Shakespeare completed and first produced his play Twelfth Night, or What You Will in or around 1601. Its major themes are probably the difficulties of finding love and having it returned and identity including gender roles and one's inherited social station. The clown's famous concluding song strikes a melancholy tone, and his lyrics explain the futility of attempting to rise above one's birth and abilities. By reading its lyrics without getting distracted by "With hey, ho, the wind and the rain," we meet a person who learns lowborn men are unwelcome in highborn estates. He's unable to persuade women "out of his league" to marry him, and he can only pal around with alcoholics. If he wants to get by in this world, he has no choice but to kiss up to richer people: "And we'll strive to please you every day."Given a world like that, Shakespeare's lowborn protagonists have no choice but to relax, do their best, and adopt a philosophy of "this too shall pass."Consider, for example, the offstage shipwreck that incites the play's action. It appears Viola lost her brother in the wreck. In many another play, this would inspire at least two acts of mournful soliloquies bewailing his death. Instead, Viola quickly changes her appearance to look like a man and heads inland, pluckily resolved to find employment and then, if she can, her missing brother. Remember also that when Malvolio is on top of the world, he doesn't stay there long. He aspired to marry above his own station, and this leads to his shameful incarceration and downfall. That, too, is only temporary, as Malvolio stomps offstage insisting, "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!" Olivia, his intended royal bride, admits he's been ill-treated, signaling the possibility he'll be restored to his original station. Thus the play returns to a point of equilibrium. Every character winds up back in their original sociopolitical position, from the reckless Sir Toby to Feste the troubadour clown to noble Viola and her brother, Sebastian.
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