Essay: English and Italian themes in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Many students and scholars agree that William Shakespeare contributed significantly to the wide array of current English literature. Shakespeare’s work is unique, original and often contains thought provoking discussion. It is believed that Shakespeare conducted thorough research before writing in order to bring a natural sense of humor and to replicate real people within his works. Because of his unique style, many agree that he has a genre of its’ own – however there are key differences to each of his works. When analyzing themes of Englishness in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, one is able to deduce that said themes are lacking when compared to his other works.
When comparing Shakespeare’s other works with Twelfth Night there are decisive elements which show the comparatively low English themes. The play is written in a style which is similar to Commedia dell’Arte – a comedic Italian play style which relies heavily on improvisation. This style contains character archetypes which can be closely related to the characters of Twelfth Night.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night displays less English fluency compared to his other works. Even though the play is written in English, Shakespeare derives and quotes words and phrases from both Italian and Latin. For example, the sentence “I think not so, my lord” does not show a direct control of language (Shakespeare ). The text has demonstrated these Italian themes through many aspects such as the title of the play, the names of the characters, and the plot.
One of the most conspicuous instances that the play has Italian origin is the fact that it is very similar to an Italian plays Gl’Ingannati – a comedy produced before Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night. The story interestingly featured twins who were separated when their ship got wrecked in the sea. Also, the love triangle between Olivia, Viola and Orsino was borrowed from Italian literature. The text is also compared to Barnabe’s story of ‘Apollonius and Silla’ which reflect the plot of Twelfth Night – containing a shipwreck, a woman who is disguised as a man and twins who got separated. These common themes show that Twelfth Night contains more Italian themes than English.
Shakespeare’s access to Italian works is evident as demonstrated by his choice of names he used in his play. Many of his characters’ names are also derived from past Italian literature – especially from Gl’Ingannati. For example, Shakespeare uses the names ‘Fabian’ and ‘Malvolio’ which were derived from Gonzaga’s play. Another critical detail on the names of characters chosen by Shakespeare is the fact that he borrowed most of its principal character names from the Italian literature.
Apart from Malvolio and Fabian, other names which present significant reference to the Italian literature include Cesario, Orsino, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek; which are likely to be appropriated rather than originated by Shakespeare. As demonstrated in the introduction of Gl’Ingannati, “Malevolti” was presented as a significant name similarly to Fabio as used by Shakespeare. Although the author was not original in deriving the names of his characters, he was careful not to get obligated to using existing articles. In addition to the fact that the names of characters in the comedy are borrowed from past Italian works, it is also important to note that the characters are not English thus limiting the Englishness in the text. The only name that has an English origin in the play is “Sir Toby Belch”. The rest of the characters’ names are derived from Italian origin.
Another essential occasion that demonstrates that the story is more of Italian is the fact that the origin of the plot of Twelfth Night is from Italian literature. As mentioned earlier, the plot of the Twelfth Night is derived from the two Italian stories – Gl’Ingannati and Apollonius and Silla. Gl’Ingannati, for example, has nearly similar instances in the plot as the Twelfth Night such as the beforementioned shipwreck and the twins that are separated.
Similarly in Apollonius and Silla the story involves a woman who disguises to a man and twins who got separated at some point. Moreover, in Gl’Ingannati the character of Isabella is more similar to that of Olivia in Twelfth Night. Both the characters had nobles who fell in love with them and got rejected afterwards.
Further, it is more evidence that the plot is the same when girls fall for girls who had disguised as men and subsequently got married. Most of the paper is therefore directly influenced by the author’s nationality and a significant influence of the Italian language. Notably, the features in the Gl’Ingannati were used by the author of the Twelfth Night in developing the plot. Inquest to determine the origin of the Twelfth Night title which is alternatively referred to as ‘what you will’ as used by Shakespeare, it is important to consider some of the phrases he uses in the text. For example, the use of the words ‘La Notte Di Beffana,’ an Italian phrase which means Befania, Twelfth Night or Epiphany. Moreover, there are some cases of local direct such as “Sebastian are you?” in Antonio’s attempt to know Sebastian’s name (Shakespeare). Therefore, the Twelfth Night is a play which demonstrates more on the Italian culture than English, considering that the author derived the title of the book from the Italian language.
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – unlike other genres he wrote in his career – focuses less on Englishness and more on actual life lessons which can be applied to people of many nationalities. The themes of love and gender within the comedy heavily outweigh the English culture. The play focuses more on Italian culture in many of the text’s aspects. Although it is a fact that Englishness within the text is inevitable considering that the primary language of the book is English, it is evident that most aspects of the writing are derived from Italian literature. Considering the above arguments, it is deducible that Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is less English compared to his other works.
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