SOURCE: Robertson, Karen. “A Revenging Feminine Hand in Twelfth Night.” In Reading and Writing in Shakespeare, edited by David M. Bergeron, pp. 116-30. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996.

In the following essay, Robertson focuses on the gulling scene (Act III, scene iv) in Twelfth Night, emphasizing the rarity of a revenge perpetrated by a woman. She asserts that Maria's literacy skills as well as her shrewd understanding of Malvolio's vulnerability are hallmarks of a person capable of challenging established orders of social hierarchy.

At the core of the gulling plot of Twelfth Night lies a letter, deliberately forged in a feminine hand. In the second act, in response to the impotent fulminations of Sir Toby against Malvolio, Maria promises to invent a device that will correct the overweening self-love of the steward, “And on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work” (2.3.152-3).¹ In...