Twelgth Night - Rough Copy

Twelfth Night one of Shakespeare’s comedies explores the chaos and disorder of humanity. The Seven Deadly Sins show the complexity of our lives, and are displayed by characters of this play: pride, gluttony, sloth, avarice, envy, lust, and wrath.

Malvolio the head servant a self-righteous man becomes the joke of the play. Avarice and pride are the two sins he is guilty of. When Feste makes a joke about Malvolio, he quickly dismisses him and that is when Olivia accuses him of self-love, “O you are sick of self-love”(1.5.89). His pride and avarice coincide. “Having been three months married to her, sitting in/ my state” (2.5.41) “Calling my officers about me in my branched/ velvet gown…”(2.5.44), these quotes show Malvolio’s ambition to rise above his social class. Ironically these quotes where said before Malvolio received the letter he thought was from Olivia declaring her love for him, (which was really penned by Maria, and with the help of Sir Toby).. Sir Toby antagonizes Malvolio throughout the play using his sins against him but Sir Toby is not so innocent himself.

The kinsman of Olivia, Sir Toby similarly shows two sins: sloth and gluttony. “… I’ll drink to her/ as there is a passage in my throat, and drink/ in Illyria.”(1.3.36-37). Gluttony excessive eating or drinking, is shown through that quote. Enjoying the hospitality of his niece Sir Toby indulges in rowdy behavior, late-night carousing, and heavy drinking. “’Tis a gentleman here- [Belches] A plague o’these/ pickle-herring! How now, sot?”(.1.5.120-121), while conversing with Olivia, Sir Toby belches because of his drinking and blames it on the “pickle-herring”. Furthermore because of Sir Toby gluttony he manipulates Sir Andrew