Comedy is always difficult to discuss because it requires one to explain humor and in the explanation one usually loses all the humor. Twelfth Night is no exception. I urge all student to read the play and then, if possible, see the 1996 film that I mention in my weekly message. The film version clearly brings out the absolute side-splitting comedy in this play.

However, the play is not just an hilarious comedy. It also has its serious and even dark side. There is little to laugh at in the first scene. Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, where the play is set, is in a melancholy mood because the young woman in whom he is interested, shows no interest in him. We may smile at the Duke's self indulgence or at some of the word play, which is so expected in a Shakespearean comedy, but there are no big laughs in the first scene.

Not many in the second scene either where we are introduced to a young woman, Viola, who is recently ship wrecked on the shores of Illyria. It is sad because there is every reason to believe that her brother, actually twin brother, went down with the ship. It is something of a miracle that she and the ship's Captain managed to cling to some wreckage and make their way ashore. Now, she wonders, "What next?" In the sixteenth century it was not a great idea for a woman to travel alone, so Viola, decides to dress as a man and try to pass herself off as a eunuch, a man who has been castrated before puberty. The Captain promises to keep her secret and not tell anyone she is in disguise. ...