The Dark Imagery In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Malvolio is conveyed as one of the many humours character in Shakespeare’s most popular comedy play - Twelfth Night. Shakespeare introduces Malvolio as an arrogant, overbearing, pretentious, sometimes malicious, ignorant and delusional character. Malvolio is a steward in Count Olivia’s house and he enjoys dictating people and giving out orders - he takes his job very seriously. Despite his many flaws, he is - in my opinion, a complex yet fascinating character. Furthermore, Malvolio is the main subplot to the Viola-Olivia-Orsino love triangle except for the fact that he’s one of the only important characters in the play, to not receive a happy ending. Some may argue that it is indeed Malvolio’s misfortune of tale of ambition overcoming good sense. His foolishness and ignorant mindset get him into trouble and some might say that he's destined and responsible for his downfall had he not been so self-entitled which could be demonstrated in “it did come to his great hands”.Not only does it signify how he believes he is of royalty, but he is also praising himself by referring to the word “great” as if he knew this was going to happen since he could've possibly believed that Olivia had been secretly in love with him this entire time as well. In a similar manner, not only is his vanity an unattractive feature, his harshness creates a loath of conflict between himself and the lower - class workers who dislike him. 

As the audience, we now begin to pity Malvolio as Sir Toby, Maria, Feste, and Fabrin begin to conspire and hitch to plan a wicked trick on him which is to forge a letter in the style of Olivia’s handwriting. Although the letter never clearly states to whom it’s referring to, it is addressed to her “beloved”. Due to the fact that Malvolio is excessively proud of himself, it makes him allude to the idea that the letter is addressed to him and that Olivia is in love with him, which enhances the comic effect in the play. Shakespeare exemplifies comedy through the letter being a deception - which is indeed a set up for dramatic irony since Malvolio himself is not aware of the intentions behind this letter. Moreover, this encapsulates Malvolio’s characteristic of being full of “self-love” - (which was directly commented by Olivia) and him being delusional to believe such a joke. On the other hand, if Malvolio did not have such an egotistical nature, it would be much more challenging to play this trick upon him, to which it makes the audience at this point, harder to sympathise with him. Although, some may beg to differ and illustrate that the character of Malvolio is treated too cruelly to be classed as a comedy. In particular to the fact that Malvolio is one of the only characters, including Sir Andrew to receive unrequited love. In addition, Malvolio does not receive a real apology once the truth is unfolded which angers him, to which he vows “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you”. However, Malvolio has been designated to appear to be a rude malicious character by throwing the ring at Cesario - “if it be worth stooping for, there it lies in your eye. If not, be it his that finds it”. 

According to this, perhaps one could interpret that Malvolio is held accountable for his downfall. Above all, Shakespeare again amplifies the use of potential comedy through Malvolio by presenting him as a witty character, with featured repartee dialogues such as “besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a foolish knight” and “those who delight in the company of fools are no better than the fools” which was highlighted during his conversation with Feste. His harsh words are subsided due to the fact that he is judged as amusing towards the audience. In spite of the fact that he brings humour to the play, our sympathy gradually starts to builds up towards the end of the play when he is requested to wear “yellow stockings” and “cross-gartered” - to which Olivia concludes that he's “ill”. Not to mention the fact that they lock Malvolio away in a dark room and terminate him as a “mad - man”. As a member of the audience, I begin to have empathy towards Malvolio as the joke begins to escalate as Feste ridicule’s him by calling him satan - “fie, thou dishonest Satan”, which immediately sets the tone to be much darker than a typical comedy play. Shakespeare uses the technique of dark imagery to inflict Malvolio’s suffering upon the audience to make us sympathise with him. There is also a mention of ‘darkness’ in Act 4 Scene 2 when Malvolio quotes “I say to you this house is dark”. Perhaps the intentions of the trick are much deeper than just making Malvolio getting a taste of his own medicine since the joke carries on until the very last scene of Act 5. To which I believe that Malvolio has been tortured enough and they should've been satisfied and put an end to this act at once. 

Moreover, Shakespeare could be asserting more elements of darkness by introducing Malvolio as a Puritan who is seen wearing dark clothing (mostly black) - to which Sir Toby mocks Malvolio’s puritanical strictness. Shakespeare also denotes the idea that Malvolio lacks a sense of humour and is particularly strict in character, specifically in regards to the other characters and their dialogues, which even goes to notice by Olivia who encourages him not take Feste’s foolishness so “seriously”.

In summary, although Malvolio believes he is more important than the other characters in the household, some may say that it is his desire to become superior that gets him punished. However, Orsino is another character who similarly shares the same narcissistic fantasy but he is not punished and gets his happy ending, which I believe is unfair on Malvolio. As said before, Shakespeare could be exploiting Malvolio’s character to make the audience build up more hatred and then further on into the play he is humiliated further. However, some may argue that this keeps the audience more intrigued in regards to the main plot. Overall, I believe that Malvolio is a comical character who is popular towards the audience and who has contributed many features into subplots, for example, the love story of Viola-Olivia-Orsino storyline and that his downfall is indeed tragic. What’s more is that I believe this was a barbaric act put together by the rest of the vindictive characters, and although Malvolio can be extremely over-bearing at times, he did not deserve to face such a harsh fate and that he did endure a lot of torture such as to be treated like a “mad-man” and be called “satan” - which is not exactly humane. Therefore, as a member of the audience, indeed I sympathise with the character Malvolio and believe he has a vital role in the play.