8.3 Music, revelry, and the carnivalesque in Shakespearean comedy

Music and revelry are key elements in Twelfth Night, creating a festive atmosphere that allows characters to break social norms. Shakespeare uses songs, feasts, and disguises to explore themes of love, gender, and identity in this topsy-turvy world.

The carnivalesque setting of Illyria enables social inversions and gender-bending antics. Characters like Viola and Sir Toby challenge hierarchies, while Feste's songs provide commentary on the action, highlighting the transformative power of music and festivity in the play.

Music and Festivity in Twelfth Night

Role of Music in Shakespearean Comedy

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• Music serves as a pivotal element in Shakespearean comedies conveying emotions, advancing the plot, and creating a festive atmosphere
• Feste, the fool in Twelfth Night, embodies the intersection of music and festivity using songs to comment on the action and reveal truths about other characters
• Shakespearean comedies incorporate feasts, revels, and masques as plot devices bringing characters together and creating opportunities for mistaken identities and romantic entanglements
• Music in Shakespearean comedies reflects the Elizabethan belief in the power of harmony to restore order and balance in the natural world and human relationships
  • This belief stems from the concept of the "music of the spheres" (celestial harmony)
  • Characters often reference this idea, such as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice: "The man that hath no music in himself...Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils"

Festive Elements and Social Liberation

• Festive elements in Shakespearean comedies often serve as a catalyst for social liberation allowing characters to temporarily escape societal constraints and explore alternative identities
  • Examples include the Forest of Arden in As You Like It and the enchanted woods in A Midsummer Night's Dream
• Integration of music and festivity creates a sense of timelessness and suspension of reality enabling the audience to fully immerse themselves in the comedic world
• Festive settings provide a space for characters to challenge social norms and hierarchies
  • In Twelfth Night, Viola's disguise as Cesario allows her to navigate male-dominated spaces
  • The revelry of Sir Toby and his companions subverts the strict order of Olivia's household

Carnivalesque Atmosphere in Twelfth Night

Concept of the Carnivalesque

• The carnivalesque, a literary concept developed by Mikhail Bakhtin, refers to the subversion of social hierarchies and norms through humor, chaos, and festivity
• Twelfth Night establishes a carnivalesque atmosphere through the setting of Illyria, a fictional land where normal rules of behavior are suspended allowing for gender reversals and social inversions
• Sir Toby Belch embodies the spirit of carnival with his excessive drinking, merrymaking, and disregard for social propriety
  • His famous line "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" encapsulates the carnivalesque spirit

Elements of the Carnivalesque in Twelfth Night

• Carnivalesque in Shakespearean comedy often involves the temporary inversion of power structures
  • Servants outwitting their masters (Maria's trick on Malvolio)
  • Women adopting male disguises to gain agency (Viola as Cesario)
• Use of disguise, particularly Viola's cross-dressing as Cesario, blurs gender boundaries and creates comedic confusion
  • This leads to the love triangle between Orsino, Viola/Cesario, and Olivia
• Carnivalesque atmosphere culminates in the gulling of Malvolio where the puritanical steward becomes an object of ridicule exemplifying the topsy-turvy nature of carnival
  • Malvolio's yellow stockings and cross-gartered appearance visually represent this inversion

Music and Revelry: Themes of Love and Social Inversion

Music as Metaphor for Love and Desire

• Music in Twelfth Night often serves as a metaphor for love and desire with characters using musical imagery to express their romantic feelings and longings
  • Orsino's famous opening line "If music be the food of love, play on" establishes this connection
• Shakespeare uses songs and musical references to underscore the theme of unrequited love
  • Feste's song "Come away, death" reflects Orsino's melancholic state
• Feste uses his songs to comment on the folly of love and the transient nature of desire providing a counterpoint to the romantic idealism of other characters
  • His song "O mistress mine" warns against wasting time in pursuit of love

Revelry and Social Inversion

• Revelry and festive atmosphere create a liminal space where characters can explore unconventional desires and relationships
  • Olivia's sudden attraction to the disguised Viola/Cesario challenges social norms
• Social inversion facilitated through revelry and music challenges established authority
  • Midnight carousing of Sir Toby and his companions undermines Malvolio's authority
• Music and festivity allow for the exploration of homoerotic desires and gender fluidity
  • Relationships between Orsino, Viola/Cesario, and Olivia blur traditional gender roles
  • Antonio's devotion to Sebastian hints at same-sex attraction

Festive Setting and Comic Resolution

Significance of Festive Setting

• Festive setting of Twelfth Night, alluding to the Epiphany celebration, creates an expectation of transformation and revelation fulfilled in the play's resolution
• Carnivalesque atmosphere established throughout the play allows for the acceptance of improbable plot twists and coincidences leading to the comic resolution
  • The sudden appearance of Sebastian and his mistaken identity as Cesario becomes plausible in this context
• Resolution of mistaken identities and romantic entanglements facilitated by the festive mood predisposes characters and audiences to accept unlikely pairings and reconciliations

Comic Resolution and Social Order

• Play's final scene, often staged as a celebratory feast, serves as a restoration of social order while retaining elements of the carnivalesque spirit
• Marriage of multiple couples at the play's conclusion acts as a ritualistic affirmation of social harmony mirroring the function of festive celebrations in Elizabethan society
  • Orsino and Viola, Olivia and Sebastian, and the promised union of Sir Toby and Maria
• Exclusion of certain characters (Malvolio) from the final festivities underscores themes of inclusion and exclusion and the limits of social inversion in comedy
• Lingering presence of Feste at the play's end, often singing a melancholic song, serves as a reminder of the temporary nature of festive liberation and the return to everyday reality
  • His song "The rain it raineth every day" provides a bittersweet conclusion to the festivities