It has often been said that “clothes make the man.” This could never seem truer than in Twelfth Night, where disguises and mistaken identities run the gamut of uses. The identities of people, things, and ideas are swept aside under the facade of something more suited to the given moment or occasion. Viola's disguise, Maria's ploy, Feste's madness and even love fall under a mask at a moment that complicates things perfectly, almost beyond salvation. These entanglements raise questions about the nature of reality that only Shakespeare himself can answer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The play begins with Viola discussing the plausibility and necessity of disguising herself during her time in Illyria. To her captain she says: "...Hide from me what I am and be my help / For such disguise as will perhaps become the form of my intention", thus instructing him in his plan to disguise himself. She goes on to say that she will take the form of a eunuch, and it is revealed much later in the play that it is actually the appearance of her twin brother, Sebastian, at this point assumed dead, that she chooses. This introduces early on the importance of disguise and deception – alongside the difficulty of maintaining a false orientation in the face of truth. When she discovers that the very woman her temporary master asks her to woo for him is falling in love with her male character, she says, "Disguise yourself, I see, you are a wickedness in which the pregnant enemy does much." She begins to feel the pressure most acutely even before this: she obscurely confesses to Olivia admitting that "by the very fangs of malice" she is not what she is playing. A juxtaposition between the beautiful ease of assuming a disguise and the unpleasant false truths of maintaining it is effectively posed. A popular proverb in England at the time Twelfth Night was written becomes part of the clown's lines: "Cucullus non facit monachum." Translated, this means “the hood does not make the monk” and means in contemporary times “clothes do not make the man”. Although this seems to be consistent with the compromising situation Viola has put herself in here by assuming a disguise, the opposite is later shown to be true. Ironically, it is Feste himself who makes the contradictory statement: "I wouldn't wear some of your coats for two pence." » The following dialogue expresses it best: MARIA: No, please, put on this dress and this beard; make him believe that you are Sir Topas the priest: do it quickly; Meanwhile, I'll call Sir Toby. CLOWN: Well, I'll put it on, and I'll hide in it; and I would have liked to be the first to hide in such a dress. I am not tall enough to fulfill this function well, nor thin enough to pass for a good student; but to say an honest man and a good housekeeper is as true as to say a prudent man and a great scholar. He seems to be saying that he cannot fully occupy this position until he puts on the clothes that would outwardly signify that he is a member. of this class. At the same time, he reiterates his earlier statement regarding the monk by adding that he is not "tall enough to fulfill his function well, nor thin enough to be considered a good student", which can be interpreted to mean that even dressed like this it is not the clothing that makes him what he wishes to become. It is the coats and clothes worn that form the person's ideas, as shown.