It should be abundantly clear, based on your reading on the videos presented this far, that Twelfth Night is a study in the chaos and complexity of desire. Shakespeare's play foregrounds the psychological and social effects of falling in love. The play also emphasizes the many forms desire can take. To be sure, comedy as a genre is oriented towards marriage. There's a bias built into the genre towards what we would today recognize as heterosexual coupling. But Shakespearean comedy is more complicated than that. However restricted the genre may be in terms of the kinds of sexuality that organize its ultimate aim, it's true too that Twelfth Night depicts love in ways that go beyond the institution of marriage, and the narrative resolution in which a man and a woman are united. The fact that comedies are centered on marriage plots does not fully encompass the phenomenon of desire as Shakespeare understands it. In this lecture, I want to focus on one relationship mentioned in passing a couple of times this far in the course, that between Sebastian and his rescuer Antonio. The language of love Antonio uses to describe his attachment to Sebastian is worth discussing because it helps reinforce our sense of how Shakespeare understands desire. The same sex relationship that Shakespeare seems to go out of his way to highlight also offers an occasion to think about how Shakespeare is playing with the conventions of both genre and sexuality. The first thing to note, by way of review, is that for Shakespeare, love is a highly idiosyncratic phenomenon. Why does one person become enthralled with another person? Generally speaking, the promptings of desire are not feelings that can be explained, they just are. Why does Orsino or Sir Andrew become attracted to Olivia? Who knows? The most we can do is speculate about the basis of attraction. If we allow ourselves to speculate, we can note that there is no one single aspect of people that lead someone to desire them. Orsino and Sir Andrew pursue Olivia apparently because she's there, and because she's of the proper class to make her an acceptable marriage partner in the eyes of society. As noted in the last faculty round table, though she too is class conscious, Olivia seems to be drawn to Cesario because Orsino messenger doesn't act in expected ways. Cesario doesn't fit into clear categories. He listens to her and challenges her in ways that depart from the routines script of courtship, that seems in itself to be what's attractive to Olivia. Sir Toby, as we will have occasion to discuss a bit later, appears to be drawn to Mariah's extraordinary intelligence over and above any other quality she possesses. Whatever else attracts Malvolio to Olivia, the fantasy that seems to be most arousing for the steward is the status Olivia embodies. In a way Malvolio eroticizes social climbing. In the world of Twelfth Night and elsewhere, there are many things that spark people's desires. The gender of the object of characters affection is not always the most crucial dimension of love. Such an observation helps make sense of the erotically charged language Antonio uses towards Sebastian. Antonio is absolutely devoted to the young man. Like the speaker of Shakespeare's sonnets, who goes on a considerable length about his deep attachment to the young man to whom most of the sonnets are addressed, Antonio cannot stand to be apart from Sebastian. When the sea captain and Sebastian arrive Illyria, Sebastian indicates his desire to part ways, to trouble Antonio no further, and to be alone with his grief at the apparent loss of his sister. As a result of his overpowering devotion though, Antonio cannot take no for an answer, as he tells Sebastian, "If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant." Antonio's affection for Sebastian resembles Orsino's extreme desire for Olivia. In that like Orsino, Antonio does not wish to be denied. At the same time, Antonio's desire resembles Olivia's deep longing for Cesario which only intensifies with each refusal. Antonio's desire to be near Sebastian grows almost desperate as he faces the prospect of having to separate from the young man he saved from drowning. When Antonio catches up with Sebastian in Act 3, scene 3, the terms he uses to explain his pursuit continue to emphasize the extremity of his emotional experience. "I could not stay behind you," Antonio explains, "My desire more sharp then filed steel, did spur me fourth." Antonio mixes metaphors here, his desire is sharper than a sharpened sword and it's like the rider of a horse springing him on. Sebastian's response is telling him that he doesn't recoil at the prospect of having another man drawn to him with this kind of intensity. Antonio speaks the Sebastian's language of male friendship, which frequently used erotically charged terms to characterize the bonds between men. Sebastian, rather than reject Antonio, accepts the fact that his love for him and his concern for his safety and in fact responds with gratitude, "My kind Antonio, I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks." Antonio's erotically charged language shows Shakespeare studying desire from many angles. The character also represents the way the playwright heightens the chaos he associates with desire. That is, Antonio's actions and circumstances highlight just how disruptive, if not destructive, love can be. Whether one takes the filed steel of Antonio's desire to be a sharpened sword or spurs digging into his flesh, the general tone of the metaphor is violent. To characterize Sebastian as murdering him if he leaves is manipulative hyperbole certainly, but it also speaks to the pattern evident in Antonio speech associating love and aggression. Though the language is figurative, Antonio situation actions literalized the threats suggested by the metaphors he uses. In order to be what Sebastian, Antonio runs considerable personal risks. Though this statement might be debatable, in a sense, Antonio is the most devoted lover of Twelfth Night. Antonio's desire for Sebastian is so intense that he follows him to Illyria, despite the extreme danger of doing so. In Act 2, Antonio discloses in a soliloquy that he's a wanted man Illyria. "I have many enemies in Orsino's court, else would I very shortly see thee there. But come what may, I adore thee so that danger shall seem sport, and I will go." In Act 3, Antonio confesses to Sebastian directly that, "I do not without danger walk these streets. Once in a sea fight 'gainst the Count his galleys, I did some service of such note indeed, that were I taken here, it would scarce be answered." Briefly put, Antonio is an enemy of the state who has achieved renown for his actions in battle against Orsino's navy. Antonio speech shows Shakespeare at work. Through this brief description of a past military encounter, Shakespeare creates a sense of a larger world. Though you would not know it by anything that Orsino or any other character in the play says, Illyria exists in a Mediterranean world of pirates and sea battles, competitive states, Antonio embodies a more ruthless reality of violence and predatory behavior just outside the purview of comedy. The irony is that whatever he is up to when he sails around the Mediterranean, whatever risks he runs pursuing his livelihood, it is in his love and deep concern for Sebastian that puts him in the greatest risk. Antonio's devotion to Sebastian speaks to the extreme capacity of desire to lead one to do dangerous things. In Shakespeare world, desire compels one not only to act ridiculously against one's character, as with Olivia and Malvolio, but also to act against one's own self-interest or sense of self-preservation. Though a minor character, Antonio is a full participant in the dynamics of desire that drives this play. He's experienced gestures towards the subtext of violence and conflict that, as we will see in this course is next module, will eventually take over the action of Twelfth Night.
