MARCH 14, 2008 - VOL. 1, ISSUE 6

While in high school, I was forced, hopefully like most students, to feast on the Iambic Pentameters of a Caucasian fellow who is widely considered the most influential English writer. It seems for most people Shakespeare is merely at the bottom of a long list of writers who you have to read. I, on the other hand, cherish the moments of verse, and bask in his complex themes. Trevor Nunn, a former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, also appreciates Shakespeare. His adaptation of the Twelfth Night is a tragic, romantic comedy that stays true to Shakespeare's original text. I know because I read the play, and watched the film while tracking lines.

For continuity's sake, I am going to breeze through the film's two plot lines. Viola crashes onto Orsino's country; Orsino is in love with Olivia, and, to get close to Orsino, Viola dresses up as a man and goes by the name Cesario. Orsino asks the "male" Viola to court Olivia, who ends up falling in love with Cesario. While this is all happening, a second plot line develops. Toby and Malvolio are at each other's throats and Toby tricks Malvolio into thinking Olvia loves him. Then Sebastian, Viola's brother, shows up, and marries Olivia, who thinks he is "male" Viola. Too bad Viola has fallen in love with Orsino. It concludes with everyone that is in this love square wed and loved.

The analysis of Toby and Malvolio's relationship is what I find the most interesting about the story. In Nunn's adaptation, the director uses the yin and yang between two opposite caricatures to create a holistic human.

Toby, the dominant caricature in this relationship, is a drunk set on living life in excess. He is gluttony at its finest. In the movie, Nunn makes a point to show us the sad side of Toby. He has voluptuous side burns adorning his pig-like face, his hair is always messy, his dress is sloppy, he never stops sweating, and he has a lust for alcohol and parties. In many scenes, he can be seen as either drunk, getting over drunkenness, or prepared to become drunk. He is so hedonistic that the humor in Shakespeare's writing is lapped up every time he is on screen. In the play, Toby comes across as joyful. Toby is supposed to be chiefly concerned with Toby's entertainment, so that we may be amused. His actions in the play don't set him as a polar opposite to Malvolio like in Nunn's adaptation.

Malvolio, on the other hand, is the caricature of a Puritan. In the film, Nunn portrays him as the authority figure when Olivia is not present. He keeps a tight shift, yells at the servants when they are out of line, and genuinely holds his head higher than the characters with inferior morals. The only time before Malvolio is tricked that he remotely resembles Toby's character is on the night Toby throws a quiet party with Andrew, and the Fool. Malvolio, in the solitude of his room, is having a night cap, which reveals that Malvolio, in his personal life, needs alcohol to relax. The difference is that Malvolio's Puritan side won't allow this humanistic attribute to blossom in public, where as Toby's gluttony cannot be shut down by his solemn side. In the play, Malvolio is portrayed as an overly uptight servant to Olivia. The film and the play both mirror the Puritan that is Malvolio's caricature. He is so Puritanical that he cannot be a whole character; thus he needs his opposite to make him a complete human being.

In Shakespeare's play, the relationship between these two polar opposites is used to create a comic element so that the play remains fresh between the love scenes. Like overly dramatic elements, heightened moments of love, if used for a prolonged period, can push sentimentality to such an extreme that the audience's attention will be lost, much like if the Winter's Tale was always sullen. Shakespeare uses Malvolio and Toby to create slapstick humor, which causes the pace of the play to shift so that it is not stagnant. This means that their relationship becomes a caricature in itself; a predetermined, cliché shtick to foster entertainment. This can be plainly seen in the text as Malvolio finds "Olivia's" letter. When Malvolio enters and Andrew, Fabian, and Toby are hiding from him, Malvolio proclaims how nice it would be to be Count Malvolio and rule over the drunken Toby. All the while, Toby is enraged and his friends have to hold him back. In Nunn's adaptation, this is where the rift between Malvolio and Toby begins, thus propelling them on separate downward spirals to loneliness.

Nunn takes Toby and Malvolio's relationship to a new level where they become interconnected souls, sharing a yin and a yang, instead of a slapstick caricature. His adaptation focuses on the issues of need and dependence. He makes both men dependent on Olivia for everything. Toby needs her for financial support and a home. Malvolio needs her for work, and, after the letter, love. Both men's dependence on one character causes them to clash. Nunn gives a human element to the slapstick comedy. Since both men are in an interconnected quarrelling web, when Malvolio pushes, Toby pushes back. Nunn does it in such a way that it becomes this sad, childish game of cat and mouse for who is the dominant male under Olivia. Malvolio needs Toby to order around. Being dependent on Olivia to live, Toby needs someone he can be dominant over, and that someone to pick on is Malvolio. Nunn gives their relationship meaning.

Each man is the opposite half to a complete circle. They are united by a few commonalities, but it is the magnet effect that brings them together. If Toby is the positive side, a representation of a hedonistic free spirit, then Malvolio is the negative end, a representation of self-control and strict moral judgment. Both men's personalities are thus attracted to the other. It is their slight commonalities that allow them to be in the same place at the same time, both are dependent on a strong female and have known each other long enough to speak prose in each others presence, but it is their differences that ultimately allow them to occupy the same connected circle.

The characters lose the magnetic charge as soon as Malvolio thinks that there is a positive attraction with Olivia. After Toby has tricked him, Malvolio abandons his relationship and the roles he previously occupied. His attention focuses onto Olivia, and he could care less about controlling Toby. Toby on the other hand, through his own mistake, is left with nothing. To grab a hold of his past role, Toby tries to push Malvolio further, hoping that retaliation will come. Even when Malvolio is engrossed in the courtship of Olivia, he stays true to his Puritanical nature. He, up until Fabian tells him otherwise, believes that the note Olivia gives him is genuine. Even the barrage of insults by Toby and the caging of him due to his madness, won't shake him from his new connection to Olivia. It is this that drives Nunn's Toby to give up the joke and pursue a new connection.

As Malvolio is talking to the Fool from inside the jail, Toby has the epiphany that now he is not complete. He is trapped in quicksand, and looks for anything to help him claw his way out of loneliness. He grabs onto Maria and pulls her in tight with the hope that she will complete the void element in his soul. She is merely filling the gap left by Mavolio. Their marriage will be a loveless one, because she is not a polar opposite to Toby, and thus will not be able to occupy the yin to his yang. In the text, Toby states that he is marrying her as penance for the crimes against Malvolio, his true other half. Since Malvolio pushed away Toby in favor of another soul mate, he will never again share the same circle with another. He is doomed to forever be a half a soul. The last that is seen of Malvolio in the play is when he yells that he will have revenge on everyone. He threatens to seek revenge, because, unlike Toby, Malvolio isn't liberated enough from his Puritan morals to grasp the concept of trying to move on. He wants Olivia and if he can't have her, people will be punished. As the film comes to a conclusion, Malvolio leaves by himself with a single suitcase, signifying that he will never be part of a circle again. Toby leaves with Maria, but she is not in frame, so that Toby can be seen lonely. He also will never be whole.

Nunn's two caricatures and their relationship is an allegory for the duality human nature seeks and what will happen if this duality is destroyed. If the opposites, Toby and Malvolio, are allowed to become one and then break apart, then any couple can go through this same transformation. Their relationship is in the play and movie so that we may learn from their tragic downfall. There is a connection between humans, and this bond needs to be respected and treated like a unique structure. To become a holistic person, each one of us may need to find an opposite to lean on.