"Twelfth Night" as a Romantic Comedy:
A Shakespearean comedy
is a romantic comedy- a combination of romance and comedy. Shakespeare’s
comedies have certain features in common. His comedy aims at sheer joy and
pleasure. He wrote tragedies because it was his taste but he wrote comedies to
relieve his mind from heaviness. Hence, the romantic atmosphere of his
comedies.
"Twelfth Night" is considered to be a romantic comedy:
The word
“romance” in general means passionate love between men and women, though it has
certain other meanings as well. Romance includes any kind of fervor and any
deep sentiment. Thus in Twelfth Night, the
friendship of Antonio and Sebastian is definitely romantic. The word “romance” also
implies danger, adventure and a heroic spirit- which we too find in Antonio’s
war-like past. Furthermore the word “romance” implies improbability, surprise
and coincidence. And this we also find in the manner in which on several
occasions, Sebastian is mistaken for Cesario and vice versa.
A Shakespearean comedy is a romantic comedy
It is a tale of love with ringing o marriage bells. It is
a tale of love at first sight. Not one or two of the characters are in love,
but all are in love. Twelfth Night opens
with a note of love. The duke is in love with Olivia, Olivia is in love with
Viola (disguised as Cesario) and Viola is in love with the Duke. Sir Andrew and
Malvolio both love Lady Olivia and want to marry her.
The setting of a
Shakespearean comedy is romantic; it is unfamiliar, remote and distant. It
exists only in the imagination of the dramatist. The scene of action is not
laid in familiar and realistic London but in Venice or the Forest of Arden. The
scene of action of Twelfth Night is Illyria, a country having no reality, but
existing only in the imagination of the playwright. It is in such a romantic
setting that the characters dance the merry dance of love and by the end are happily
united with their lovers.
Since Shakespearean
comedies are romantic comedies, love is bound to be there and a heart that
loves must sing therefore they are full of songs and music. Twelfth
Night opens with music and we find Duke Orsino feeding his love with
music. We get the following other songs in the comedy:
1.
“O mistress mine, where are you roaming”
2.
“Come away, come away, Death”
3.
“I am gone sir, and anon sir”
4.
“When that I was and a little fine boy”
Music does much to heighten the romantic
atmosphere of the comedy.
A Shakespearean comedy
is also romantic in the sense that it does not follow the classical unities of
time, place and action. In Twelfth
Night only the unity of place has been observed. There is no unity of
time or action. There is not one plot, but two plots. The tragic and the comic
are also mingled together. The main plot is serious and tragic in tone while
the subplot is entirely comic.
Such are the important
characteristics of a Shakespearean comedy, and they are all represented by Twelfth
Night. There is perfect unity in this romantic comedy. In short we may
say that Shakespearean comedies are unrivaled because of their strange
blending of pathos and joy, because of their realistic elements and because of
their universal appeal.
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