Comparison Between Twelfth Night and the Rivals

Final Paper A0981150 comparability Twelfth Night with The Rivals, both of them are comedies evolving around several couples. The two plays contain the device of mask and mistaken identity. In Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as Cesario, which attracts Orsino and Olivia while in The Rivals, Jack Absolute disguises himself as Ensign Beverley, who fascinates Lydia. Speaking of similarities, both the disguises lead to the characters affairs, and they are proved to be genuine love at the end of the plays.On the other hand, as for differences, in Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as a man, and that results in her multifactorial situation, a love triangle. Instead, in The Rivals, Jack takes the disguise as an ensign, which does not alter his real sexual activity as a man therefore, his situation is purer, that is, earning Lydias heart only and not dra move ong other admirer. Both the plays mention the communication of mails. In Twelfth Night, Maria writes letter to Malvolio , which purports to be from Olivia.The function of letters in this play is to trick Malvolio, who is such a fool that believes the countess Olivia, a woman of a higher(prenominal) rank than his, would fall in love with him. In The Rivals, the function of letters is simpler, that is, Jack writes to Lydia to court her below the mistaken identity of a poor Ensign in order to win her affection or some other sentiment. In The Rivals, Jack Absolutes line Pho man, is not music the feed of love? is an allusion to Twelfth Night. In the beginning of Twelfth Night, Orsino says If music be the food of love, play on Nevertheless, these two characters utter such statement in very different situations. Orsino, at that time, is melancholic and diabolically in love, by contrast, Jack says his line when his friend, Faulkland, is getting crazy since his lovers merriment during his absence irritates him. Thus Jack plays the role of a calm, reasonable, and comforting friend.Compare the situations th e two characters Orsino and Jack are in, their state of consciousness is completely different. The former stands for sentimental emotion, while the latter represents rationality. The two plays also involve the same element, duel. In Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew demands a duel with Cesario in order to have Olivia as lover. In The Rivals, encouraged by Sir Lucius, Acres writes a challenge note to Beverley to a duel.However, these two fights are in vain, the disturbers cannot achieve their goals to win the girls they want. These plots seem unimportant, but the duels actually help the meant-to-be couples to assure themselves that they have chosen the suitable ones for love and marriage. On account of the duels, the couples either reunite or get to know each others true identity. Generally speaking, the duels add much entertainment to the plays. Most important of all, they elicit the happy endings.