Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 17, 2011

Madeline rated it:

I wish I could've seen what performances of this play were like in Shakespeare's time. Since women couldn't be on stage, men had to play the women's roles, which means that the guy playing Viola had to also dress up as a man while acting like a woman.
You have to wonder if the audience ever really knew what was going on. I'll bet you anything you like that some form of the following conversation took place in the Globe Theater at one point:
GROUNDLING 1: Wait, wasn't that guy playing More...

7 comments like (31 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2008

Trevor rated it:

A few years ago I read a review of some film that had come out and I was sure I would never see – read the review almost carelessly while flicking through the arts section of the paper on a Saturday morning, no, I must have been clicking over The Age Home Page. The woman who wrote the review commented that whatever the film was had been based on Twelfth Night – which she considered that most ridiculous of Shakespeare’s plays – she really could not see how anyone could be bothered to reproduce t More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2008

De'Shawn rated it:

Twelfth Night, a Romantic Comedy that was written by the late William Shakespeare has to be one of his best works. This romantic Comedy deals and relates to real life events, as people in life hides there identities so that others won't know there true inner self. For example, Viola played a character in the name of Cesario in Twelfth Night. She had true feelings for one Orsino but couldn't express her feelings because of her disguise being a man. Her disguise instead was to help Olivia hook up More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2010

Janelle rated it:

The book Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare was an interesting book. It was a very funny play that will show everyone that love is crazy. I enjoyed reading this play because not only was all of the characters confused in the play they were in love. Twelfth Night being the night of fun and disguses makes this book interesting. This is beacause Shakespeare made love seem hard to get. When in reality love is really hard to get. Malvolio was a great character because people tend to be like him. Ev More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 25, 2011

Boyu rated it:

I already watched the movie She's the Man (which for those of you that don't know is a hilarious movie based on Twelfth Night), so the storyline was not new to me. I already had the basics of what was going on and what would happen. So I guess you could say that I treated this play like a job that needed to be finished. That coupled with the fact that this genre wasn't what I usually go for (a.k.a young adult or just fantasy in general) and you get an extremely bored me flipping through the page More...

0 comments like

Jan 20, 2009

Sheaa rated it:

Twelfth Night is a very good book. Shakespeare is a very talented man and has shown this greatly through this play. It has that people rarely see the things right in front of their eyes, and often this may be the most important thing. It showed me that love can come in many diffrent forms, and you should always expect the unexpected, their are people out their that will love you just for you and not for the material things you have and or the way you appear. It was a great comedy as well and was More...

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2012

Kalah rated it:

Twelfth Night by Williams Shakespeare was a great play to read. At times the play would get a bit confusing when it came to who was in love with whom, and what action was being done by which character because there was so much role playing with in the play. I feel as though Shakespeare did a great job with displaying the deceptive traits of every character and always finding a way to place another twist into the play,especially when Viola's secrete is discovered along with a surprise at the end More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2012

Aliyah rated it:

The play Twelfth Night was very interesting, it was surprising to see how a play that was written numerous years ago can still relate to every day life. It was also interesting to see the interactions and thoughts of the characters because every character is different from another. This play displays many themes that reoccur throughout the play. This play was very good at grabbing my attention because the author addressed many different issues in a way that did not arouse the readers,but allows More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2012

Nora rated it:

Twelfth Night was an amazing play. I assumed that becuase it was in Shakespearean language I would not have quite enjoyed it. But i was wrong, with the side notes I understood a lot. I loved how you could relate Twelfth Night with modern times, it was as if Shakespeare knew that even thousands of years later people would act very similar to how people acted in his time. I really enjoyed the motif of hunger Shakespeare constantly used, espeially to explain Orsino's infatuton with Olivia. I think More...

0 comments like

Dec 28, 2011

Johmarie added it

The play was rather confusing throughout the first part of the book, but then I got a better understanding of it and figured out that the book was actually entertaining rather than boring or stupid. I finally got the true meaning of a romantic comedy. This book managed to touch all the subjects that a romantic comedy was and showed that one of the many arts of William Shakespeare is still an ongoing masterpiece in the modern world. From that point on, I always wanted to know what was going to h More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2011

Esdaile rated it:

This play has a special place in my affection. I first got to know it when I was I think 11 and it was the school play. I loved it then and I love it now. Someone wrote somewhere that the entire story is "enthused with the spirit of love". Love is presented mostly as a form of madness and sickness but a sickness which we welcome. There is a close parallel between the plague (analogies and references to the plague run through the play). Hundreds of years later Thomas Mann wrote "De More...

0 comments like

Dec 15, 2011

Karltz rated it:

"Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare is one of the most creative plays by Shakespeare due to the fact that it pried into serious matters of the modern day society and society in the 1700s but also had a bit of light comedy to keep the audience entertained. This play was interesting to read since it allowed readers to many different motifs such as masks/disguises, love/infatuation, and madness.

Through the masks/disguises the play brought to light the question of: Can we ( More...

0 comments like

Nov 02, 2011

Jillian rated it:

Alright, I'm starting to think that I only like Shakespeare's tragedies because I really haven't found any of these screwball comedies all that funny. Thank god for the notes because with all characters and mix-ups, I would be completely lost. For a much funnier version of this play, I will copy and paste a Goodreads review from a friend a made online. Her reviews are often better than the plays themselves:)

From Madeline:

I wish I could've seen what performances of this pl More...

0 comments like

Oct 11, 2011

Jackie rated it:

The main characters in the story are Viola, Olivia, Duke Orsino, Sir Toby Belch, Malvolio, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste and Sebastion.Sir Toby Belch wwas Oliva's uncle. Malvolio was Oliva's butler. He was tricked by Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Feste and Maria through a lover letter that oliva loved him. And he did ridiculous thing that the letter instructed him to do and he was considered crazy and sent away for a while.
This book is abut a rich countess named Oliva whose brother More...

0 comments like

Oct 10, 2011

Gill rated it:

Humor is the hardest thing to understand in a foreign language coming from a foreign culture. Shakespeare's language and times are foreign to us now although related to us. As a result it is much harder to read the comedies than it is to read the tragedies or the poetry. We don't get the jokes and have to rely much more on the notes in a good edition to explain them to us.

That said, when you see the play staged, the acting makes some of the humor come alive even where the specific word More...

0 comments like

Aug 06, 2011

Chandra rated it:

One would think I would tire of Shakespeare's comedies. After all, it seems he has a collection of about five or six plot devices, and when writing any comedy, he grabs a few of these plot devices at random, sticks them in a blender, blends, and the pours out the plot, in the form of a not-always-well-thought-out plot smoothie.
One would be wrong. Because while the plots and characters can be fairly formulaic, the jokes are funny. In my opinion, anyway.
On the topic of Twelfth Night spec More...

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2011

Rachel rated it:

This play is really complex because of all the double/mistaken identities, but that is the crux of the plot-it's what gives the play zest and humor. In short, this play is about the different manifestations of foolishness and insanity with regard to love. Yet it is also a tale about identity and male and female relationships. Even though there are many entaglements in the imaginary world of Ilyria, it is a world where problems are easily resolved and a world in which, according to Shakespeare, w More...

0 comments like

Jun 13, 2011

Corinne rated it:

Knowing nothing about this play when I began, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the plot: shipwrecks, hidden identities, separated twins, love triangles (of course). Not to MENTION the yellow stockings, which had me laughing out loud. It's most certainly a comedy and, with other Shakespeare comedies, I must insist that whomever attempts it for the first time (if you are unfamiliar with Shakespeare) that they read the text along with a production. The comedic elements, especially, More...

0 comments like

Apr 05, 2011

Shaun rated it:

True story – I was finishing As You Like It in a park today and these two prostitutes approached me to offer their services. I smiled and said no thank you, and as they walked away one said to the other “did you notice he was reading Shakespeare? Ayyyye.” And there you have it, Shakespeare gets respect even from Mexican prostitutes.
About the play – I am a bit confused. This has to be Shakespeare´s most homoerotic play by a long shot. Women fall in love with women, men fall in love w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Danny added it

Twelfth Night was an execellent read The book was very enjoyable. Despite like all other Shakespaere books its difficult langauge, it was very intresting and comical. The characters were very intresting, some were very funny while others were very emtional or odd, some were so smart they acted follish to fool the people around them.The plot of the story was very intresting how each character loved a completely different charcter and not until the end did they fall for the most completely unexpec More...

0 comments like

Jun 12, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

A Midsummer Night's Dream has long been my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. Twelfth Night has now moved into a strong second place. It has the funniest Fool of all his comedies I've read so far. And Maria! What a piece of work!

It would've been REALLY funny if Malvolio had found some dame who thought he WAS actually attractive with his yellow stockings and cross-garters and queer behavior. She could dress bizarrely as well, and they'd be together nerdily ever after.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

Read for my Brit. Lit. 224 course. After weeks quite literally in the Dark Ages, a Shakespeare comedy was a breath of much-needed lightness. Twelfth Night, or What You Will is about forbidden love and reckless love and love deceived. Also, mistaken identity, cross dressing, and gender struggle. And all of it is explored to hilarious end through schemes and shenanigans. (Yellow, cross-garted stockings will from now on elicit giggles from me.)

The plot can be summed up as: Orsino loves More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Nicholas rated it:

Like many of Shakespeare's comedies, Twelfth Night doesn't make much sense. I suppose I shouldn't hold that against the play, but I do. I understand that it says quite a great deal about gender roles and of what is really important but I think aside from questioning these ideas the play does nothing to answer anything.

Orsino is feminine in his love, Olivia manly in hers, and Viola is stuck as a man courting a female who wants to be a female courting a man. This is all very interestin More...

0 comments like

Jun 04, 2010

Rowland rated it:

Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night near the middle of his career, probably in the year 1601. Most critics consider it one of his greatest comedies, along with plays such as As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Twelfth Night is about illusion, deception, disguises, madness, and the extraordinary things that love will cause us to do—and to see.

Twelfth Night is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays to have an alternative title: the play is actually called Tw More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2010

Billie rated it:

Twelfth Night involves mistaken identity, drunkenness, playfulness, and love in idleness. Sebastian and his sister Viola are mistaken for one another. Sir Toby Belch and his friend Andrew are drunk most of the time and playing games. A serving woman named Maria isn't drunk, but plays games with the heart of a conceited serving man named Malvolio by making him believe that the woman he serves, Olivia, is in love with him. As for love in idleness, Malvolio is mad for Olivia (as mentioned), Duke Or More...

0 comments like

Jan 22, 2010

Isabell rated it:

Twelth Night was a very intersting book. This book cover most of lifes major motif and themes; such as love, jelously, and mistaken identity. It all start with a girl name viola who was in a ship wreck along with her twin brother. Viola landed in illyria where she diguise herself as a man name cesario. The only person who knows about her secret is the captin from the ship he also helps her. "Viola" starts to work for Orsino who, has her sending messages to. Olivia the woman he is deepl More...

0 comments like

Jan 21, 2010

Dakeria rated it:

This play was very different from the other Shakespeare plays that I have read so far. I really enjoyed this one because it had to do with love and lust! The way everyone is disguised in this play makes the reader sit on the edge of there seat. It makes the person reading the book want to know what is to come next. I like books that keep me guessing about what is going to happen next and that is what this play did. It was exciting from beginning to end. What caught my eye the most in this play i More...

0 comments like

Jan 21, 2010

Cleora added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 06, 2010

Felishia added it

Twelfth Night is a romantic comedy that takes place in Illyria written by William Shakespeare. Throughout the whole play, many characters disguise themselves so that they will not divulge their personality. Many complications start to arise when people start to fall in love with each other. Viola, who disguises herself as a man falls in love with Orsino but is unable to divulge her love because he thinks she is a man. She tries to give hints to Orsino about her love for him and who she really is More...

0 comments like

Jan 06, 2010

Christina rated it:

Twelfth Night is a play that involves many interesting characters and quandaries. One quandary that that appears several times through out this play is that people are oblivious to the fact that a person is truly in love with them. Viola is a woman that is mourning the death of her brother and in this situation she comes up with a plan to live as a man to be somewhat invisible to others. While she is living as a man she begins to work as a messenger for a count named Orsino. Orsino is trying t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)