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  • Essay / Causing Suffrage and Identity in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    The reader sees that throughout the duration of the play, conflict through confusion was another effect that comes from all this mistaken identity. The first person to actually experience it is Antonio when he believes Sebastian has betrayed him. We see this when he says, “But oh, how vile an idol is and proves this god!” You have, Sébastien, done good, shame on you. In nature there is no fault except the mind. No one can be called deformed except the one who is wicked. Virtue is beauty, but beauty and evil are empty trunks “flowered by the devil” (p. 107). In this part of the play, the reader sees that Antonio truly believes that Alto is Sebastian and says that he is a trader and that he is not as good as he seemed to be. This shows how mistaken identity causes conflict through confusion because Antonio mistook Viola for Sebastian, and because of this "betrayal" a very good relationship took a turn for the worse. This can also be seen between the characters of Orsino and Viola. After Orsino learns that Cesario has apparently married Olivia, he says, “O little deceiver! What will you be when time has cast a shadow over your case? Or will your art not develop so quickly that your own journey will be your overthrow? Farewell, and take her away; but direct your feet where you and I can henceforth never meet” (p. 135). When Orsino says this, we see that the mistaken identity has caused a