Discuss the role of Feste in “Twelfth Night”.

Feste is Olivia’s licensed fool. During the Renaissance, fools are often hired by monarchs
or members of nobility to provide entertainment; they sing, make witty observations, and engage
in practical jokes.

As the main comic force in the play, Feste contributes to the jovial atmosphere of the
play by amusing and entertaining both the audience and the characters on stage. Feste’s real
charm that enthrals the audience comes from his witty responses that are extremely comical.
Feste himself justifies his role as “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit”, and manifests the
tradition of jesters in replying to various figures who address him in expectation of a witty
response. Feste almost reverses the roles talking down to Olivia and making her out to be the
fool "do you not hear fellows? Take away the lady". Other characters cannot talk to Olivia in the
same way as Feste, as she is someone looked up to and respected. This could be due to the
Twelfth Night celebrations being able to speak his mind-being the fool. Feste also comments on
Orsino and says that his mind “is a very opal”(II.iv.70-75). An opal is an iridescent precious
stone that changes color when seen from various angles or in different lights. Therefore, he is
telling Orsino that he is very fickle. Feste is actually a clever and witty character and he shows
and presents this through his use of language, quick wit, word play and punning.

Feste also contributes to the holiday tone of “Twelfth Night”; his very name makes up
part of the word “festival”. “Twelfth Night” refers to the last day of the Christmas festivities and
observed as a time of merrymaking. Feste seems to embody the spirit of Twelfth Night
festivities; true to his profession, Feste sings a lot during the course of the play and makes plenty
of jokes. He also joins the drunken revels of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in Act 2 Scene 3, singing
love songs at their request,

Feste is a lone character; a commentator and an analyst who in many respects provides a
link between the audience and the action of the play. Feste attempts through mockery to pull the
other characters out of their absurd moods; he sees the essential sanity in his cynicism, as
opposed to the madness of the rest of the characters: “I wear not motley in my brain”. Motley
refers to the colourful garb a fool is traditionally dressed in. Therefore, the aforementioned quote
means that his mind is not “naturally” foolish. No one escapes Feste’s cunning wit; there is no
one whom he cannot outsmart or out talk. Viola is probably the only character who realises
Feste’s true intelligence:

“This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,

And to do that well craves a kind of wit.
This is a practice as full of labour as a wise man’s art.”
(III.i.58-62)
 Feste also communicates the play’s most wistful theme- that of the shortness of life and
the decay of youth. In Act 1 Scene 5, Feste reminds Olivia that “beauty’s a flower”. Olivia is
mourning for her brother and father who have both recently died. Feste is implying that health
and beauty are transient and fragile; they won’t last, and therefore it’s foolish to isolate oneself
from the world while those qualities remain.

Additionally, Feste is a good singer of the thematic songs. Twelfth Night is filled with
songs, most of which are sung by none other than Feste the fool. Quite often, his songs direct our
attention to aspects of experience we might prefer to forget: death, the swift passage of time, and
the fact that, on the whole, life is likely to bring us more pain than pleasure. This is rather ironic
as this is Feste the jester, whose name and work closely associate him with the festive
experience. In Act 2 Scene 3, lines 44-49, he sings a verse which stresses the urgency of
enjoying love and youth for the short time it lasts:

“What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter.

Present mirth hath present laughter.
What’s to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty.
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.”

Furthermore, Feste sings the song “I am slain by a fair cruel maid” for Duke Orsino as it
pertains to his melancholic distress over Olivia’s rejection. Feste also ends the play with another
melancholic song; he sings the song “When that I was and a little tiny boy” in Act 5 Scene 1.
This song shows the stages in a person’s life; the carefree beginning that childhood provides and
the bleaker aspects of adulthood, aging and overindulgence.

In a nutshell, Feste is regarded as the genius of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. Through

his insightful and sane role as commentator he holds the other characters together and his witty
and comical replies greatly lighten the mood of the play. He's very much a part of Twelfth
Night's revelries, but he's also able to stand outside the world of Illyria, looking in. In this way,
Feste seems to break down the barrier between the audience and the characters on stage.