The Character of Sebastian in Shakespeares Twelfth Night: Essay

The Character of Sebastian in Shakespeares twelfth Night Sebastians presence in William Shakespeares Twelfth Night or What You Will is a vexation. More pointedly, it is his sharp marriage to Olivia which troubles me so. Was he written in to give a double horizontal surfaceline between Olivia and Viola? Was he a convenient musical mode to have a double wedding, which Shakespeare seemed to prefer for his happy endings? Or, could there be some other meaning to Sebastian? The last day of the Christmas season is January 6, the spread head of the Epiphany, when Christ was revealed to the world in the personage of the Magi. The evening before is called Twelfth Night, the most riotous holiday of the year for Elizabethans (Singman 61). Supposedly, the classes changed places for the day. Servants lorded over their masters high order clergy served the lowly priests children were free of rules. Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night probably in 1600, and performed it on January 6 , 1601 for Queen Elizabeth and her guests, one of which was Don Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano (Halliday 154). F. E. Halliday believes it possible that Shakespeare changed the name of the Duke of Illyria to Orsino in tribute to Don Orsino (155). Twelfth Night was based on Barnabe Riches story of Apollonius and Silla. Silla falls in love with Apollonius and follows him back to Constantinople. She is shipwrecked, and is saved by clinging to a chest containing the lecherous captains clothing. For safety, since her servant, Pedro, has drowned, she dons the mens clothing calls herself Silvio after her twin crony and goes into the service of Apollonius. Apollonius asks her to woo Julina for him, but Julina falls in love with Sill... ...tic, rosy Comedies. WORKS CITED Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare The Invention of the Human. New York Riverhead Books-Penguin Putnam, 1998. Halliday, F.E. Shakespeare. New York Thomas Yoseloff, 1961. Riche, Barnabe. Apollonius and Silla. Ri che His Farewell to host Profession. 1581. William Shakespeare Four Comedies. Ed. David Bevington. Toronto Bantam-Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988. 524-546. Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. David Bevington. Toronto Bantam-Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988. 283-377. Twelfth Night. Ed. David Bennington. Toronto Bantam-Scott, Foresman and Company, 1998. 427-517. Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Greenwood Press. Daily Life Through History series. Westport, CT Greenwood Press, 1995.