Essay Topics (or What You Will) for Twelfth Night
Discuss the role of Feste in the play and the purpose he serves to the main action of the
story.
Discuss the theme of confusion and chaos in the play, particularly in light of the title
Twelfth Night and the traditions connected to that.
Discuss the importance of the suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience in
successfully pulling off this play.
How does Twelfth Night portray love? Are there different kinds of love? What are they?
Are some forms of love better than others? Why or why not?
Discuss Orsino as an inexperienced lover who must be educated by a woman. Why is it
important (from Orsino's point of view and from Shakespeare's) that Viola is a boy actor
playing a girl who is disguised as a boy?
Discuss Twelfth Night as a comedy in its true sense, as in its inevitable conclusion with
a happy ending.
Discuss the treatment Malvolio by his fellows and his outcome in this play. Did he meet
his just desserts?