Shakespeare’s Most Romantic Play (Is Not Romeo and Juliet)
The romances in Shakespeare's comedies are often overlooked in favour of the tragedies, despite Twelfth Night being the perfect example of a romantic comedy.
Becca Masker
Olivia, Maria and Malvolio from "Twelfth Night," Act III, Scene iv by Johann Heinrich Ramberg (1763–1840)
When thinking of Shakespeare’s most iconic romantic couples, the tragedies often spring to mind. Maybe Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed teenage lovers, or Othello and Desdemona. Perhaps Hamlet and Ophelia’s tragic, unfulfilled love. Maybe some would even think of the toxic yet kinda sexy Macbeths, as cryptic and cynical as their love is. You may think of Hermia and Demetrius' bumbling love affair in Midsummer Night’s Dream, but overall the romances in Shakespeare’s comedies are often overlooked, despite the comedies often being wholly centred on romance. Famously all of them end with weddings. Shakespeare could even be considered the architect of proto-romantic comedies, with many of them centring on romantic tropes familiar to modern audiences, which is why Hollywood continues to reach back and adapt Shakespeare’s comedies into the rom-coms we know and love. Twelfth Night is Shakespeare’s most romantic comedy, with every character’s plotline centring on them loving or lusting and being loved or lusted after. From the opening line, “If music be the food of love, play on”, the play is saturated in romance and the way it makes people become fools.
Every character in Twelfth Night is driven by love;
Orsino is in love with Olivia, who is in love with Viola, who is in love with Orsino.
Antonio is in love with Sebastian, and Sebastian falls in love with Olivia, who thinks he’s Viola.
Malvolio thinks he is in love with Olivia but really is in love with her place in society.
Sir Toby is in love with drinking. And partying.
Sir Andrew is in love with himself.
Maria is in love with chaos.
Shakespeare relishes in the way love deceives us and the idea that what we want is often, unfortunately, not what we need. Just like the best romance novels and comedies, misunderstandings and love triangles are abundant in Twelfth Night. It’s crucial to note that the characters' happy endings do not result in them being with the first person they were so desperately in love with at the start of the play. This type of ending has been carried over into modern romantic comedies such as Some Kind of Wonderful. The characters are not only driven by love but the expectations of love they have created. These expectations are then turned upside down to demonstrate that the type of love the characters need is not the type they want.
Shakespeare also focuses on the less glamorous side of love, the way love is embarrassing, the way it makes us debase ourselves and look ridiculous in its pursuit. The most obvious instance of this is the extended sequence of Malvolio dressing in ridiculous clothes and performing for Olivia, a complete pivot from the reserved and morose character he is at the start of the play. Even Olivia is seen as pitiful as she desperately tries to get Viola’s affection. Viola states that Olivia’s bungled seduction has made her “your fool.” The cringe-worthy gags of Olivia and Viola’s courtship and the secondary cast of characters wouldn’t be out of place in a 2000s romantic comedy. Shakespeare focuses on the ways people try to twist themselves to fit the ideal of the person they are in love with, such as Viola dressing as a man to be near Orsino and Antonio endangering himself to assist Sebastian. Mistaken identity is a common motif carried over to modern romantic comedies such as Maid in Manhattan or Notting Hill. Love is portrayed not only as a disruption to social order but as a revelatory power though all deceptions are forgiven once revealed.
This idea of love as a revealing force is further evident in both the characters' various masquerades, being both in the pursuit of love and said deceptions being revealed in the last scene of the play where all the couples are finally paired off together. Despite Shakespeare focusing on the ways love can cause characters to make mistakes, embarrass themselves, or disguise themselves, Twelfth Night does not present a cynical version of love. Contextually, it is ultimately a cause of celebration. It saves Antonio’s life, Sebastian and Viola are reunited, and there is, of course, a wedding at the end of the play. Though he doesn’t present a completely rose-tinted picture as Malvolio swears his revenge, and poor Antonio is shuffled off stage with no acknowledgement. Even the play is intended to be performed as part of a celebration. The title “Twelfth Night” refers to the last night of Christmas festivities during the Tudor period. Like, all good British rom-coms, Christmas has to be involved.
The theme of the power of love as a revelation carries through the self-referential tone which permeates the play. Twelfth Night is Shakespeare’s most meta play, filled with fourth wall breaks and references to Shakespeare’s other works. Maria’s deception of Malvolio is openly called “a device”, and one of the characters even says that they would not believe the events of the play if it was performed on stage. Much of the plays' misunderstandings and deceptions reference his other comedies. Women dressing as men feature in As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and the Two Gentlemen of Verona. Love deceptions and bets also appear in Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Taming of the Shrew and Love’s Labour Lost. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare is evidently in dialogue with himself and is revealing himself to the audience. There is a sense that Shakespeare is celebrating his youth's silliness and the lightness of love. In the clown’s song, he proclaims
“What is love? Tis not hereafter. Present mirth hath present laughter. What’s to come is still unsure. In delay there lies no plenty, Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty. Youth’s a stuff will not endure.”
An undercurrent of melancholy does run through Twelfth Night, largely relating to how love is predominantly reserved for the young. It also marked a tonal shift in Shakespeare’s writing. Twelfth Night was one of Shakespeare’s last “true” comedies, with many of the comedies coming after it now being categorised as romances or problem plays due to their much darker material. Yet, despite this clear desire to rest the romantic comedy elements in his plays, Shakespeare’s comedies from this era have been more widely adapted by Hollywood than his problem plays. Moreover, many of his tropes are still evident in many rom-coms from the late 20th and early 21st century. Shakespeare’s satirisation of love and its depiction in art ultimately becomes the most joyous celebration of it, the ultimate revelation perhaps being that he was a true romantic at heart.
Becca Masker is a London-based writer who loves science fiction novels, Studio Ghibli films, and going on long walks. She occasionally posts on her TikTok account @booksn0b.
Work cited:
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will. Project Gutenberg. November 1, 1998. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1526
