Key points
Twelfth Night is a play by William Shakespeare, an English playwright.
It is a fast-paced comedy with romantic plots, mistaken identities and practical jokes.
It tells the story of a woman who disguises herself as a man and falls in love with her employer.
Video about the plot of Twelfth Night
Watch the following video to learn about the plot of Twelfth Night:
Narrator: Oh this is a real simple story of boy meets girl dressed as boy, who sends girl boy to girl who doesn’t want boy, but wants girl boy, but girl boy doesn’t want girl she wants boy, and when boy boy who’s the brother of girl boy turns up everybody gets married. See? Simple!
If music be the food of love, get me a sick bucket! This is Orsino, Duke of Ilyria. He’s totally in love with Countess Olivia, but she’s not interested. She’s in mourning for her brother and won’t accept visitors. Apart from this little guy, Cesario: he’s Orsino’s new message boy. Except he’s - a she! Called Viola! She disguises herself as a boy to get a job with the Duke, after she lost her twin brother Sebastian, when their ship got wrecked.
What she doesn’t know is that Sebastian is alive, rescued by a friendly pirate called Antonio. And whattayaknow! Countess Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Awkward! And Cesario falls in love with Orsino. Double awkward! While Viola’s Cesario disguise is working upstairs, there’s a lot of people not working downstairs. Mainly Sir Toby Belch, Olivia’s uncle; Maria, her maid; and Sir Andrew Aguecheek; who fancies Olivia, but is getting nowhere.
It’s partaaay, until Malvolio, who’s Olivia’s steward, tells them to shut up. In revenge, Maria fakes a love letter from Olivia to Malvolio. Malvolio tries to impress Olivia, but he acts so weird, she thinks he’s gone crazy, so Sir Toby locks him up. Sir Toby also sets up his pal Sir Andrew. He tells him “Cesario wants to fight you.” And when they’re forced to duel, it’s lame.
But suddenly, in leaps Pirate Antonio who thinks Cesario is Sebastian, and fights off Sir Andrew and then Sir Toby! The guards appear and nick Antonio for his pirate crimes. Antonio’s like hiya pal! And Cesario’s like “Who me!?” Then Sebastian appears and Olivia, who thinks he’s Cesario, says “Marry me”, and Sebastian says “Yeah! Why not? Hot ladies don’t throw themselves at a guy every day.” He’s right in there!
And Duke Orsino turns up and says “Hey!” but everything becomes clear when Cesario appears and the twins are reunited. Cesario says “I’m Viola”, and the Duke says “Let’s get hitched baby!” And even Malvolio gets released. Hey Malve. You might want to get out of here. They’re playing a song about it raining every day.
Did you know?
Twelfth Night takes its name from the festival held on the twelfth night after Christmas, a popular celebration during Shakespeare’s lifetime.
Plot summary
Main characters
Who are the main characters in Twelfth Night?
Viola and Sebastian are twins who have been shipwrecked on Illyria. Each believes the other is dead.
Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario and gets a job as a servant for the Duke of Illyria, Orsino. Sebastian is rescued by a captain called Antonio.
Orsino is in love with Olivia, who is a wealthy countess. She is mourning the death of her brother and does not return Orsino’s feelings.
Malvolio is Olivia’s serious and strict servant who is in charge of the household. He is often rude and insulting towards other members of the household staff. Other members of Olivia’s household are:
Sir Toby Belch – Olivia’s uncle. He is often drunk and enjoys playing tricks on people.
Feste – Olivia’s jester who sometimes works for Orsino. A jester is a type of entertainer.
Maria – she is Olivia’s gentlewoman - a type of maid who serves a lady - and has a close relationship with Sir Toby.
Sir Andrew Aguecheek – Sir Toby Belch’s friend who wants to marry Olivia.
Viola disguises herself as a man and becomes Orsino’s servant
The play takes place in the fictional setting of Illyria. The Duke of Illyria, Orsino, is sad because he is in love with a A countess is a noble woman who holds a title, either through marriage of from being the daughter of a nobleman. called Olivia but she does not return his feelings. Olivia is in A period of sadness following a death or wearing black clothes as a sign of respect following a death. for her brother and refuses to see anyone.
Viola has been shipwrecked in Illyria and thinks her twin brother has drowned. She disguises herself as a man called Cesario and goes to work for Orsino. Orsino is impressed with his new employee and trusts Cesario (Viola) to take his romantic messages to Olivia.
Cesario (Viola) manages to see Olivia and tells her how much Orsino loves her.
Where is Illyria?
Illyria is a fictional setting. It is thought that Shakespeare’s Illyria might be in modern-day Italy because some of the characters have Italian names.
Which one of these statements is true?
Both Olivia and Viola (Cesario) are sad because they are missing their brothers.
Viola (Cesario) goes to work for Olivia.
Olivia is sad because Orsino does not love her.
Statement 1 is true - Olivia’s brother has died and Viola (Cesario) has not seen her brother Sebastian since they were shipwrecked and she believes that he has drowned.
Statements 2 and 3 are false. Viola (Cesario) goes to work for Orsino, not Olivia. And Orsino is sad because Olivia doesn’t love him.
Did you know?
During Shakespeare’s lifetime, women did not have the same rights as men. Viola disguises herself as a man in order to get a job, because she fears she will not be employed as a woman.
Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola) and Viola falls for Orsino
Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, has survived the shipwreck and is being helped by a character called Antonio.
A love triangle develops when:
Olivia falls in love Cesario, but she doesn’t realise that Cesario is actually Viola
Viola (Cesario) falls in love with Orsino, but cannot express her feelings for him as she is in disguise
Orsino is in love with Olivia
Malvolio, Olivia’s A senior servant in charge of a household. tries to stop other members of the household from having a party. Maria is annoyed at Malvolio for spoiling their fun and decides to take revenge on him.
Maria plays a trick on Malvolio, Olivia’s strict steward
Maria writes a letter pretending to be Olivia. The letter suggests that Olivia has feelings for Malvolio and that he should smile at Olivia at lot and wear cross-gartered yellow stockings to please her. Maria leaves the letter out for Malvolio to find. Together with Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, she hides and waits for Malvolio to find the letter.
How does Malvolio react when he reads the letter?
Malvolio is delighted when he reads the letter and believes that Olivia loves him. He plans to do the things in the letter to please her, but unfortunately for him, the things will not please Olivia at all. Olivia is offended by smiling because she is in mourning and she hates the colour yellow. Maria, Sir Andrew and Sir Toby all laugh as they watch Malvolio react to the letter.
Malvolio embarrasses himself in front of Olivia
Olivia is concerned when Malvolio appears dressed in cross-gartered yellow stockings. She asks Sir Toby to look after him, but he instead decides to play another trick on Malvolio. He locks him a dark room and gets the A comedian employed to entertain., Feste, to convince him that he is seeing things and the room is actually full of light.
Meanwhile, Olivia makes her feelings clear to Cesario (Viola). Cesario (Viola) tries to explain that he (she) cannot love Olivia.
What does cross-gartered mean?
A garter is a band that holds up a stocking. In Shakespeare’s day men, as well as women, wore stockings and garters. Cross-gartered means to cross the garters around the stockings. Although yellow was a fashionable colour during Shakespeare’s time, Maria knows that Olivia hates the colour.
Sir Andrew is jealous of Cesario and challenges him to a duel
Sir Andrew also wants to marry Olivia. He becomes jealous when he finds out that she has feelings for Cesario (Viola).
Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to challenge Cesario (Viola) to a A sword fight between two people to settle an argument., although neither wants to fight.
What happens during the duel?
Before Sir Andrew and Cesario (Viola) can start fighting they are interrupted by Sebastian’s friend Antonio. He thinks Cesario (Viola) is Sebastian and is confused when he (she) doesn’t recognise him.
Later, Sir Andrew mistakes Viola’s twin Sebastian for Cesario (Viola) and tries to restart the fight but Olivia arrives on the scene and stops them. She also thinks Sebastian is Cesario (Viola) and declares her love for him. She is surprised when he agrees to marry her.
Video - Rehearsing the duel
Watch this video to see how a director might stage the comical duel scene.
Narrator: Welcome to rehearsals for Twelfth Night. Act four, scene one. Viola’s enemies pick a fight with her twin bro Sebastian thinking he’s Cesario in a serious case of mistaken identity. But will this fight be lethal or laughable? Only the director can decide.
Sir Andrew: Now sir, have I met you again? There’s for you.
Sebastian: Why? There’s for thee. And there. And there!
Chloe: Boys, pathetic. Sir Andrew obs thinks Sebastian is Cesario and starts on him. I thought it was totes going to kick off. But it was just a bit of handbags. Nobody wants any trouble. I do like a fight though.
Director: Guys I think that’s feeling pretty good. I think we should see if we can make it a bit more aggressive, a bit more physical violence in there but try and keep the comedy in there as well, yeah? So just a bit more.
Chloe: Then some right weirdo guy comes over, Derek Tor I think his name was, and anyway I thought he was going to break things up but he was proper stirring it. He seemed to think it was right funny. Anyway it all kicked off again.
Roff ell I mean what are they like? It weren’t a proper fight but it was proper lols. I nearly peed my pants. No really I did babes.
Sebastian: Are all the people mad?
Chloe: I think they are babes.
Director: Who is that?
Sebastian: No idea.
Director: Okay, look, don’t worry about it. That felt good. I’d like to see how it feels a bit more serious.
Sebastian: Yeah.
Chloe: Oh my gee. I don’t know what Derek Tor was playing at but he made it twenty times worse. It was well out of order.
Sir Toby: Put up your iron. You look well fleshed. Come on.
Chloe: Hit him back babes. Hit him. Hit him. Hit him now. Hit him. Hit him! What are you doing?
Disgusting behavior. I didn’t think it could get any worse but then well hmm, you wouldn’t believe it.
Director: Okay shall we give it a go?
Sebastian: Yeah.
Director: Let’s see how we get on, yeah?
Chloe: I mean I like a good punch up as much as the next girl, but this was bang out of order.
Alright, leave it. It ain’t worth it. It ain’t worth it.
Director: Okay, look, you need to calm down. This is a play.
Chloe: You might be playing Derek but he’ll have someone’s eye out in a minute.
Sebastian: No this is the bit where they confuse Sebastian, that’s me, with Cesario.
Chloe: You do well look like him. Only you’re more manly babes.
Sebastian: Well yeah because Cesario is actually Viola, my twin sister, dressed as a man.
Chloe: Ha, ha. Good one. Nearly had me there. Viola disguised as a man. Think that’s really funny. I mean they don’t even look like each other because one’s a man and one isn’t. Oh my days! Wait until I tell Viola you think she’s Cesario! She’ll pee her pants. Ha, ha.
Olivia and Sebastian get married
Olivia and Sebastian get married, and this causes lots of confusion because Viola, when dressed as Cesario, looks identical to her twin brother, Sebastian. The table below explains why each character is confused:
| Character | Why are they confused? |
|---|---|
| Viola | Viola (Cesario) is confused because Olivia addresses her as “husband” and Viola has not married Olivia. This is because Olivia has actually married Sebastian, who looks so much like Cesario (Viola) that Olivia cannot tell them apart. |
| Olivia | Olivia thinks she has married Cesario (Viola), but she has actually married Sebastian. She is confused when she addresses Cesario (Viola) as “husband” and Cesario has no memory of marrying her. |
| Orsino | Orsino thinks that Cesario (Viola) has married Olivia. He is furious because he considers Cesario a friend and trusted him to take his romantic messages to Olivia. He threatens Cesario. |
| Sebastian | Sebastian is confused because Olivia, his wife, is addressing another man as her “husband”. |
All becomes clear
In the middle of all the confusion, Sebastian arrives and everyone is amazed to see him and Cesario (Viola) in the same place at the same time. The twins, Sebastian and Viola, are delighted to be together again - each thinking the other had died in the shipwreck.
The mistaken identities are revealed, and all becomes clear. Orsino realises that Cesario is really Viola and proposes marriage.
Malvolio is angry that he was tricked by Sir Toby and Feste and says that he will get his revenge.
It’s revealed that Sir Toby has married Maria, so the play ends with three happy couples.
Why does the play end with marriages?
Many of Shakespeare’s comedies end with engagements and weddings - and often with more than one. A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night both end with three marriages and Much Ado About Nothing ends with two. Marriage was believed to represent happiness and joy and meant that the play could end on a celebration.
Activity - Put the events in order
Test your knowledge
Solve the Story!
An exciting new series from the Other Side of the Story, designed to help young people strengthen their media literacy skills.
More on Twelfth Night
Find out more by working through a topic
- count2 of 6
- count3 of 6
- count4 of 6
- count5 of 6
