Feste is one of Shakespeare’s most intricate and fully sketched comic characters, and perhaps for his sophistication he has been a special favorite of the literary critics. This paper discusses three important aspects of Feste’s character in order to gain literary insight. This study addresses whether Feste is a mere fool - a comic-butt and a parasite or hanger-on in the play with his only function being to elicit laughter by his words and actions, or one whose inclusion in the play signifies something more sublime and subtle (Grief 61).
I
Shakespeare, in his play Twelfth Night, has given Feste different shades and several character traits that endear him to all the major characters in the play and the entire drama audience. Literary critics have dissected Feste’s character innumerable times over the centuries, yet he remains an enigmatic riddle which has not been solved to date (Hartwig 501).
Is Feste nothing more than a mere fool? Such question has been continuously asked by generations of stage-going audiences and critics alike, which emerged with the first-ever stage performance of the comedy the Twelfth Night. Whether or not Feste is a mere fool whose inclusion or exclusion from the play can be easily justified and dispensed with, is a question that remains enigmatic as does the character of Feste itself (Grief 61).
Being dumb or dim-witted is among the surest signs of Foolishness. Is Feste, judging by any of the scenes he appears on the stage, dumb or dim-witted? In fact, from the very first scene he appears in, Feste holds his own against a worthy opponent Maria and thereafter, his wittiness never seems to fade in the presence of any major or minor character in the play (Downer 258).
A wise fool, perhaps, but nevertheless and no mistaking it, he is a fool as many over the centuries have held. Arguing that, Orsino is wise because he is in love with Olivia - who never gives him a slight hint of interest even in his suit, and wise because of his standing in life because he is the Duke of Illyria. Olivia, in the same regard, is wise because she is in love with Cesario, the man of her dreams. Indeed, Olivia has all the trappings of a wise maiden who is ever ready to dismiss the charms and favors of the Duke but falling head over heels in love with the Duke’s messenger, who is not even a man. Viola is wise with such a great plan to disguise herself as a man at the Duke’s court. Molvolio is a puritan and takes such good care of Olivia’s household as a steward; he sure is wise. The drunkard Sir Toby is wise because he has befooled Sir Andrew into convincing him that Olivia will marry no other. Sir Toby is in debt to Sir Andrew but then again he is wise and being a lecher and in debt is another matter altogether. Maria the loyal hand maid of Olivia is wise. Especially wise for her scheming ways as she has Sir Toby, the only kinsman of Olivia, firmly in her fist besides she makes an “ass” of Molvolio (Hartwig 502).
The truth is that all the foregoing characters think of themselves as wise. All of them are actually self-conceited and self-conscious, with little confidence on their identities that they hide behind masks. Given that, is still Feste a mere fool? The irony is that all those around Feste, all the major and the minor characters, assume themselves to be wise but in reality are not, while Feste does not wear a mask nor hides his identity but is still deemed a fool (Downer 261-263).
Is Feste a mere witty “corrupter of words,” then, molding the words according to the person he speaks to? He “observe their moodthe quality of person, and the time” (Hartwig 503). But such familiarity with words cannot absolve Feste from foolishness. Feste mocks Olivia without fear of going overboard as he naively asked her why she is in grief. Olivia replies that it is because of her dead brother. Feste quickly retorts that her brother must be in hell then. No, fool, replies Olivia he is in heaven. Well if that is the case, Feste noted, why does the fair lady grieve someone who is in God’s grace (Hartwig 505)? With the Duke as well, Feste is not less mocking towards his pursuit of the elusive Olivia. Feste, though, is at his humorous best when he jests with Molvolio posing as Sir Topas or when he prophetically tells the drunkard Sir Toby that if he were ever in his right mind Maria is as “good a piece of Eve’s flesh as any in Illyria,” implying that she can be his perfect match (Hartwig 506).
All the foregoing instances and many more in the play Feste exposes the masks all these characters hide behind. Feste is also philosophically prophetic in all these instances as well. Olivia lets go of her grief as soon as she sets her eyes on Cesario; Orsino is ready to court Olivia the moment he comes to know her true identity and Sir Toby inevitably marries Maria (Grief 61).
Feste is wise enough to accept that he is not wise. The reality is that Feste is far more intelligent and wise than all the characters around him. The wisdom of Feste makes foolery an art form. Feste is “wise enough to play the fool.” Being a fool and acting like one are two completely different propositions. Acting like a fool is not at all an easy task as it “craves a kind of wit full of labor as a wise man’s art” (Hartwig 510). In this comedy of errors, or appropriately of identities, Feste acting the fool is the best concealed identity of all. This way the wise man acting the fool makes a comic-butt of one and of all the others, though, the most conspicuous comic-butt is the poor affectionate Molvolio (Grief 61).
Additionally, Feste appears to be the only sane person in a world gone mad. While all those around Feste possess narcissist tendencies verging at the neurotic and vaingloriously strut on the stage, it is only him who realizes that the “time is out of joint” and “Nothing that is so is so” in Illyria. What gives Feste confidence and self-belief is the knowledge that his friends praise him and thereby abuse him while his enemies plainly tell him that he is a fool. Hence, Feste is better for his foes and worse for his friends. The man, who can openly laugh at own his faults has every right to expose the fallibilities of others and be merry all the time confident in his self-esteem (Hartwig 509). Feste is not a mere fool in the play, but he is the essential link that gives the patch-work that the Twelfth Night essentially is and thereby lends it solidity, concreteness and a coherence making it one of the great works of the theatre (Downer 509-510).
II
Twelfth Night is a musical comedy and its delicate balance is supplanted by Feste, the singer. Another sterling aspect of Feste’s character is his role as the main vocalist of the play. Feste the singer is the heart and soul of the comedy, as he sings some of the finest verses written by the great bard and to top it he sings with “pleasure” (Grief 61).
The ballad medley is an integral part of the Twelfth Night as was the norm in the Elizabethan theatre. Tabor in hand and a repertoire of songs at his finger-tips to fit the occasion, Feste’s intervention by ballads helps the action of the play to move smoothly in the desired direction (Hartwig 510).
Feste sings his first song at the insistence of Sir Toby (2.3; 39-52). Essentially a love song it celebrates true love. Feste sings: “What is love?” Surely it is not “hereafter.” According to Feste love is a present journey that every wise young man knows ends with the meeting of lovers. “Present mirth hath present laughter,” Feste being the shrewd observer of the affairs of men stresses by the end of the song on a soft melancholic note marking that youth is momentary and fleeting so, ”In delay lies no plenty.” In the broader context of the play this song, on the one hand, hints at the love between Sir Toby and Maria that ultimately leads to their marriage. On the other hand, this very song sets in motion the gulling episode of the self-possessed Molvolio (Downer 263).
The second ballad that Feste sings, or rather re-sings, is at the insistence of the Duke Orsino (3.1; 51-66). A befitting tune it has the concept of unrequited love at its core. An old song as the Duke informs Cesario that accurately records the pangs of an unrequited love. The song is full of the pain endured by a restless soul, wishing an anonymous death and a grave without an epitaph so that no friend or lover may ever come there to grieve over it. In this song Feste with masterful strokes, as he is wont to, satirically mocks Orsino’s sentimentality that the he calls love. By design, Shakespeare, through his mouth-piece Feste in an oracle-like fashion, prepares the audience and the Duke, if intelligent enough, about the fate of his love for Olivia. This sad song reveals another aspect of Feste’s character. He is not all foolery and satire but also has a believably human emotional side to his character. Feste has the capacity to make people sad as easily as he can make them happy. In the words of Alan S. Downer, Feste in this scene daringly points out that Orsino’s love for Olivia reeks of sentimentality and foolishness (263-265).
The third song (4.2; 121-132) is a true ballad medley, devoid of any meaning and teasing to the extreme that in a way highlights the travails of Feste the comic-butt of the Twelfth Night, Molvolio. Feste sing along as he runs to get the paper, ink and light for Molvolio. He wants to write a letter explaining to Olivia that he has been brutish abused by Sir Toby and the gang and has not lost his senses but instead is the target of a cruel jest. Feste’s song adds insult to injury (Hartwig 509).
The fourth and the final song (5.1; 393-408) is the epilogue of Twelfth Night. This ballad wraps up the action of the play. All the couples have been amicably paired - Orsino and Viola, Sebastian and Olivia, and Sir Toby and Maria. The actors, bearing the theatric legacy, vacate the stage and Feste, as is befitting for a character of his stature sings his final farewells to the audience. The play starts on a dark note of the shipwreck so does it end in dark hues (Hartwig 511).
Alone on the stage Feste croons the final song, “A while ago the world began,” perhaps subtly complaining of the short human life. Feste equates the human life with the life on stage suggesting that a little time hence the play began and now is over. In a short span of time, from curtains up to curtain’s fall, it appears both the players and the entire audience has aged. The motive of the song however seems to be to bring back the audience from the sun-shining, and bright fantasy world of Illyria to the gloomy, rainy and windy London. The function of this ballad is to make a smooth transition from “the willing suspension of disbelief” (phrase used by T.S. Coleridge in Biographia Literaria) to the harsh realities of the world (Downer 223-265).
III
Feste links together the disparate elements of the love fantasy and lends it a realistic touch; he is the designated wit in the play and appears in seven scenes in all. Since the Elizabethan age, the sevens scenes have been altered and altogether cut by various producers and their production houses. Grave injustice has been done to Feste’s character and it is only during the twentieth century that this wrong has been redressed. For the utter pleasure of the drama audience, this redemption of sorts continues well into the present century (Grief 61).
Owing to many factors, the chopping-off of the character of Feste in Twelfth Night serves as one of the greatest travesties of fate or fortune in his reputation. The trend began in the 1800s and continued till 1930s. It goes to the credit of Granville Baker the preeminent Shakespearean scholar that Feste was reinstated the role of the wit in the play the Twelfth Night. This step of Barker restored Feste’s dignity and he became a permanent feature in the play once again (Grief 65).
A major factor in the initiation of the trend of limiting or completely dispensing-off with Fest’s role was due to the flawed perception of the producers in the 1800s that Feste took the lime-light away from some of the major characters. Hence, it was necessary to mutilate Feste’s role or better still remove him from the stage all together. During this time more emphasis was placed on the character of Molvolio. The fashion was to paint him as a tragic character who is done immense wrong by a bunch of knaves, Feste being the most prominent among them. Later ages found the character of Viola more intriguing and far more important for the successful running of the play and once again it was Feste who had to bear the brunt (Grief 61).
In addition to the foregoing factors, the producers and theatres back then thought that the character of Feste was too tiresome and baffling for the theatre-going audience and it was in the best interest of all the concerned stakeholders to keep him off-stage. They afforded Feste the least of opportunities to showcase his talents on the stage by cutting down his lines. Often in these productions Feste lines were given to Fabian, thought of as a far fitter choice to play a reserved comic character than the bold Feste (Grief 61-65).
A great work of art, by definition, is one that allows for multiple interpretations. Myriad layers of meanings can be ascribed to a great work of art. The normal custom of the literary pundits is to adapt the interpretations that they consider the most suitable for the purpose at hand. The same is true of the directors and producers of these great works of art. What must be kept in mind by all those who interpret a play, for instance, is that however they might perceive the play adherence to the original is a must. Adherence to the original is important because only the playwright knows the actual validity of a character on stage. The point being brought home is that by omitting one of the characters, in this case Feste, destroys the unities of the play in many subtle ways Grief 61).
After Granville Barker reintroduced Feste on the stage with all his pomp and show, it took some years before the others started emulating him. Now in the twenty-first century, a new trend has been emerging - one that is as damaging as the one that began in the 1800s. As too little importance was once given to the character of Feste in the over-all scheme of things in Twelfth Night, too much attention is being showered on him now. Both extremes are damaging and a balance needs to be maintained (Grief 77-78).
In conclusion, Shakespeare created in Feste a character that is intricate, intriguing and humorously baffling. Feste is one of Shakespeare’s most highly developed creations. The wit of Feste is necessary for Twelfth Night because he by his intelligence and the employment of humor lends vitality to the plot. Feste uses words to expose the false identities of the other characters in the play. Feste, as a singer, helps direct the play in the direction that the playwright wants and subtly ties the knot of the various sub-plots. This helps maintain the dramatic unities and also helps enhance the over-all dramatic effect (Grief 61).
Feste the witty and Feste the singer are both essential to make Twelfth Night a wholesome and a pleasurable experience. Feste infuses the play with vitality and a vigor it lacks because there is nothing novel about the weather-beaten story-line of the Twelfth Night. The majority of the characters of the play are as stereo-typical as the story-line for the Elizabethan audience. The only factor that distinguishes the Twelfth Night from other plays with similar or even same stories is the character of Feste. Feste with his wit and singing skills makes the Twelfth Night with the worn-out and often repeated plot a different experience for Shakespearean audience. Feste’s humor is not the standard slap-stick comedy with a mix of double meaning sexual jokes and gestures that was the norm during the Elizabethan age. Feste imaginative use of the words is the only way he makes the audience laugh. Unlike other jesters of his age he does not juggle balls nor does he employ acrobatic tricks. He is the most sophisticated of Shakespearean wits because Feste creates humor with words and words alone. The only prop that Feste carries around the stage is a tabor. Feste plays the instrument as he sings the ballads of the Twelfth Night. This was one of the major reasons for the character of Feste being chopped-off in later theatrical productions because the sensibilities of the audience were not as mature as that of the audience of today. Back then eliciting laughter by words alone and that to without the use of excessive expletives and double-meaning jokes with a heavy dose of sexual innuendos was considered real humor by the audience (Downer 260-265).
Feste is the soul of the play the Twelfth Night and it is so by design. Without Feste the play is not a complete whole but instead a patch-work. Feste is the spirit that by pervading the play gives it cohesiveness and a coherence it lacks otherwise. For the reasons cited in this paper, it is because of the dominance of Feste in the play that some critics have named it the definitive Feste’s Night rather than the vague Twelfth Night (Downer 265).
Works Cited
Downer, Alan S. "Feste's Night." College English 13.5 (1952): 258-265. Print.
Grief, Karen. "A Star is Born: Feste on the Modern Stage." Shakespeare Quarterely39.1 (1998): 61-78. Print.
Hartwig, Joan. "Feste's "Whirligig" and the Comic Providence of Twelfth Night." ELH40.4 (1973): 501-513. Print.
