Twelfth Night Title

Twelfth Night is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have an alternative title: the
play is actually called Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Critics are divided over what
the two titles mean, but “Twelfth Night” is usually considered to be a reference to
Epiphany, or the twelfth night of the Christmas celebration (January 6). In
Shakespeare’s day, this holiday was celebrated as a festival in which everything was
turned upside down—much like the upside-down, chaotic world of Illyria in the play.
Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s so-called transvestite comedies, a category
that also includes As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice. These plays feature
female protagonists who, for one reason or another, have to disguise themselves as
young men. It is important to remember that in Shakespeare’s day, all of the parts were
played by men, so Viola would actually have been a male pretending to be a female
pretending to be a male. Contemporary critics have found a great deal of interest in the
homoerotic implications of these plays.
As is the case with most of Shakespeare’s plays, the story of Twelfth Night is derived
from other sources. In particular, Shakespeare seems to have consulted an Italian play
from the 1530s entitled Gl’Ingannati, which features twins who are mistaken for each
other and contains a version of the Viola-Olivia-Orsino love triangle in Twelfth
Night. He also seems to have used a 1581 English story entitled “Apollonius and Silla,”
by Barnabe Riche, which mirrors the plot of Twelfth Night up to a point, with a
shipwreck, a pair of twins, and a woman disguised as a man. A number of sources have
been suggested for the Malvolio subplot, but none of them is very convincing. Sir Toby,
Maria, and the luckless steward seem to have sprung largely from Shakespeare’s own
imagination.
What Does “Twelfth Night” Refer To?

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FURTHER STUDY WHAT DOES “TWELFTH NIGHT” REFER TO?
The title of Twelfth Night refers to the twelfth night of Christmas, also
referred to as the eve of Epiphany, a day that commemorates the visit of the
Magi to the baby Jesus and is often celebrated with a temporary suspension
of rules and social orders. As in the play, Twelfth Night revels in the
overturning of convention and general merriment. In the Church of England,
the Twelfth Night (or the eve of the Epiphany) was celebrated on January
5th, when celebrants sang songs, defaced doors with chalk, and ate Three
Kings’ or Twelfth Night cake. One of the most popular Twelfth Night
traditions was to hide a pea and a bean within the cake. The man who
discovered the bean would be proclaimed Lord or King of Misrule, while the
lady who found the pea would be Lady or Queen of Misrule. The Lord of
Misrule was usually a peasant or commoner who lead the drinking and
debauchery, as Twelfth Night was one of the few times of the year where
servants were allowed to mix with their masters, sometimes even switching
roles through disguises or by virtue of the coveted bean.
Although Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night clearly mimics the conventions of the
Twelfth Night celebrations, with the social order of the play suspended and
characters easily crossing social classes, there is no obvious reference to the
holiday within the play itself. As Samuel Pepys, a member of Parliament and
Administrator of the English Navy, noted in his diary upon seeing the play on
the eve of Epiphany in 1663, Twelfth Night was “acted well, though it be but
a silly play, and not related at all to the name or day.” While
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night makes no mention of the three magi, the
baptism, or the birth of Christ, it channels the rowdiness of the holiday
revelries. Feste the Fool, Sir Toby Belch, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek can all
be considered versions of the Lord of Misrule, while Maria bears strong
resemblance to the Lady of Misrule. Feste’s song at the end of the play
suggests the reintroduction of reality – once the festivities are over, the
audience will face a long, bleak winter in which social norms are back in
place and debauchery is frowned upon.

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Twelfth Night is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have an alternative title: the

What Does “Twelfth Night” Refer To?

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