The purpose of this study is to examine the various aspects of the role of Feste in order to determine his function in the play as a whole.

This video offers some quick questions/points that might be considered when writing about William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. / https://dc.etsu.edu/lit-outlines-complete-oer/1013/thumbnail.jpg

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Twelfth Night does not end with the acceptance and consummation of these “alternative couples.” Instead, the reveal of the twins has a clarifying effect and the characters are returned to the partner who is considered socially acceptable. The final relationships are heterosexual matches that do not stray from class or any other societal confines. Indeed, the story serves to reinforce common standards equating alternative love with madness and proper love with lucidity. Standing outside of the couplings are only bachelor men: Antonio, Sir Andrew, Feste and Orsino’s pages. In effect, these men are desexualized without romantic counterparts. While they are deemed outcasts in Illyria, one character in particular stands to gain from this seeming lack of sexuality and outsider status: the clown, Feste. Gender and power find clarification through the character of Feste because he is afforded all of the privileges of a male in a patriarchal society and in order to analyze him, his positionality within the function and structure of the story must be acknowledged. Usually the character of Viola holds this position in scholarship, but the possibility of Feste played by a female actor introduces similar themes of cross-gender disguise while decoding the heteronormative standards reinforced by the conclusion of the play.

This thesis explores the complexities to be found in the characters of Lear's Fool from King Lear and Feste from Twelfth Night. It begins with an investigation of the history behind the taxonomy of fools that William Shakespeare created in his works. The rest of the thesis is devoted to examining the many facets of the two aforementioned fools, with the goal of discovering just how important and influential they are to their respective plots and to the world of literature. Finally, there is a brief coda that explores the other striking similarities that the two plays have in common.

The purpose of this thesis is to design the sets and costumes for William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night or What You Will adapting to the sixteenth century Italian commedia dell' arte style.

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Playing role of Feste in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night presents a complex challenge to the actor. Feste is at once a character in the world of the play and a clown figure with specific dramatic functions having roots in the Lord of Misrule of the English holiday and the Vice of the morality play. How can the actor playing Feste create a believable psychological portrayal that is aligned with the functions Shakespeare assigns the role? And be entertaining as well? I suggest that actor will benefit greatly from an exploration the traditional function of the clown its development in society and literature before Shakespeare, and how Shakespeare’s use of the clown developed, culminating in the writing of Twelfth Night. The actor will thereby have a better understanding of what Shakespeare might by trying to achieve with Feste,, and he (or she) may better find the motivations for Feste’s sometimes-enigmatic words and actions, which will, in turn, give shape and purpose to the clowning. I put this thesis to the test in preparing for and playing the role of Feste in Theater Ten Ten’s production of Twelfth Night in the spring of 2010 in New York City. My research and preparation will include: a substantial immersion in much of Shakespeare’s cannon, and viewing of performances of it (mainly on video); research on the role of the clown, how it developed through history until Shakespeare’s time, and how Shakespeare appropriated and developed that tradition, culminating in Feste; a performance history of the role; a structural analysis of Feste’s role in Twelfth Night; a character study of Feste; a rehearsal and performance journal documenting my ongoing iv exploration, challenges and choices. The main challenge, as I foresee it, is to arrive at my own unique performance of Feste while fulfilling both my director’s vision and Shakespeare’s intention.

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