Character guide

Viola

major

Also known as Cesario, Viola Orsino, good Cesario, Viola Ay, Viola Cesario, Viola Aside, Viola Madam, Viola Of Messaline, Master Cesario, dear Cesario

Viola washes ashore in Illyria with nothing but her wit and a captain's hope that her brother lives. To survive, she serves Duke Orsino as the eunuch-voiced Cesario, a role so convincing that Orsino confides the 'book of his secret soul' to her. The tension is exquisite: sent to woo Olivia on the Duke's behalf, Viola finds herself wishing 'Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.' Her disguise sets the play's whole engine of mistaken love in motion.

Duke Orsino

major

Also known as Duke, Duke Ay, Duke Husband, Duke One, Duke Gracious Olivia, Duke O

Orsino opens the play declaring 'If music be the food of love, play on,' and his appetite for feeling is bottomless, self-renewing, and slightly absurd. Olivia has walled herself away for seven years to mourn a brother, and he reads her refusal as proof of a heart that will love extravagantly once turned. He trusts Cesario with his 'secret soul' and his suit, never suspecting that the messenger he praises for a 'woman's part' is falling for him. His self-absorbed courtship is the foil against which the play's real affections sharpen.

Olivia

major

Also known as fair Olivia, Olivia God, Olivia O, Olivia Ay, the Countess Olivia, Olivia Sir, Olivia Heaven, Olivia Prithee, Olivia Ha, Scene II Olivia, Scene IV Olivia, Olivia Alas, Olivia with Malvolio, the Lady Olivia

Olivia rules her household with a will that surprises everyone, refusing the Duke's suit and managing her drunken uncle, her fool, and her steward with equal authority. Her vow to keep her brother's love 'fresh and lasting' is genuine, but so is her sudden, helpless attraction to Cesario — a desire aimed at a man who is not a man, and who loves someone else. Her pursuit of Cesario puts her at comic cross-purposes with Orsino and makes her the pivot on which the play's love-triangle spins.

Sir Toby Belch

supporting

Also known as Sir Toby, Toby, Enter Sir Toby, Sir Toby Sweet Sir Andrew, Sir Toby Sir, Sir Toby Bolts, Sir Toby Gentleman, Sir Toby Ay, good Sir Toby, Sir Toby Belch, Andrew Sir Toby Belch, Enter Sir Toby Belch, Exeunt Sir Toby, Sir Toby O knight, Sir Toby O, Sir Toby Reads, Sir Toby Fire, Sir Toby Fire and brimstone, Sir Toby Peace, Sir Toby Marry

Sir Toby lives on his niece's charity and repays it with noise, wine, and 'cakes and ale' at all hours. When Malvolio the steward threatens to report his disorder, Toby answers with a drinking song and a challenge: 'Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?' He eggs on Sir Andrew Aguecheek's hopeless suit for Olivia and eagerly joins Maria's scheme to gull Malvolio. He is the play's engine of misrule, and its funniest menace.

Maria

supporting

Also known as Maria Sir, Maria Sir Toby, Maria Sweet Sir Toby, Maria Ay, Maria O Lord, Maria Madam, Maria Ass, Maria Peace, Good Maria, Exit Maria, Mary, good Mistress Mary, Marian

Maria runs Olivia's household with a brisk competence that makes Sir Toby's chaos bearable and Malvolio's pomposity unbearable. When Malvolio threatens to tell the lady about the drinking, Maria coolly diagnoses him as 'an affectioned ass' who believes everyone loves him, and vows to make him 'a common recreation.' Her scheme — dropping love letters in her mistress's hand — is the play's most ingenious plot, and she is its most underrated intelligence.

Sir Andrew Aguecheek

supporting

Also known as Sir Andrew, Andrew, Sir Andrew O, Sir Andrew Marry, Sir Andrew Ay, Sir Andrew Good Mistress Accost, Sir Andrew Faith, Sir Andrew Plague, Sir Andrew Taurus, Andrew Aguecheek, Aguecheek

Sir Andrew has come to woo Olivia and stays to drink, dance, and be fleeced by Sir Toby, who assures him 'there's life in't, man.' He can cut a caper, fence badly, and speak a little French he doesn't understand; he suspects his wit is dulled by too much beef. When Maria outwits him at their first meeting, he is 'put down' and considers riding home — but Toby's flattery keeps him. He is the play's most pitiable fool, and its most reliable source of secondhand embarrassment.

Malvolio

supporting

Also known as Count Malvolio, Malvolio Sir, Malvolio Madam, Enter Malvolio, Malvolio Fool, Malvolio Ay, Malvolio M, Malvolio M⁠—Malvolio, Malvolio Lady, Malvolio Mistress Mary, Monsieur Malvolio, Exit Malvolio, Yond gull Malvolio, Sir Topas, good Sir Topas, Topas, Malvolio the lunatic

Malvolio runs Olivia's household with a steward's exacting propriety, scolding Sir Toby's midnight drinking and lecturing the company on respect for place and time. He is a time-pleaser crammed, as Maria sees it, with the belief that all who look on him love him — a vanity that makes him the perfect target. When Maria proposes to drop a forged love letter in his path, the play's comic engine shifts into gear, and Malvolio's fantasy of rising above his station begins to steer the subplot.

Feste

supporting

Also known as Clown, Clown Good Sir Toby, Clown Sir Toby, Clown Master Malvolio, Clown Sings, Clown Ay, Clown Singing, Clown Troth, Clown The, Clown Fie, Clown Vent, Clown Marry, Clown Foolery, Clown Madman, Clown Good Master Fabian, Curio Feste

Feste moves freely between Olivia's house and Orsino's court, answering Malvolio's moralizing with a joke about cakes and ale and matching Sir Toby catch for catch. He is nobody's fool but everybody's mirror, and his wit cuts both ways: he mocks Malvolio's virtue and Toby's drunkenness in the same breath. As the household's licensed truth-teller, he gives the play its music and its melancholy undertow, reminding the audience that pleasure and grief keep close company.

Sebastian

supporting

Also known as Sebastian O good Antonio, Sebastian Antonio, Sebastian Madam

Sebastian survives the shipwreck that separates him from Viola and washes up in Illyria under Antonio's protection, grieving a sister he believes drowned. His reunion with Viola hinges on shared proofs — their father's mole, the day he died — and on Viola's plea that he not embrace her until the circumstances cohere. His arrival in the middle of the play's romantic tangle turns confusion into resolution, making him the hinge on which the comedy's mistaken identities finally swing shut.

Antonio

supporting

Also known as Antonio One, Antonio Sebastian, Antonio Orsino, Enter Antonio

Antonio rescues Sebastian from the sea and attaches himself to the young man with a devotion that overrides his own safety, confessing he has many enemies in Orsino's court. When Sebastian announces he is bound for the Count's palace, Antonio insists on following anyway, declaring that danger shall seem sport because he adores him so. His willingness to risk capture for love gives the play one of its starkest images of loyalty, and his presence in Illyria sets up complications that only Sebastian's reappearance can untangle.

Fabian

minor

Also known as Fabian Ay, Fabian O, Fabian Nay, Fabian Sowter, Fabian O good Sir Toby

Olivia's servant who joins in the plot against Malvolio.

Valentine

minor

Gentleman attending Duke Orsino, who delivers messages to Olivia.

Curio

minor

Also known as Curio The hart

Attendant to Duke Orsino who appears in early scenes.

Captain

minor

Sea captain who rescues Viola and helps her disguise herself.

Master Parson

minor

Priest who marries Sebastian and Olivia.