Feste, the character of the madman in Twelfth Night, represents in many ways a playwright figure and embodies the scope and tools of the theater. He criticizes, manipulates, and entertains other characters by making them reflect on their life situations, which is similar to the way a playwright like Shakespeare interacts with his audience. Furthermore, more than the other characters in the play, he does so in a highly performative manner, involving songs and clever wordplay that must be decoded, and thus particularly reflects the mechanisms at the playwright's command. Feste is a representation of the figure of the medieval madman, empowered by his low status and able to speak the truth of the kingdom. A playwright tells the truth by using fictional actors and characters, who are in a low parallel status to the audience, as they lack the dimensionality of real people. Therefore, the role that Feste plays in the lives of the play's characters resembles the role that the play itself plays in the lives of the audience watching the play. This essay will explore this comparison by first 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Perhaps the most direct aspect of the way Feste communicates with other characters that resembles the communication of theater itself is the overtly performative nature of his character. A clown, Feste is often portrayed in elaborately made-up productions or wearing a fanciful jester costume. In this sense, it is almost a caricature of the way actors take on new identities when they become the characters they play. Dressing Feste up in a fun outfit draws attention to the fact that he is a fictional character. Similarly, a playwright would "dress up" his ideas during performance, having actors and actresses act out, rather than simply tell them. In four of the seven scenes in which he appears, he sings, which causes the other characters to praise 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; sings a "silly lenition" about the pains of love to Orsino in 2.4.50-65; sings a traditional song suited to Malvolio's love delusion to get his attention in 4.2.65-72; and sings about how even happiness isn't safe from the rain to end the show on 5.1.376-395. Orsino, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew all reward him with monetary payment for his performances. By singing, Feste brings the lyrics to life to move his audience. This parallels the way actors more broadly bring the script to life and convey the meaning of a play just by performing it. The simple text of a play is not sufficient to represent what a playwright wishes to convey, just as reading the simple verses of a song cannot have the same effect as listening to it sung. Feste in particular expresses this fact, because as a "performer" his singing voice is specifically required, and none of the other characters can convey ideas through singing as well as he can. In fact, when Orsino asks for a song in 2.4, Curio responds by saying "he's not here? he should sing it" and goes to get Feste (2.4.9). If anyone else attempted to sing the song, Curio realizes, they would not be able to "alleviate Orsino's passions." Through his unique ability to move other characters through performance,Feste symbolizes the actor who moves his theater audience by animating the script. In addition to his use of song, Feste amazes the other characters in the play through his use of clever wordplay. His spirit is best contrasted with that of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who in episode 1.3 communicate with Maria through wordplay that creates confusion due to an apparent lack of understanding of each other's meaning. Feste, on the other hand, is a crafty fool, and in 1.5 he engages Maria in a rapid battle of words. For example, his phrase "Well, let God give them wisdom that they have; and let them that are foolish, let them use their talents," (1.5.13) distorts a parable from Matthew 25 about working with possessions, where "talents" refer to currency. Here, he implies that fools should work and develop their crazy skill ("talent"). He then makes an appropriate pun on the word “hanging,” which refers to both being put to death and sexual prowess. Feste also impresses Viola with his mastery of language in 3.1, to the point that she rewards him with a payment. For example, she asks him if he lives "near" his tabor drum, and he puns that he lives "near the church", that is, close to it; she also puns on the word "wanton", which Viola uses to describe the malicious use of words, claiming that she wished her sister did not have a name, so that she could not be manipulated in obscene ways. A further related way Feste demonstrates his deep understanding of language is through his ability to change linguistic personality when appropriate. For example, he adopts a proverbial pseudo-religious tone in addressing Olivia when she mourns her brother in 1.5, mocking her supposedly unnecessary mourning. When he first meets Sebastian and believes him to be Cesario, he is disconcerted by his lofty language and parodies his phrase "Please vent your madness somewhere else" by replying "Please now unleash your weirdness." (4.1.13) Indeed, for Feste, "a sentence is nothing more than a cheveral glove for a good wit". (3.1.10) Essentially, he is able to change his voice at will. Feste's mastery of language and ability to convey any meaning through it parallels the mastery of language required of a playwright like Shakespeare. A playwright, like Feste, must know all the properties of words to convey the message he desires. He must know what tones and vocabularies each character needs to concretize his role, which in turn clarifies the meaning represented by the character in the larger organism of the work itself. Essentially, both Feste and a playwright demonstrate a full bag of linguistic tricks, which allows them to get their points across. The depth doesn't just have to come from the complicated language Feste displays; rather, Feste's demonstrated understanding shows how a playwright knows how to use different tones for different effects. For example, Shakespeare gives Malvolio lines whose language reflects his arrogance. As Maria points out, he "against state without a book" (2.3.131), that is, he uses pretentious phrases without necessarily knowing their meaning. He also speaks in condescending legalistic language, such as when he tells Sir Toby "If you can separate yourself and your crimes you are welcome in the house" (2.3.89), which shows how seriously he takes himself. Thanks to his profound knowledge of language, Shakespeare chose lines for Malvolio that highlight his character's status as a symbol of self-love. Finally, Feste personifies the idea that the truth can be conveyed very effectively through the mouths of low characters. Traditionally, in medieval courts, thefools were the only individuals allowed to criticize the king or queen, and it was their low status that relieved them of any possible punishment. Yet in their cryptic banter there were seeds of truth, which no one else dared to utter. At Olivia's court, Feste calls her foolish on several occasions, criticizing her for mourning her brother. This is an accurate criticism that no one else can make. Olivia and other characters like Sebastian use the fact that he is a clown to dismiss him. While some characters admire his wordplay and singing ability, almost no one seems to recognize the profound truths he spouts. Malvolio, for example, fails to appreciate the appropriateness of Feste's song about the love of a man who loves another man, and none of the characters are on stage to hear his song at the end of the opera which reflects on how he should do the whole play. Just as the truth is conveyed through the low character of the fool, the playwright conveys the truth through actors in a play, who are similarly "low." The characters in a play necessarily have a lower status than the audience, since they are direct fictional entities, existing solely to perform. Some characters are themselves "low", such as the vain Malvolio, but Shakespeare still uses his collection of confused and misguided characters to tell a truthful story. On a general level, Twelfth Night, while a comedy full of funny misunderstandings and clever wordplay, at the same time makes some important points about love, misunderstandings, the folly of self-love, and so on. In this sense, all actors are like fools, whose lines are riddles containing truths that the audience must solve. In summary, Feste is like a playwright in that they both convey their messages through performance, incorporate intricate wordplay, and tell the truth through low characters. In addition to the similarities in how Feste and a playwright communicate, they both intend to convey the same thing. sort of messages. My understanding of Feste's philosophy of 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 from my enemies, sir, I profit by self-knowledge ". (5.1.16) That is, by being criticized directly, Feste believes, one can improve oneself, which is why he responds critically without inhibition to most of the characters he interacts with. One way of understanding theater is to conceptualize it as a kind of criticism 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 try to teach Malvolio a lesson about self-love. Just as Feste tries to put other characters in their place by making fun of them, theatrical productions like this aim to teach the audience about themselves, through subtle criticism of the characters who in turn represent aspects of behaviors inherent to human nature. The purpose of this criticism, presumably, would be to ensure that audience members 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 sincere 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 line: "Now Jupiter in his next commodity of hair sent a beard." (3.1.39) Viola notes his great skill of perception, and contemplates that he "must observe the mood he jokes about / thequality of people, and time / and as the haggard, check every feather / that comes before his eye." (3.1.55-58) Similarly, a playwright implicitly passes judgment on the behaviors of the characters in his play, and it is fitting that Feste represents this quality. Like the playwright, Feste's ultimate goal is to convince others to reconsider themselves, given his assessment of their shortcomings. Feste criticizes a number of behaviors, some of which come next corrected throughout the play. She tells Olivia that her plan to ignore the courtship so she can mourn her brother's death for seven years is foolish, and at the end of the play she decides to marry Sebastian "mind is very opal" (2.4.74) i.e. that he is too moody while at the end of the show he settles (albeit naively, as the final song suggests) that things will go well for all of them Transparently, through criticism of Feste, the playwright also criticizes these behaviors. The way Feste handles Malvolio's caricatural self-love 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-respect by adopting the role of an imaginary curate and convincing him that he is mentally ill. Sir Topas, the curate, was born from the imagination of a character born from the playwright's imagination, and is therefore a caricature of an imaginary character. He speaks in an unconvincing false tone ("Bonos dies") and constitutes the authorities ("the old hermit of Prague") (4.2.11). That this scene is a microcosm of a play itself is perhaps best evidenced by the fact that the individual being spoken to is not even on stage as Feste delivers his lines. Malvolio represents an audience that is entirely too self-involved to realize what is happening around them, and remains unreceptive to the fool's disguised "truth". It is therefore appropriate that he finds himself "in the dark", no matter how much Feste tries to instruct him otherwise. Because he is unwilling or unable to understand what Feste tries to show him, Malvolio represents someone who is unable to learn. from watching a theater production. His tragic self-love can be interpreted as implying a sort of closed-mindedness towards his character. In this sense, his story becomes a story about the importance of knowing oneself from others, which Feste strives to make him do. This parallels the idea that one should seek to learn about oneself from a theater production. Malvolio continues to think of him as a fool, even when Feste sings him a song that explicitly reveals his current situation with Olivia. Fittingly enough, since he hasn't learned from the character that he's telling the truth, at the end of the play his is not a happy ending, and he leaves the final scene in a huff unresolved. 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 has had a happy ending, there are several characters, particularly Malvolio, for whom things don't work out so well. The refrain of Feste's song, "For the rain it rains every day", suggests that he realizes the bittersweet nature of the opera's ending, and also that while some people are happy in their lives, others are not. In the fifth verse, Feste replaces the refrain symbolizing a negative effect on happiness with the self-conscious phrase "And we'll strive to please you every day." Placing this verse where it should go..