@Bookworm @Catija A question for the avid Twelfth Night enthusiast!

@NapoleonWilson I'm thinking. It's an interesting question.

It looks like our traffic is picking up - I've earned two Popular Question badges and a Famous Question badge in the last few days. If our views consistently stay higher, that'll be good.

I was just reminded of a discussion we all had (was it only in here, or was there also a question about it?) about genres.

Hey @Shokhet - long time no see!

@Catija It's got one good answer now, but I'd be interested in your thoughts as well. (Didn't know you were a twelfth-night fan - maybe I'll ask more questions about that play, if they might draw you into contributing!)

@Randal'Thor It's my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I don't have anything supported by evidence, but I've always seen it as a play about love... and Malvolio's interaction with Olivia is definitely that.

@Catija Granted, but when you already have a love story as the main plot, why add another love story (ish) with both dark and slapstick elements as well?

The Malvolio story could probably have been spun out into a whole play of its own, Merry Wives of Windsor-style.

@Randal'Thor There's lots of love stories? Love between siblings, love between a weird triangle/quadrangle of people... Toby marries Maria... Antonion loves Sebastian like a brother - enough to risk his life by even entering the town...

The answer you have is really nice, though.

Olivia's love of her brother (deceased)... plenty of it to go around and Malvolio's is the only one that really comes to nothing... so that's where you get some contrast.

@Catija I always thought Toby marrying Maria was strange and unexpected as well. It felt like an afterthought tacked on to the end of the play: "all these main characters get married, Malvolio gets freed ... oh, by the way, Maria and Toby get married too".

But then, I was still a kid when I read it - there might have been a whole lot of foreshadowing that I missed.

Oh, sure... Maria does everything she does because of Toby.

She writes the letter for him they send to Malvolio... she pretend seduces Sir Andrew...

That whole buttery barn part...

@Catija That's actually a good point - there's a lot of contrast in the play between love that actually comes to something (Viola -> Orsino, Olivia -> Cesario/Sebastian) and love that just holds people back (Orsino -> Olivia, Olivia -> brother).

You might be able to spin that into an answer.

Re Maria and Toby ... sounds like I should reread. (Or post about it here. Or both.)

Even the way they phrase the announcement shows that Toby married her because of how she helped screw with Malvolio's head.

@Randal'Thor Eh. Maybe. :P I don't know.

@Mithrandir I think we're doing well at attracting traffic from Google. Some of my questions just keep increasing in views despite no new bumps, and like I said last week, our visits/day is now consistently (albeit slowly) increasing.

You can also see that from the analytics, especially if you check the "weekly" view.

:43497035 Yes.

@Randal'Thor Hello! :)