"Twelfth Night"'s Usual Feel

"Twelfth Night, or What You Will" is one of over 40 plays that were written by William Shakespeare. Along with nearly 15 other shows he wrote, "Twelfth Night" is a comedy. Comedy, according to Oxford Reference Online, is "professional entertainment consisting of jokes and sketches, intended to make an audience laugh". The play itself has many characters who are lively and wild, such as Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, who are almost always drunken and playing pranks on Malvolio. On top of that, the plot of a young woman passing herself off a a young man and trying to fend off another woman who thinks she is in love with her is a humorous idea within itself. 


"Twelfth Night" refers to The Festival of the Twelfth Night, which is the last night of the twelve days of Christmas. In Elisabeathen times, this title was intended to let the audience know that the play was based upon the festivities that occur at this time, such as singing, dancing, and drinking. 


The play was written to be set in 16th century Europe. Illyria, the setting of "Twelfth Night", was an ancient region on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea covering parts of Albania, Croatia, and Montegro, and the city state of Ragusa, Italy has been suspected of being the location.

Most of the time there is a great amount of detail put into the set because of how detailed and classic 16th Century architecture was.  Below is a photo example of 16th Century Architecture:

"comedy noun"  Oxford Dictionary of English. Edited by Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Central Washington University.  11 March 2011  <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t140.e0165030>