Wisdom and Foolishness is an important theme in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. In this play, foolishness is utilized to show that love can make people do foolish and crazy things, particularly with the characters Olivia and Malvolio. In this essay I will explain how Olivia’s love for Cesario and her deceased family make her stubborn, while Malvolio’s love for Olivia makes him gullible and desperate. I will also explain how Feste is the wisest character in the play because he isn’t tangled up in love. Love affects people in different ways, and sometimes people are willing to do anything to the approval of those they desire most.
Olivia is a fool for mourning over her dead brother so excessively. She has the whole world at her feet, and yet she
…show more content…
if it please the eye of one, it is with me as the very true sonnet is, 'Please one, and please all.'”
Malvolio (To Olivia) (Act 3, Scene 4)
Malvolio is unusually happy in the above scene. He comes to Olivia dressed like the fool he has become. She is clearly confused by the situation and attempts to dismiss him. Yet Malvolio is so caught up in believing Olivia loves him that he doesn’t even seem to realise that he is making a fool of himself. Love made Malvolio hopeful, and in turn that hope made him gullible and easy to fool. Shakespeare shows how love can make it difficult to think things through rationally using the head, rather than the heart.
Despite being Olivia’s fool, Feste is perhaps the wisest character in Twelfth Night. He has the ability to analyze people and situations rationally. Perhaps this is in part due to the fact that he is the only character in this play who is not driven by love. While most characters are desperately trying to find love, Feste is simply watching it all happen. He even points out Olivia’s foolishness in her excessive mourning of her brother.
“The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven.”