UW THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE
Disguising Deception and Desperation; An Exploration of True Desires
in Twelfth Night, or What You Will
“I am not what I am.”
Daniela Milicevic
The portrayal of masking true emotions and intentions in Twelfth Night, or What You Will invites more chaos than romantic harmony and leads many characters on a pathway of subconscious desperation for the truth.
The play Twelfth Night, or What You Will twists our perception of how the element of disguise is used and offers a unique perspective into the raw emotion that each character carries within. Masking emotions can be considered a form of disguising intention and the rational desires that come up begin to challenge reasoning with obstacles. The physical embodiment of using this form of masking can be found in the character Viola as she hides behind the adopted persona of Cesario. Masking her identity to fit in as Duke Orsino’s right hand man, a newly transformed Viola suppresses her grief and latches on to her desire to fit into Illyria. An added layer of desperation comes along when she begins to fall in love with Orsino but is forced to hide behind her masculine disguise to ensure she has stability and a good reputation in Illyria. This disguise turns into a restriction because if she were to tell the truth, then she would be at risk of losing her job and be banished for being caught lying. Additionally, our production is set in the 1920s and this gives us more context of how these power relationships would have evolved. In this time period, we can also identify that women often didn’t get job security or the luxury of knowing that they would be able to get another job without consequences - especially after discovering they were deceitful as Viola was with her mask. Therefore, the motivating pursuit of status and integration to Illyrian society is what drives Viola’s disguise.
At this same time, Olivia meets Cesario and is immediately infatuated with him despite being in a state of mourning and wearing predominantly black clothing to hide herself away from others. This shift in openness displays how disguise can be a motivating factor for desires and emotions to bleed through. Ironically enough, despite being in disguise, Viola reveals honest answers to her true identity but Olivia doesn’t pick up on them: “I am not what I am” (Shakespeare, 3.1.148). Shakespeare offers these monosyllabic words to create clarity in the sentence, however, disguise seems to be working as intended and these words don’t hold meaning to Olivia yet.
In contrast to the physical representation of disguise, many characters use a mask of deception to hide their malicious intent. This can be seen through the various pranks that Maria, Sir Toby, and Lady Andrea pull on Malvolio and Cesario. This includes the mischievous act of fabricating the letter to Malvolio pretending to be from Olivia by forging her handwriting. The result of this prank causes Malvolio to have a large reaction that everyone interprets as madness. This side of disguise is deceptive in a harmful way and further proves that disguising intentions lead to unintended perceptions and negative outcomes.
In the 1920s, the era in which our production is set - disguise was often seen as a fashion statement at masquerade balls and thus allowing for some nuance in how we portrayed disguise. While arguably a “noticeable” mask to their fashion choices at these balls, the understanding would be that the mask brought forth a different persona which is similar to the obvious Cesario disguise that is presented while not hiding Viola’s natural features well. In this play, there is room for interpretation of how doubtful Orsino and Olivia are concerning her disguise, or if their pursuit for alternate desires caused them to subconsciously ignore the absurdity that Viola was pretending to be someone else. In the end, the return of Viola’s twin brother Sebastian forces there to be clarity on who Viola truly is and unravels her disguise. Despite being shocked by this reveal, Orsino accepts her and the play ends - but this begs the question: did the disguise end or was it never a true disguise to begin with?