Malvolio - wikipedia Malvolio Malvolio Twelfth Night character Malvolio and the Countess, 1859 engraving Created by William Shakespeare Source Twelfth Night Information Role Antagonist Malvolio is a fictional character in William Shakespeare 's comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will. He is the vain, pompous steward of Olivia 's household. He is often portrayed as the main antagonist. Contents 1 Style 2 Inspiration 3 Famous lines 4 References Style In the play, Malvolio is defined as a kind of Puritan. He despises all manner of fun and games, and wishes his world to be completely free of human sin, yet he behaves very foolishly against his stoic nature when he believes that Olivia loves him. This leads to major conflicts with characters such as Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Maria, mistress of the household. Much of the play 's humour comes from Maria, Feste, Toby Belch, and Andrew Aguecheek tormenting Malvolio with drinking, joking, and singing. Later in the play, Maria devises a way to have revenge upon Malvolio, and proposes it to Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste. Maria composes a love letter in Olivia 's handwriting, and leaves it so Malvolio will find it. Beforehand, Malvolio had been wishing to marry Olivia. The letter convinces Malvolio that Olivia loves him, and leads Malvolio to think that Olivia wishes him to smile, wear yellow stockings and cross garters. Olivia is in mourning for her brother 's death, and finds smiling offensive, and yellow is `` a colour she abhors, and cross garters a fashion she detests '', according to Maria. When Malvolio is imprisoned for being a supposed lunatic after acting out the instructions in the letter, Feste visits him both as himself and in the guise of `` Sir Topas the curate '', and torments Malvolio by making him swear to heretical texts, for example, Pythagorean precepts. At the end of the play he vows, `` I 'll be reveng 'd on the whole pack of you '' for his public humiliation, and Olivia acknowledges that he has `` been most notoriously abused. '' The role was first played by Richard Burbage at the Globe Theatre. John Westland Marston notes that the actors of his time often played the role with `` contemptuous superiority '' ; by contrast his favourite Malvolio, William Ferrin, performed it with `` lofty condescension ''. Other actors famed for their performance of Malvolio include Sir Alec Guinness, Henry Irving, E.H. Sothern, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Henry Ainley, Sir John Gielgud, Simon Russell Beale, Maurice Evans, Ken Dodd, Richard Briers, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Derek Jacobi. Richard Wilson took on the role for the Royal Shakespeare Company 's 2009 production. In 2012, Stephen Fry assumed the role at Shakespeare 's Globe. In 2017, actress Tamsin Greig portrayed a female version of the character ( renamed Malvolia ) in Simon Godwin 's revival of the play at the Royal National Theatre. Inspiration Some Shakespearean scholars hypothesize that the character Malvolio was inspired by Puritan landowner Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, who was involved in a well known court case against many of his Yorkshire neighbours in the 1600s. Hoby sued his neighbours when they came uninvited to his house, drank, played cards, mocked his religion, and threatened to rape his wife. Hoby won damages in the case, which may have influenced the scene in Twelfth Night when Malvolio interrupts Sir Toby 's late - night reveling. Famous lines `` ( S ) ome are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ' em. '' ( Act II, Scene v ; although Malvolio says this, he does so while reading from the letter that Maria wrote ). `` My masters, are you mad ? '' The lines would later be repeated, with a slight alteration, by Feste in the final scene of the play as he mocks Malvolio, who afterward storms off. References Jump up ^ `` Entertainment Tennant 's Shakespearean triumph ''. BBC News. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 7 April 2012. Jump up ^ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/feb/23/twelfth-night-review-olivier-national-theatre-tamsin-greig Jump up ^ `` Shakespeare A to Z '' by Charles Boyce, Roundtable Press, 1990 William Shakespeare Plays Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Hamlet Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus and Cressida Comedies All 's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love 's Labour 's Lost Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night 's Dream Much Ado About Nothing Pericles, Prince of Tyre * The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Two Noble Kinsmen * The Winter 's Tale Histories King John Edward III * Richard II Henry IV Henry V Henry VI 1 * Richard III Henry VIII * See also Problem plays Late romances Characters A -- K L -- Z Ghost character Chronology Performances Settings Quarto publications First Folio Second Folio Poems Shakespeare 's sonnets comparison to Petrarch A Lover 's Complaint The Phoenix and the Turtle The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis Apocrypha Plays Arden of Faversham The Birth of Merlin Cardenio * Double Falsehood Edmund Ironside Fair Em Locrine The London Prodigal Love 's Labour 's Won The Merry Devil of Edmonton Mucedorus The Puritan The Second Maiden 's Tragedy Sejanus His Fall Sir John Oldcastle Sir Thomas More * The Spanish Tragedy Thomas Lord Cromwell Thomas of Woodstock Vortigern and Rowena A Yorkshire Tragedy Poems The Passionate Pilgrim To the Queen Life and works Birthplace and childhood home Bibliography Complete Works of William Shakespeare Translations Early editions Editors English Renaissance theatre Globe Theatre Handwriting Lord Chamberlain 's Men / King 's Men The Theatre Curtain Theatre New Place Portraits Religious views Sexuality Spelling of his name Stratford - upon - Avon Style Legacy Attribution studies Authorship question Influence Memorials Screen adaptations Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Folger Shakespeare Library Shakespeare Quarterly Shakespeare 's Globe ( replica ) Bardolatry Titles of works taken from Shakespeare Family Anne Hathaway ( wife ) Susanna Hall ( daughter ) Hamnet Shakespeare ( son ) Judith Quiney ( daughter ) Elizabeth Barnard ( granddaughter ) John Shakespeare ( father ) Mary Arden ( mother ) Gilbert Shakespeare ( brother ) Joan Shakespeare ( sister ) Edmund Shakespeare ( brother ) Richard Shakespeare ( grandfather ) John Hall ( son - in - law ) Thomas Quiney ( son - in - law ) Thomas Nash ( grandson - in - law ) * Shakespeare and other authors Lost William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night Characters Viola Orsino Olivia Sebastian Malvolio Maria Sir Toby Belch Sir Andrew Aguecheek Feste On screen 1933 1955 1966 1980 ( TV ) 1986 1988 ( TV ) 1992 ( TV ) Musical Your Own Thing ( 1968 ) Music Is ( 1976 ) Play On ! ( 1997 ) Illyria ( 2004 ) All Shook Up ( 2004 ) Adaptations Just One of the Guys ( 1985 ) Motocrossed ( 2001 ) She 's the Man ( 2006 ) Dil Bole Hadippa ! ( 2009 ) Opera Viola ( unfinished ) Story within a story `` Grace '' ( 2011 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Malvolio&oldid=829717020 '' Categories : Characters in Twelfth Night Male Shakespearean characters Fictional nobility Literary villains Hidden categories : Pages using deprecated image syntax Articles using Infobox character with multiple unlabeled fields Talk Contents About Wikipedia Italiano Edit links This page was last edited on 10 March 2018, at 10 : 30. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who said some are born great in twelfth night
Answer: Malvolio; Malvolio