History Theatre / TwelfthNight

* StraightMan: The Sebastian is almost always played as one: He is a relatively bland character who is dropped into a ludicrous situation.

* OnlySaneMan: Sebastian is usually played as a StraightMan, who thinks--not without cause--that everyone around him has gone mad.

!!TropeNamer for
* TwelfthNightAdventure
----

* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: Olivia marries [[spoiler:Sebastian, thinking that he's ]]Viola.

* SweetOnPollyOliver: Orsino to Viola
* SweetPollyOliver: Viola

* TwelfthNightAdventure

* EndOfAnEra: The theme of the play, as evidenced by the BittersweetEnding.

-->'''Feste''': [[ InsaneTrollLogic No such matter, sir. I do live by the church, for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.]]

-->'''Feste''': No such matter, sir. I do live by the church, for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.

* BittersweetEnding: Feste's melancholic ending song aside, most everyone got a happy ending, except for [[spoiler: Antonio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Malvolio]].

* FreudianSlip: When Orsino's BerserkButton is pushed ([[spoiler: he finds out that Olivia loves Cesario]]), he threatens to murder Cesario, comparing himself to an Egyptian thief who murdered his own lover to keep her from being tortured. He's inadvertently revealing that Cesario is the one he's in love with.

* [[strike: HideYourLesbians]] [[HideYourLesbians Trick Your Lesbians Into Marrying Guys]]: Scholars have debated about Olivia for a long time: she married "Cesario" thinking he was male, but she fell in love with the female Viola. [[spoiler: Fortunately, Viola and Sebastian are similar in temperament and character as well as looks - this is possibly Lampshaded with the line "You are betrothed both to a man and maid."]]

* HourglassPlot: Antonio saved Sebastian's life after a horrific storm, when they were both mired in a strange country. Antonio grew very close to Sebastian, and even got into a duel in Sebastian's defense. When Antonio was placed under arrest by Orsino, his old rival, he expected that Sebastian would help him out — only for Sebastian to act like he's never met Antonio before. [[spoiler: Fortunately, that wasn't actually Sebastian.]]

** SweetOnPollyOliver: Orsino to Viola

* JerkassWoobie: Malvolio, hands down. Even ''the characters'' admit they went too far in humiliating him.

--> '''Orsino''', who is {{in love with love}}, music, and, ostensibly, the Countess Olivia. And bad puns. (''Twelfth Night'' I.i.1)

''Twelfth Night, [[EitherOrTitle or What You Will]]'' is a comedic play by {{William Shakespeare}}.

Actually, that sums up {{Shakespeare}}'s play pretty well. Viola has been shipwrecked in Illyria, and the captain tells her that the wreck carried off her twin brother as well. Being a gentlewoman, Viola is bereft of skills aside from singing and other musical arts ([[InformedAbility at which she says she is proficient]]), and so decides to dress up as a young eunuch so she might find employment under the Duke Orsino (see above), of whom she has heard good things. (She would rather serve the Countess Olivia, but the lady, heartbroken by the loss of her father and brother, has sworn off male company and presumably is not hiring.)

Now the subplot:
[deep breath] Olivia has given over the management of her household to her Puritan steward Malvolio, whose new position causes him to look down on Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch. Sir Toby is taking advantage of a [[UpperClassTwit brainless rich boy]] named Andrew Aguecheek, by convincing the hapless Sir Andrew that Olivia would like to marry him. However, Olivia has no intention of the kind, and Sir Toby simply likes to use Andrew's money to fund his drinking and revelry. Malvolio comes down hard on Sir Toby, who, along with Olivia's handmaid Maria, decides to play a little trick on the lecherous social climber Malvolio...

* BoisterousWeakling: Sir Andrew.

* CompressedHair: Not universal, but very common for Viola.

* CoverChangesTheMeaning: Feste's song at the end. Trevor Nunn's version makes it a fairly jubilant little number, but other versions range from bittersweet to plain sorrowful.
* DeadpanSnarker:

* DrivenToVillainy: After getting yanked around the entire play, Malvolio loses it at the happy ending and vows revenge on the whole lot of them.

* TheDulcineaEffect: How well Orsino actually ''knows'' Olivia is questionable.

* {{Half Identical Twins}}: Viola and Sebastian seems to be this since many characters mistake them for one another when Viola masquerades as Cesario.

* InLoveWithLove: The Duke Orsino.

* LampshadeHanging of the "Message from Fred" variety:

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Shipwreck at sea, according to the old Sea Captain.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted, if only in a minor way. Olivia dismisses "Cesario" by snapping, "'Tis not that time of moon with me to make one in so skipping a dialogue." Cue Olivia's handmaid Maria trying to usher Cesario out: "Will you set sail sir? Here lies your way!"

* OperationJealousy: It's possible to play Mariah, during the scene when she meets Sir Andrew for the first time, as deliberately leading Sir Andrew on to try and make Toby Belch jealous.

* TheReveal: To someone just watching the play, ''sans'' playbill, Viola's ''name'' is not revealed until towards the end of the very last scene.
* ServileSnarker:

* TheUnSmile: Malvolio. Puritan fellow. Doesn't smile a lot. If he doesn't give off at least one horrifying grimace by the end of this line, you're doing it wrong.

* UpperClassWit: Duke Orsino.
** Sir Toby, too, though he's far less classy.
* WalkOnTheWildSideEpisode: The rigid Puritan Malvolio lets it all hang out by dressing in flamboyant fashions meant for somebody twenty years younger and protests his love for his shocked female employer.

* WomenAreWiser: in Orsino and "Cesario"'s dialogue, Orsino seems to be much less mature in his love than Viola, who is entirely capable of actually working for her love rather than sitting around and moping.

** Feste gets bonus points here. Sir Toby has a rational reason to act against Malvolio (Malvolio hates him, and is trying to cut him off from Olivia, who is both his niece and his source of support) - even so, by the end of the play, TOby has had his fun and wants to let Malvolio go and move on. Feste, by contrast, is spiteful and mocking even then... and while Toby only arranged for Malvolio to be publically mocked and imprisoned for a time, Feste made the poor man think he was to be ''executed''. So, what did Malvolio do to make Feste hate him so much? He ''doesn't like Feste's jokes''. That is truly the only reason given. Is it any wonder that Malvolio was...

* EitherOrTitle: Played with.

* WordSaladTitle: ''Twelfth Night'' refers to its first performance.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Feste gets a lot of this. His generally witty lines leave the majority of viewers genuinely amused and enjoying him as comic relief, but his somewhat bittersweet closing song ("the rain, it raineth every day" - see CoverChangesTheMeaning, below) make others view him as a subtly tragic SadClown. Finally, the ludicrous extent of his DisproportunateRetribution (again, see below) makes others argue he is a MonsterClown with total sociopathy, willing to unmake any character as thoroughly as he did poor Malvolio if given half a chance to get away with it.

All in all one of Shakespeare's lighter, sillier plays (albeit one with quite a dark undertone), but a classic of English literature nonetheless. It's been adapted as a movie twice--a silent version in 1910 and, more notably, Trevor Nunn's [[AdaptationDistillation entertaining 1996 version]] which transported the characters into a setting reminiscent of Victorian England and/or Wilhelmine Germany. The plot was also the basis for the 2006 teen comedy ''[=~She's the Man~=]''.

** The tagline for ''[=~She's the Man~=]'' pokes fun at this, in full, it goes: "Duke wants Olivia who likes Sebastian who is really Viola whose brother is dating Monique so she hates Olivia who's with Duke to make Sebastian jealous who is really Viola who's crushing on Duke who thinks she's a guy..."

** And Maria. Her response to Sir Toby's claim that Sir Andrew "hath all the good gifts of nature":
---> He hath indeed, almost natural; for, besides that he’s a fool, he’s a great quarreller; and but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he hath in quarrelling, ’tis thought among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of a grave.
*** Note that the word "natural", at the time, implied the natural opposite of a quick-witted professional fool like Feste: an idiot, or a "born fool".

* ZeroChops: Viola vs. Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Then subverted when Andrew's ready for a rematch -- only to meet Viola's actually competent HalfIdenticalTwin instead.

** Viola's HalfIdenticalTwin brother Sebastian. In Shakespeare's earlier play ''TheTwoGentlemenOfVerona'', Julia dressed up as a boy and played a highly Viola-like role...and "Sebastian" was the name of her alias.

--> '''Orsino''', who is {{in love with love}}, music, and, ostensibly, the Countess Olivia. And bad puns. (''TwelfthNight'' I.i.1)