Malvolio/Olivia?

[Kaiserin]

Hello, hello... I'm new here, just to let you know. It's a little custom of mine to grace every board I come by with the following, which is basically about how Malvolio and Olivia make a much better couple than Olivia and Sebastian. So... here you go.

So I am, as always, wondering if anyone else shares my opinion. (I haven't come across anyone who does as of yet, though, as my sig will tell you. Hm.) I've always thought them to be better suited to one another than Olivia and Sebastian in terms of personality; in 1.5, Olivia accuses Malvolio of being "sick of self-love" (an observation which is not necessarily intended as serious criticism; it could also be interpreted as playful teasing on Olivia's part), but seems to suffer from the same complaint, evidenced by her conversation with Cesario ("but we will draw the curtain and show you the picture... is't not well done?") later on in the same scene. Compare these two personalities with Sebastian's, and I don't believe his marriage to Olivia would last more than a few months, especially when you consider as well that he and Olivia marry having known one another for a matter of minutes, purely on the basis that Sebastian looks similar to "Cesario"; to quote Michael Pennington's Twelfth Night: A User's Guide, "for all she (Olivia) knows, the brother may have none of the attractive inner qualities of the disguised Viola". As for Malvolio, we do know that he loves Olivia, even if, again to quote the User's Guide, "his dreamy longing for Olivia is tied up with his desire for power" - though not, in my opinion, to the extent to which it is usually interpreted - and nowhere in the text is there the implication that she is in any way displeased with him. If anything, Malvolio in his yellow stockings and cross-garters causes her concern in 3.4, and she is likewise sympathetic towards him in 5.1, assuring him that "when we know the grounds and authors of it, thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge of thine own cause" - an exceptional privelige, perhaps? It's also noted in the User's Guide that Olivia's word "fool" ("Alas, poor fool, how they have baffled thee!") could be "the affectionate term with which Lear describes Cordelia (probably) at the moment before his death".

Thoughts, anyone?

[Bardolph]

That is a very interesting take. I have to agree that there is no evidence of mal intent toward Mal Volio. And there is clearly a warmth in Olivia's use of him toward the end. But it doesn't signify a warmth that rises to love. Perhaps WS feels that the audience will easily dismiss Malvolio as a reasonable suitor for this lack of the right type of love. I wonder if the E/J audience had a heightened sense that Malvolio should be critically viewed for his pretensions to a higher station in life, a higher bed and a greater power, and that this makes him unacceptable to that audience in a way not so evident to our modern egalitarian sensibilities.

It is certainly true that we know not much about Sebastian, but we know that his sister loves him. Perhaps this is meant to confer a favorable judgement upon him by proxy. I also wonder about twin superstition in that era. Perhaps the male and female twin pairing was looked upon as a kind of mirror reflection. If so, the audience might more readily accept the suitability of Sebastian based on what they might take as evidence.

It is interesting that Olivia endows Malvolio with such authority to judge his malefactors. But insofar as they are fled from court it won't be possible. It also doesn't seem that Olivia knows who has perpetrated this offense and is caught up in the general bewilderment of the play's end. Still, you make the important point which is that without knowing the circumstances, she still clearly restores him to a place of trust, and quickly.

The Lear use of 'fool' for Cordelia is still a familial love, not what we would associate with passionate love. I no longer have a lexicon, so I don't know if there are instances of the use of the word for such a relationship elsewhere in the canon. But it's well worth seeking.

So as the play ends, do you root for Malvolio? At what point does he become such an object of pathos that you would reward him with a rich and beautiful wife? Does the fact that Sebastian commands the loyalty of his follower, or that he bravely seeks through enemy territory not commend him to such a bride? Did the audience of the time look at the journey he's taken differently?