Malvolio The Perfect Outcast In William Shakespeare’s...

In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio is considered an outcast by almost everyone in the play. He doesn’t act the same way that any of the other characters act, in that he doesn’t participate in any of their activities, he enforces rules that the others could care less about, and he is just overall a socially awkward guy. Malvolio not only claims to adhere to the rules of the household himself, but uses his relations with Olivia to try and help make the others follow the rules as well. This upsets certain characters more than others. For instance Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria find his behavior particularly detestable. But Malvolio’s strict coherence to the rules allows him to have a rather high position in Olivia’s household.†¦show more content†¦Sir Toby then tells Malvolio to go hang himself. From this example we can see that Malvolio’s adherence to the rules makes him a target for Sir Toby to poke fun at. It is this ad herence to the rules that makes Malvolio a perfect character for members of the audience to either sympathize with or to join Sir Toby in poking fun at him. Next up is the power that Malvolio was given by Olivia. After Malvolio attempted to break up Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria’s fun, they began to plot against him. Malvolio however, was simply trying to keep order in Olivia’s house. Olivia has given Malvolio a position of some power in her house. Judging from different parts of the story and by Olivia’s position as a countess it is safe to assume that being in charge of the affairs of Olivia’s household was no small task. She was obviously wealthy and had a large house with many servants and for Olivia to try and manage all of those things on her own would be a very difficult task, but also a task that she couldn’t trust to just anyone. She obviously trusted Malvolio with running the affairs of her house. Sean Benson touches on this point and argues that, â€Å"As Olivia’s steward, Malvolio is in control of the domestic affairs of her household; if he were as inept as [†¦] others have t hought, how has he risen to this important managerial