Disguise in Shakespeares Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night Essays

Disguise in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Disguise is a device Shakespeare employs frequently in both Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night. It allows a disguised character like the Duke of Vienna to glean information that would otherwise go unknown, and a character like Viola to take advantage of potentially beneficial situations. It gives these characters access to worlds that might otherwise be denied; for the Duke, he can now "haunt assemblies / Where youth and cost a witless bravery keeps" (1.4.9-10). For Viola, she might "serve the duke" (1.2.51) and thus hopefully keep company with Olivia, who also lost a brother. Disguise is especially appropriate in the worlds that exist in the two plays: they are characterized by excess and inversion of proper order. In Measure for Measure, the Duke leaves his kingdom unexpectedly in the hands of a deputy; the inversion is continued by the unprecedented harsh enforcement of the law, something that hasn't been done in fourteen years. In Twelfth Night, the title itself suggests a last hurrah, the end of the carnival, and Viola personifies this last wildness by taking on a role opposite in gender to her natural one: she plays a man.    Michael Margan in "Laughter and Elizabethan Society" glosses Mikhail Bakhtin, saying that the laughter of carnival is "an ambivalent laughter, simultaneously celebrating and mocking, sympathizing and deriding" (34). Laughter, comedy, and a world turned upside-down characterize Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, and allow Viola to successfully don her "masculine usurped attire" (5.1.248) and win Olivia's hear... ... city. Donning a disguise to suit the moment does not change the person, however adaptable and convenient it may be to achieve certain ends. The Duke of Vienna tells Isabella that though he removes his friar's robe he is "not changing heart with habit" (5.1.381), and Viola laments that "My state is desperate for my master's love" (2.2.37). Just as carnival and misrule only have a limited reign, so their disguises only alter Viola and Vienna temporarily. Works Cited Margan, Michael. "Laughter and Elizabethan Society," in Contexts of Comedy. Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor, eds. "Measure for Measure". William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1998. Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor, eds. "Twelfth Night, or What You Will". William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1998.