In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, many
relationships are faked or destroyed for and by the
protagonists, and as a result some of the relationships
are humorous. The use of disguise causes deception and
misunderstanding which leads to love where it is not
meant to be. Trickery leads the characters into
inescapable traps, which causes chaos with their
emotions, and finally pure physical attraction and not
true love lead some characters into falsely believing
that they were in love. How disguise encompasses the
themes of appearance, reality, and mistaken identity in
Twelfth Night will be explained in the next paragraph.
Throughout Twelfth Night deception caused confusion
between many characters, but the one character who
remained in the center of this confusion was Viola. The
deception was caused because of her outward appearance.
She was disguised as a man in order to avoid danger and
to get closer to Orsino. The confusion begins when Viola
is sent to court Orsino's love for Olivia. Instead of
doing so, Olivia falls in love with Viola's disguise
Cesario. Olivia's interest for Viola is shown when she
sends Malvolio to return a ring in which Viola never
"Run after that rude messenger fellow, the count's
man [She hands him a ring] He left this ring
behind him despite what I said." (65.1.5)
"I do I know not what, and fear to find Mine eye to
great a flatterer for my mind. Fate show thy
This shows her love for Cesario and how she secretly
lets her know. When Viola realizes what has happened she
realizes the love triangle that has occurred, and as a
reader/audience we see the outcome of how her disguise
encompasses the themes of appearance, reality, and
mistaken identity. Her disguise has caused Olivia to
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