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Feste, a Fool with a Major Role
In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste, the fool, is not a main character; he does play a major role within the play. Like many of Shakespeare’s other clowns and fools, Feste provides the audience with amusement and a realistic view of Elizabethan society. While he does play the role of the fool, Feste seems to make many statements throughout the play indicating that he is quite intelligent. His way with words and general knowledge suggests that he is actually very bright and well read. Feste somewhat becomes the narrator of the play by commenting on actions that occur within the play and foreshadowing events. His witty remarks and amusing songs not only provide the audience with entertainment; they also raise the question of who is the real fool within the play. The theme of pretending is seen throughout the entire play from Olivia’s mourning to Viola’s disguise. Feste’s pretending to be a simple fool and nothing more, further emphasizes this theme. In the Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses Feste as a narrator, an entertainer, a commentator on Elizabethan Society, to foreshadow events, and finally, to emphasize the theme of “pretending” throughout the play.
The dictionary defines a fool as “A member of a royal or noble household who provided entertainment, as with jokes or antics; a jester” (www.dictionary.com). Shakespeare used fools in many of his plays to play the role of the court jester, a character which many Elizabethan people were familiar with. Shakespeare’s fools provided the audience amusement through this common stock character that they all recognized as a part of Elizabethan culture. The fools in Shakespeare’s plays, however, are not simply that of the stereotypical fools in Elizabethan England; Shakespeare’s fools are “witty, intelligent, and rather well-read” (Mangan 5). His fools tend to play a more important role within the play indicating that maybe Shakespeare was trying to say something about society in England at this point in time. Shakespeare may have been using these fools to imply that the English nobility was not always as smart as they thought. Shakespeare’s fools also brought into light the progression court fools in England had made over time.
The first court fools were people with some sort of physical or mental disability put on display for the members of the royal family to gawk at and be used as pure entertainment. Slowly, the fools of English court began to take on the more important role of one with wit and intelligence, leading them to a higher social status among the court. “His role [the fool] is that of the witty, sardonic servant whose seemingly meaningless words conceal profound thought and whose apparent simplicity disguises a shrewd understanding of the cruelty and harshness of the world” (Mangan 55). What Mangan means by this is that the court fools became more like critics of the world. They developed a deep understanding of the English upper class and the world around them. They learned how to use their knowledge to entertain their “employees” without offending them. This implies that sometimes it was not the fool who lacked intelligence, but rather the members of wealthy class. Feste clearly displays the wit and intelligence commonly associated with the fools in Shakespeare’s plays.
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Throughout the entire play, Feste uses his wit to provide the other characters in the play with some amusement. He sings silly songs, dresses up, and provides comments that in turn, make the other characters and the audience laugh. Making people laugh is his main job as a fool, and this is what he is paid to do. He spends his time in Olivia’s home entertaining her and her guests with his comic antics. Perhaps the most comical of all his actions is when he dresses up as Sir Topas and visits Malvolio while he is imprisoned. Feste calls Malvolio a “lunatic” and teases him while he tries to explain that he is not crazy. This is only one of many instances when Shakespeare uses Feste to provide the other characters and the audience with amusement.
Feste does a wonderful job of bringing entertainment and amusement to the audience and the home of Olivia, however, this is not his only role in the play. A part of his comedy is the way in which he pokes fun at and teases the other characters without them even realizing what he is doing. This brings rise to the question of who is the true fool within the play. This is proven in his first appearance in the play when Feste says, in an aside, “Wit, an’t be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits that think they have thee do very oft prove fools, and I that am sure I lack thee may pass for a wise man. For what says Quinapalus? � ‘Better a witty fool than a foolish wit” (I.5 �). By saying this, Feste shows that he realizes that these people only view him as a mere fool who lacks intelligence, when, on the contrary, he is undoubtedly the one with true wit and they, are indeed the true fools.
Using his wit, Feste is able to make the other characters in the play take on the role of the fool. He does this with Olivia when she claims to be mourning the death of her brother. Feste points out that only a fool would mourn the fact that her brother’s soul is in heaven.
Feste Good madonna, why mournest thou?
Olivia Good fool, for my brother’s death.
Feste I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
Olivia I know his soul is in heaven, fool.
Feste The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in
heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
(1.5 61-67).
In this short exchange, Feste is able to chose his words wisely and make it obvious to the audience that Olivia’s mourning is not as authentic as it may seem. She is only in mourning because it is what she is supposed to do, but in reality, as Feste points out, there is no reason to mourn if her brother is in heaven. Feste’s mastery of word manipulation and trickery are unveiled through this conversation.
Feste is a licensed fool and as Olivia points out “There is no slander in an allowed fool” (1.5 88-8). What she means by this is that Feste is able to tell the truth as he sees it, which is why he becomes the perfect narrator within the play. He watches the events unfold from the outside and makes honest comments about them to the other characters. An example of this honesty is when he refers to Malvolio as a “madman” (1.5 1) after Olivia has ordered him to take care of the drunken Malviolio. By being truthful, Feste is able to bring things to people’s attention that they may not have seen otherwise.
Playing the part of a fool requires a lot of intelligence, yet most of the characters in the play do not recognize this. A fool must know how to conduct himself and be able to make quick, witty comments. He must also be able to read a person’s body language and personality in order to know what is and is not appropriate to say at certain times. Feste knows the other characters look at him as a half-wit, which is why he is shocked when Olivia compliments him, by saying he is an “allowed fool” who can speak the truth. He respond to this comment with, “Now Mercury indue thee with leasing for thou speakest well of fools” (1.5 -). Feste is saying that he feels Olvia must be blessed with the ability to lie because he knows no one truly speaks that well of fools. The amount of talent required to be a fool is immense, and “Feste shows himself throughout the play to be a master of every convention of fooling” (Hollander 14).
Even though most of the characters in the play do not recognize Feste’s true intelligence and talent, Viola is one exception. She seems to understand how talented Feste is when she says, “This fellow is wise enough to play the fool, And to do that well craves a kind of wit. He must observe their mood on whom he jests, The quality of the persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. This is a practice As full of labor as a wise man’s art, For folly that he wisely shows is fit But wise men, folly-fall’n, quite taint their wit” (.1 5-67). Viola recognizes that Feste is quite intelligent and that he is able to understand people very well by observing their manners and their moods. It is his detachment from the events taking place that allow him to have such insight.
The fact that Feste is able to sit back and watch the actions that take place around him without becoming involved, makes him able to foreshadow the outcome of the story. A perfect example of this is when Sir Toby and Malviolio ask Feste to play them a love song. In response Feste sings, “O mistress mine, where are you roaming? O stay and hear, your true love’s coming, That can sing both high and low. Trip no further, pretty sweeting. Journeys end in lovers meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know” (.7-4). Feste notices that everyone around him is worrying about finding true love and so he sings this song about finding one’s companion to please them. The phrase, “Journeys end in lovers meeting” (. 41) foreshadows the marriages that take place at the end of the play. Feste also foreshadows the marriage of Sir Toby and Maria. He recognizes the fact that the two are good for one another and says, “If Sir Toby would leave drinking thou wert as witty a piece of Eve’s flesh as any in Illyrai” (1.5 4-6). What Feste means by this is that the two would make a good pair because “Maria is as witty as Toby is sober” (1.5 6 footnote ). He is the only character in the play able to see this because he, unlike the others, is not busy worrying about finding true love. Feste is able to make intelligent predictions and observations simply by staying uninvolved in the madness of love.
Although Feste does not become involved in the pursuit for love that seems to be swirling around him, he too is human and has feelings. A fool at that point in time was a job one could do in order to escape the problems of the world. “We gather that in those days, for a man of parts without character and more wit than sense, there was a kindly refuge from the world’s struggle as an allowed fool” (Granville � Barker 0). This statement is noting that becoming a licensed fool was a way for one to escape the problems of the world while still remaining in it. He does not have to worry about finding a home, clothing, or food because the family he works for provides them all. Just because becoming a fool was like taking the easy way out, it does not mean it didn’t have its downfalls.
Being a fool, Feste is forced to constantly behave in a certain manner. He is never allowed to be his true self and at no point in The Twelfth Night does he have a serious conversation with any of the other characters. This constant mask of foolishness takes its toll on Feste and at the end of the play when all the other characters’ “masks” are taken away, Feste’s must remain on. It is not until his final song that the audience is able to see Feste’s true unhappiness and his possible his regret of becoming a fool.
After everyone has been married and all the characters have made their exits, Feste remains alone on stage. His isolation on stage is in itself a bold statement. What Shakespeare is trying to show with this is Feste’s loneliness. Feste, being left alone after all the couples have gone off to celebrate, brings a downhearted feeling to the audience. While on stage by himself, he begins to sing a song that the audience expects to be of happiness and bliss, but is not at all. Feste sings, “When that I was a tiny boy,/ With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,/ A foolish thing was but a toy,/ For the rain it raineth every day./ But when I came to man’s estate,/ With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,/ ‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,/ For the rain it raineth every day./ But when I came, alas, to wive,/ With hey,ho, the wind and the rain, By swaggering could I never thrive,/ For the rain it raineth every day./ But when I came unto my beds,/ With hey,ho, the wind and the rain,/ With tosspots still had drunken heads,/For the rain it raineth every day./ A great while ago the world begun,/ With hey,ho, the wind and the rain,/ But that’s all one, our play is done,/ And we’ll strive to please you every day” (5.1 84 � 40). This song says many things at once and is a wonderful conclusion to the play.
Feste’s final song seems to be the perfect ending to this play. “His [Feste’s] final song is a summation of the play in many ways at once. Its formal structure seems to be a kind of quick rehearsal of the Ages of Man” (Hollander 145). While this song contains many silly words and phrases designed to make people laugh, it does have a serious side to it that suggest that love and marriage are not the only things in life and that there is not always a happy ending. The song goes through the life cycle from a “little tiny boy” and reverts all the way back around again to when the “world begun”. It seems to be about Feste’s life in particular and his choice to become a fool. He is saying that becoming a fool was his only way to survive because he could not have succeeded any other way. But the fact that he ends each stanza with “For the rain it raineth every day” implies that he is not happy with the choice he made to become a fool. In doing so, he has forced himself to live a life of loneliness and falsity. The song and play conclude with the line “And we’ll strive to please you every day.” This is ironic in that, as a fool, Feste’s job is to please and by concluding the play with this he is saying that he is destined to continue his life striving to please everyone but himself.
While Feste is not a major character in the Twelfth Night, Shakespeare uses the fool in many ways. Feste provides the audience and other characters of the play with amusement by using his wit and intelligence. His witty remarks and intelligent twists of words make it appear as though the nobility are the true fools of the play. Feste’s ability to stand back from the action in the story and observe the events going on around him make him a wonderful narrator and commentator on the characters as well as the events within the play itself. Through Feste, Shakespeare is able to comment on the life of a fool in Elizabethan times and the foolishness of the nobility.
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Hollander, John. “’Twelfth Night’ and the Morality of Indulgence.” Modern
Critical Views William Shakespeare Comedies & Romances. Ed. Harold
Bloom. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 186. 1 � 146.
Mangan, Michael. A Preface to Shakespeare’s Comedies 154 - 160.
New York Longman Publishing, 16.
The Twelfth Night. The Norton Anthology of English Literature The Sixteenth
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