“WOMEN have become dominant in Twelfth Night and take the initiative. Malvolio lacks self-confidence and self-control and is weak, and with the exception of Antonio, the other men are passive. The women are the only people left who have any will, which is the sign of a decadent society.

Maria, in love with Sir Toby, tricks him into marrying her. Olivia starts wooing Cesario from the first moment she sees him, and Viola is a real man-chaser. All the ladies in this play get what they want.”

— W.H. Auden, Lectures on Shakespeare (Princeton University Press, 2000); p. 154

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