Rising Action: Duke Orsino tells Cesario, or Viola, to be the messenger to proclaim his love to Olivia once again. He believes that Cesario will be able to win Olivia over to him. Cesario does his best to talk to Olivia but she loves the Duke and wishes that he knew the truth about her.
Exposition: In the country of Illyria there lives a  Duke named Orsino who is madly in love with a noblewoman named Olivia but she does not love him back. In another part of the country a young woman named Olivia washed ashore after a shipwreck that separated her from her brother Sebastian. Viola cuts her hair in order to serve the Duke  because he only lets men in his court.
Climax: Olivia starts to fall for Cesario's young beauty instead of Duke Orsino which causes a problem between the courts.  Cesario does not know what to do because Olivia has fallen for her, not knowing she is really a woman, and she is in love with Duke Orsino.

TWELFTH NIGHT BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

 Falling Action: Sebastian is safe and he has been cared for by captain Antonio. Viola (Cesario) and Sebastian are mistaken for each other when people of the court run into who they think is Cesario. There is a big misunderstanding  between the two courts.

Denoument: Olivia sees Sebastian and thinks that it is Cesario and tells him that they will be married. After the marriage, Duke Orsino and Olivia fight over Cesario, Olivia thinking that it is the man she married and Orsino believing it to be his messenger. Sebastian and Olivia are reunited and they solve the problem of identity. Viola winning over Duke Orsino and Olivia winning her husband Sebastian.

Theme(s): Suffering because of love is the central theme as Voila disguises herself due to her love for Orsino, Orsino's feelings toward Olivia, who does not love him and Olivia's feelings toward Cesario( Voila's male name) and false hope can also be a theme because Orsino is madly in love with a woman that does not love him, while Olivia is in love with Cesario, Orsino's messenger.

example: " There is no woman's sides Can bide the beating so stronga passion As love doth give my heart. No woman's heart So big, to hold so much. They lack retention. Alas, their love may be called appetite, No motion of the liver, but the palate, That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt; But mine is all hungry as the sea, And can digest as much. Make no compare Between that love a woman can bear me And that I owe Olivia." - Orsino ( pg.94)

Mood: Playful, Confident and passionate due to the characters attempt to act noble, brave and amusing.

example:  "A false conclusion; I hate it as an unfilled can. To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then is early: so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes. Do not our lives consist of the four elements?" (Act 2, Scene 3) This a conversation between Sir Toby and Sir Andrew about their carefree night life and it represents how the play can set off a  playful and amusing mood. 

Tone: Humorous, optimistic,playful, romantic and sympathetic.

example: "By my life, this is my lady's hand these be her very C's, her U's and her T's and thus makes she her great P's." - Malvolio makes a joke, this is Elizabethan slang for vagina. (pg.106)

Literaly Devices:

Verse:“If music be the food of love, play on.Give me excess of it that, surfeiting,The appetite may sicken, and so die.That strain again, it had a dying fall…”Act one, scene one, lines (1-4). Shakespeare uses verses through out many of his plays to give the audience the musical feeling that poetry gives to one. It helps the play flow well together and usually helps gain insight on what the characters feel.

Malapropism:“For what says Quinapalus? “Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit”Act one, scene five, lines (31-32).Throughout the novel the Fool’s intelligence is insulted. Nobody thinks highly of him and towards the beginning of the novel Shakespeare makes the audience think the same. Over the course of the play we find out that the Fool fools everyone around him because he actually one of the wisest characters in the novel.

Simile: "That instant was I turned into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me.” Act one, scene one, lines (20-22).

" .. and fools are as like husbands as pilchards are to herrings; the husband's the bigger:" The many similes through out the novel helps exemplify how the characters are truly feeling: whether it by burning love of furious hatred. In this example for instance it shows the desire that Orsino has for Olivia.

 

Metaphor:“With adorations, fertile tears,With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.”Act one, scene five, lines (230-231).In this example it Viola beautifully explains to Olivia how much Orsino yearns for her and how powerful his love and feelings are for her. Many other metaphors helps the reader know the characters intentions.

Oxymoron:“Why, it hath bay windows transparent as barricades, and the clerestories toward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony. And yet complainest thou of obstruction? Act four, scene 2, lines (33-35).Since the genre of this play is comedy the many oxymoron's that Shakespeare created gives the play a light mood and makes it very enjoyable for the audience. In this example the Fool is mocking Malvolio because he is complaining about being imprisoned in a dark room, but the Fool jokes and says what are you talking about?  This room has gorgeous windows and an amazing view.


Prespective: The play consist of many prespectives. Mainly, it is mostly that of female characters and male characters. All of the characters in the play has their own prespective and they view things differently. Also,They describe their internal thoughts as well throughout the novel.

Character deconstruction for the protagonists: There are three main characters that the play revolves around which are Voila, Orsino and Olivia. The play continues as Voila, diguisses herself as a man, Orsino madly in love with Olivia, who is in love with Voila ( the diguissed version of her). 

 Work cited for Genre Criticism:

Siegel, Dr. Kristi. "Introduction to Modern Literary Theory." Introduction to Modern Literary Theory. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. <http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm>.

STRAZNICKY, MARTA. "Karen Raber. Dramatic Difference: Gender, Class, and Genre in the Early Modern Closet Drama." The Free Library. 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2010. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Karen+Raber.+Dramatic+Difference:+Gender,+Class,+and+

Genre+in+the...-a0110027494.

Genre Criticism
Genre criticism describes the play well because sexism is a dominating genre throughout the play. As the men are thought to be full of leadership skills, nobility, powerful and obnoxious, women are thought to be innocent, clam, emotional and needed to be taken care of. For an example, the character Sir Andrew is described himself as a knight to feel sense of power even though he does not have the skills knight displays. Due to society’s views at the time period, the play does not believe woman can do as much things as a man is able to do. Therefore, the play description of a women’s duty is to get married and be faithful to their husbands. Women in the play are held back by taking necessary action due to them having to please the society and their views of themselves.
 

Karen Raber :Prominent Figure in Genre Criticisim

Karen Raber describes the dramatic deference of gender, class and genre in the early modern form of drama called “closet drama”.  She describes that early modern drama is not written by women and argues that gender played a prominent role in the society of the late sixteenth and seventeenth century. She declares that the closet drama distinguished the male and female roles. It defines the difference between male and female writers perspective in the society as their cultural expectations were dissimilar.

 
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