PARALLELISMS AND CONTRASTS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT

Abstract

Twelfth Night is one of the greatest comedies by Shakespeare. Since it is a romantic comedy, most of the discussion of the play centres on different aspects of love while there is also some discussion on how disguise and mistaken identities contribute to the romance as well as to its comic dramatization. Besides the two sub-plots, Shakespeare has used in the play wit and physiological humours, all of which contributed to creating his paragons of romantic and comic characters. In respect of all these elements there are obviously some similarities as well as differences among the characters of this play. This study seeks to reveal the parallelisms and contrasts that exist in Twelfth Night regarding all these elements and the extent to which they are used. If these elements of love, disguise, wit, physiological humours, and sub-plots are considered together, Twelfth Night can be seen as pervaded with a crisscrossing pattern of parallelisms and contrasts. To read the play thus can give insight into its characters and themes and help understand better what make Twelfth Night such an enjoyable romantic comedy.