The Fool in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

The clown is a recurring character throughout Shakespeare’s many plays. One witnesses the affair between Romeo and Juliet. One stands in the crowd to lay his eyes on Caesar. One jokes with Hamlet in the graveyard. The clown that appears in the “Twelfth Night” plays more than just an appearance; he plays an integral part in the events of the play. He speaks intimately with Olivia. He directly influences her actions and thought processes from the moment he meets her in Act I, Scene V.

From the minute he enters into the play, he begins to spout clever retorts and sayings. “He that is well hanged in this world need fear no colors,” he tells Maria when she tells him that Olivia will hang him for his absence. When she persists, asking if he does not fear a hanging, he says, “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage.”

The fool’s cleverness contrasts the foolishness of Andrew and the innuendo of Tony. His depth of mind is such that he matches wits with even the woman of the house, Olivia. It is here that Shakespeare highlights his best wit. Olivia says to take the fool away. The clown contests her. He says that she is the fool and gives proof for his statement. He has truly honed his cunning.

Throughout the play, the fool reveals himself the most aware of any of the characters. His ingenuity and force of mind have a hypnotic effect over the reader or listener. “I, being a master parson, am master parson: for what is that but that? and what is but is?” “I say there is no darkness but ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog.”

Other characters even take notice of his wisdom. Viola remarks of the Clown:

This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool;
And, to do that well, craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time;
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye.”

He is so important a part of the play he is given most of the lines in the third act. Shakespeare gives him the last lines of Twelfth Night in the form of a song. He carries through each of the five acts of the play. He influences the thoughts and actions of the main characters: Olivia, Sir Tony, Sir Andrew, and Maria. He makes himself the most driving of characters presented in Twelfth Night. For all of the Clown’s accomplishments, Shakespeare even honors him with the closing lines.

A great while ago the world began,
With he, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you ever day.