closed-mindedness towards his character. In this sense, his story is about the importance of learning about himself from others, which Feste strives to make him do. This ties in with the idea that you should try to learn about yourself from a theater production. Malvolio continues to call him a fool, even when Feste sings him a song explicitly revealing his current situation with Olivia. Fittingly, since he has not learned from the truth-telling character, at the end of the play his ending is not a happy one and he leaves the final scene with an unresolved huff. Feste's final song in the play reveals how well he understands the mechanics of Twelfth Night. Although the play is a comedy and Orsino's final speech suggests that everyone had a happy ending, there are several characters, notably Malvolio, for whom things do not turn out so well. The chorus of Feste's song, "For the rain, it rains every day", suggests that he realizes the bittersweet nature of the play's ending and that while some people have happiness in their lives, others..