Fools and folly are widely used in comedy to create humour To what extent does this apply to Twelfth Night?

In this essay I will be exploring 12th Night and focusing on the extent at which rage is utilise to create humour. The word folly means a silly person or one who uses folly for the takement of others etc. In William Shakespeares buffoonery, Feste -licensed lounge about- the fathead is not the only visage who is subject to spudery others include Sir Andrew Aguecheek ( subjective fool), Malvolio who is exposed to be the natural fool and Sir Toby who is deemed to be the skipper of Misrule.Overall, fools and folly are widely used in Twelfth Night and form the basic plot. In Shakespeares Twelfth Night, Festes role in this Illyrian comedy is signifi faecest. Feste plays the role of a humble clown and is employed by Olivias father thus playing the role of the licensed fool of their household. Olivia states that Feste is an stoped fool meaning he is licensed to speak the truth of community around him in order to entertain others.This is withal seen when Curio states to the duke that Feste the jestera fool that the Lady Olivias father took much blissousness in. Even though Feste is employed to be foolish, when compared to the other characters he is deemed to be the wisest, wittiest and the most philosophic of all the characters. Viola echoes this by saying This fellows wise enough to play the fool. By having the role of a licensed fool, Festes main role is to speak to the truth. Comedy is achieved through with(predicate) the truthfulness of the character.The prototypical true glimpses of folly in Twelfth Night are seen in Act 1 dig 3. Sir Andrew serves as an excellent example of the judgement of Satire which Shakespeare throughout the play uses to undermine the so called rich people, hurrying class characters. Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to accost maria, which translates as chat her up and Sir Andrew foolishly addresses Maria as pricey mistress accost. Shakespeare interestingly uses satire but also comedy of address to illustrate his feelings t owards the rich and officeful.His intentions are clearly seen here for the rest of the play he starts with a powerful character macrocosm made a fool of and also ends with Malvolio organism made a fool of, not weaker characters uniform Maria (servant) feste (clown). In this neighborhood of the scene, the hearing expects a prominent, smart character to emerge on coif repay sufficient to the description given by Sir Toby Why, he has an income of three thousand ducats a year, which once more links to the idea of comedy of manners- a plot revolving around greed. Subsequently, Sir Andrew is a naive, un-intelligent person who creates comedy and folly by miss-understanding Sir Toby.Knights in Shakespeares time would easily be able to gain honour through women due to it being an attractive occupation. However, Sir Andrew is the complete opponent and this allows the earreach to jape at how a character can be so different from the usual stereotype. Sir Andrew being so naive and o pinion that he can easily add Maria to his endless list of women creates prominent irony, the audience cut that Maria thinks very poorly of him yet on the other hand Sir Andrew being so un-intelligent sedate thinks he is a wonderful human being.Alternatively, this area of Act 1 could show that even though Sir Andrew is rather naive, he still achieves because of the fact that Sir Toby mentions his three thousand ducats a year and Sir Andrew himself states to Maria that he is not such an ass and that he can keep his hand dry, this promotes the fact that when we wants to be, Sir Andrew can be smart and keep his hand dry which results in the audience weighing up whats to come in the future for Sir Andrew. Ultimately, Sir Andrew fails to woo Olivia resulting in Sebastian marrying Olivia.Overall, this links back to the idea of comedy of manners and satire as both Sir Toby and Sir Andrew have been socially undermined with it being Sir Tobys idea to set Andrew with Olivia and Sir Andrew failing in this quest. Feste who is employed to be funny and possibly foolish is quite the opposite when compared with Sir Andrew. Feste is a philosophical, smart and witty character. In relevance to the question, a fool (feste) is employed to make people laugh yet there is no doubting that he comes across as anything but a fool.Shakespeare uses this character to highlight and contrast the frailties in the other characters such as Sir Andrew for example by allowing the natural fool to be the natural wit which is a very clever tool, the audience arent express mirth at Feste being employed as fool yet laughing at how he makes others looking wish well a fool. In act 1 scene 5, we dont laugh at Feste for being a so called fool, we laugh at the witty re-marks that he creates and how undermines the people higher up him. Feste when talking to Maria regarding Countess Olivia states that Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage. This has deuce peculiar meanings.Firstly, Feste is sayi ng to Maria that sometimes its better being killed than entering marriage but to development the comedy the phrase could also mean that a well hung(sexual connotations) man can prevent a bad marriage. When compared to today, a modern day audience would still find that funny due to IY being true yet in Shakespearean comedy, the audience would have been very amazementd for a fool to come out with such a controversial phrase, thus change magnitude comedy. Shakespeare understands the need for surprise because the audience are laughing more at the surprise element rather than the joke itself.By putting this comical line in the final scene of the act, the audience have now gained a further understanding for the character and worked out how intelligent, witty Feste is. This will increase the popularity towards the character as the audience may have forgotten what happened previous to this scene when in act 2 yet the comical line from Feste would have stayed in their heads. Personally, S hakespeare wanted this immensely and therefore in relation to the question, yes fools are used to create humour but not through being stupid but by being witty and controversial as audiences like to be surprised.I believe the bad marriage area of the quote highlights the philosophical values that Feste has he is giving the audience his opinions on marriages which he has seen from a fools point of view. Shakespeare is also handing a lot of power to feste as he could be prophecy the future for the marriages of Sir Toby and Maria, Olivia and Sebastian etc. Finally, Shakespeare can be seen to use juxtaposition in order to allow the gag of Feste contrast with the well behaved Maria, this makes the audience possibly dislike Maria, an opinion shared by Shakespeare due to the time that he lived in, with the disrespectfulness of women.By the end of Act 2 scene 5, we gain the basic inherent plot. In scene 3, foolishness is definitely used to create comedy Shakespeare uses the main idea of dra matic irony to create comedy. Three characters (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria) construct a plan to help make Malvolio look a fool, Shakespeare uses three characters to make the plot seem more severe, linking to the idea of a minor form of scurrilous comedy. In this scene we learn that foolishness is enhanced by using more people to coterie up on another.Sir Toby speaks that He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt purge, that they come from my niece, and that shes in love with him. This quote firmly shows Hell think these letters are from Olivia and that shes in love with him. Shakespeare uses a gang approach to this due to Malvolio being a so called kill joy, Sir Andrew and Maria show their opinions on the plan with phrases like Sport royal I have t in my nose too. Which again highlights the mood of the other characters, the audience will ultimately laugh in feeling guilt towards Malvolio.In today world, a gang culture shows power due to power in numbers but in Shakespeare times it could be sign of wealth and power to be able to create a group situation. The word drop signifies the height at which this will drop Malvolio and purposefully drop his heart when he finds out he is made out to be a fool. Subsequently, Malvolio foolishness creates huge comedy due to him being imprisoned because of his actions towards Olivia. The idea of a gang creating a plan to make another human being look a fool allows Shakespeare to experiment how Malvolio could act.By the end of the play he is seen to be very spiteful and out for revenge. Comedy isnt evermore seen through people being fools or made out to be fools. Comedy is also achieved through other ventures. In order to gain approval in the kingdom Viola dresses as a man and therefore can work close to Orsino and takes on the name Cesario. This creates comedy because the audience have it away that she is a women beneath the disguise yet the characters dont (dramatic irony) therefore power is given to the audience and they enjoy this.We understand in Act 1 scene 2 that she is going to take up some disguise by saying Conceal me what I am, and be my aid. At this trice in time, Viola seems very determined and confident towards being a man and she has reason so due to marrying Orsino at the end of the play. Therefore comedy isnt just seen through the eyes of folly and foolishness its also achieved elsewhere. Due to it being a live play, the audience would be able to see its a disguised woman, even though all actors were men, and thus again increasing comedy.Twelfth Night was once a day to mark the end of the Christmas festivities. It was the feast of fools and even now, the Christmas gruntle is a time where we all seek entertainment in the form of amusement and folly. Therefore Twelfth Night is still relevant today. Even now we love to see people make fools of themselves and the characters we dont like to be served with just retribution. In conclusion to my question, the answer is simply yes. S hakespeare doesnt just have fools to laugh at (feste) which would seem the normal idea but he makes others look fools.This is through Malvolio being miss-lead, the naivete of Sir Andrew and possibly Orsino not having Olivia and having to make do with Viola. Interestingly, Shakespeare warms to the so called lower class characters like Feste, Maria by creating strong and confident characters that make the more upper class characters around them look fools. Comedy is also achieved in the play by the mistaken identity of Viola, the concept of black comedy and the comedy of manners. both key integral parts of how this play is seen comical. Overall, the main comedy comes from people acting foolish or looking foolish as well as the idea of comedy of errors.