Disguises in Twelfth Night

A very obvious theme in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is that of disguise. It is evident on the surface because the principal character, Viola, spends the majority of the play in the guise of a man. Orsino and Olivia both find themselves attracted to her despite her gender or appearance, and I think that Shakespeare’s purpose in writing Viola as a woman dressed in male clothing was to show how ephemeral romantic attraction is. In fact, only Viola, who is wearing the disguise, has a love that is unhindered by physical deception in the form of clothing.

Underneath the surface however, the theme of disguise is also apparent in more subtle ways. Malvolio for example, wears crossed garters and yellow stockings because he believes that it will help him rise in social standing. In addition, when he dreams of being Olivia's husband, he imagines himself wearing a "branched velvet gown" (2.5.45), which supports the theme that clothing and identity are linked together. Later on in the play, when Malvolio is imprisoned in a dark room, Feste visits him pretending to be a priest named Sir Topas, and even though Malvolio will not be able to see him, he still finds it necessary to don a disguise. This suggests that clothes really do have the power to change a person's identity. I think that this is part of Shakespeare's satiric purpose however, because through this theme of disguise, he makes it appear as if the nature of human identity is not fixed, as it can be changed merely by wearing different clothes.