In the play, Twelfth Night, there are many different themes: deception and self deceit, music, love and of course humour. In all of the play there is an element of humour in it, from Malvolio's letter, to Feste's acting as a Sir Topas, and in some way or from all the themes and characters can be linked by humour.
For example, in the event when Maria, Sir Andrew and Feste wrote the letter to Malvolio making him believe that Olivia was in love with him, they were taking him to dress like a fool and humiliate himself in front of everyone, and his accepts:"Jove I thank thee. I will smile, I will do everything that thou wilt have me." - pg. 93 (180)In this sentence he says that he has accepted the fact that she loves him, and is willing to humiliate himself to prove his love for her. He knows that what she is requesting is ridiculous, but he is willing to put his dignity aside for love. This in itself produces a humorous picture, and the way that he acts around Olivia, and the way she acts around him, are also comical:Malvolio: Some are born with greatness -Olivia: Ha.
- pg. 127 (39-40)This shows that even the characters themselves think that his appearance is comical and that it is a laughable matter. This scenario that he had been placed in, where he was the subject of the joke, and people around him acted as if he were crazy, made the scenes more comical. It is like reality tv, when people are being filmed and they're the only people not in with the joke, they are the subject, it makes it more funny because they are unaware, as is Malvolio.Although events happen to add humour to the play, the events would not take place, and the reactions of the characters wouldn't be possible, without the characters themselves.
All the characters add humour to the play, in the way that they react to a situation. When a situation is dropped in the laps of some characters, they very often have different ways of approaching it to others, some may find it funny, others may take it more seriously, like the case of Maria and Malvolio. Maria thinks that its funny to play that trick on Malvolio, but Malvolio doesn't think its funny at all. Also the other characters make the scene humorous:"Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally sheep-biter come by some notable shame?" - pg. 83 (4-5)Sir Toby thinks that it would also be funny to play a joke on Malvolio, which shows that not very many people like Malvolio, and this makes him a prime target for jokes and pranks.
Without the other characters the humour wouldn't have been possible, so I think that the characters contribute to humour the most, although the events do help.
