William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night is famous for its gender-
reversing plots, which bring unimaginable chaos and amusing effect. In the
play, the heroine Viola is dressed up like a man and uses a pseudonym, Cesario,
as a new identity to live independently after a shipwreck. She is accepted as a
servant by Duke Orsino, who is pining for a young lady, Olivia. Since Cesario's
charming character, Orsino and the servant gradually become close; then, he
shares his trouble on love affection with the countess. The way Cesario sharing
with Orsino's burden is going to woo the lady in stead of the Duke, because
Orsino thinks Cesario is quite a charmer and can take the wooing errand
excellently. In fact, the latter outcome proves the handsome servant doing too
well, and make Olivia strongly love Cesario. However, Cesario can not accept
Olivia's love for he is she, and she herself has affection on her master
Orsino. The other mistaken identity case happened in the latter plots make the
play more complex. For example, Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, is alive
actually, and is recognized as Cesario by Olivia. Then the whole play becomes a
mistaken identity case intertwined with another mistaken identity case.
Superficially, the whole play is just one carefully designed comedy. And it
also coordinates with the social background of the age. The "twelfth night" can
be referenced to the twelfth night after Christmas Eve, and during the period,
people will join a festival, which is dominated by Lord of Misrule. Then the
original social order is turned upside down that the high become low and vice
versa. The setting of the play Twelfth Night corresponds to the tradition; this
is why the mistaken identity can be the story plot. And in the end, the chaos
is mended by the happy ending, just like the destined finale of the tradition
of Lord of Misrule-the social order returns. Nevertheless, if you care about
not only the main characters in the play, you can find there is one person who
gains tragic end after the return of the order