Show how the droll situations of the play are mainly contrived by some of the characters in order to make others their laughing-stocks.  Who are Sir Toby’s butts?  Is Sir Toby attached to Sir Andrew, or does he only make use of him for profit as well as fun? (See Sir Toby’s reply to Fabian (III. iii.)).  Other instances to the same effect?  Why does Maria join forces with Sir Toby?  Is she in fact the leader of the scheme, or is Fabian’s story of its origin true?  What part does the fool play in the game, and why?  Note his private grudge against Malvolio.  Is it a dramatic mistake that even the heroine is made the butt of these merry-makers?  Trace Fabian’s part in the duelling plot against Sir Andrew and Viola.  Do these plots recoil in any way against the plotters?  Sir Toby and Sir Andrew both get some home-truths from Malvolio while they are eavesdropping, while for Fabian and Maria these thrusts of Malvolio’s are just as good fun as that which the knights enjoy better.  How does some of the later fun recoil against Toby and Sir Andrew?  Are the Puritans made fun of in Malvolio’s person?

QUERY FOR DISCUSSION

Are the characters least scathed by the fun for that reason superior to the others?

VI

MINOR CHARACTERS

The fun of the play is capped by the presence of a particularly clever fool whose function of making every one the butt of his wit makes one of the least important of the characters represent the special drollery of the whole play.  The only grudge he bears is against the man who does not appreciate fun—­who calls him a ‘barren rascal.’  Describe the passages in which he particularly shines.  Of the minor characters the fool is minor only through his station and unimportance in the plot; he really occupies much space in the play and in fact pervades it.  How is Antonio connected with the plot?  What traits of his does the play bring out?  Is his fondness for Sebastian unnatural?  How is he concerned in the foolery of the play?  Is he necessary to the plot?  As the fool represents the merry-making spirit of the play, so Malvolio stands for the dupes of it.  Does any one sympathize with him?  Who shows the clearest understanding of his faults? (I. v.).  What signs are there in the play of Malvolio’s being a Puritan?  Is there any evidence against it?  Is Maria right, for example, when she says, ‘The Devil a Puritan he is or anything constantly but a time-server,’ etc.?  That the character of Malvolio was generally taken on the stage as a portrait of the Puritan, and that Shakespeare must have known it would borrow some of its popularity from being so considered, seems not to be denied; on the other hand, it may hardly seem to be proven that Shakespeare thought he was drawing a genuine Puritan.  Show Malvolio’s character, his connection with the other characters and with the plot and the foolery of the play, and state the argument for and against Shakespeare’s meaning to make fun of him as a Puritan.