These "mistakes" do not really reflect badly on Shakespeare.  Many of his plots have similar problems. He does not seem to have been very concerned with the details of his plots, and apparently his audiences weren't either.  Still, it is interesting to note the kinds of errors that crept in either through carelessness or careless revision.


1) Viola decides to come to Orsino’s court disguised as a eunuch.  She believes she can find employment in this guise because she can sing (1.I2.57-59).

She does not sing during the course of the play. The eunuch idea is dropped. Feste does all the singing, except for the rounds where Sir Toby and Sir Andrew join him.


2) Olivia falls in love at first sight, and wants to marry what she thinks is a boy so young his voice has not yet changed (1.5.290-298).

Does this seem likely to you?


3) Feste is to witness the gulling of Malvolio (2.3.172-176).

When the time comes, Fabian appears out of nowhere and takes Feste’s part in that scene (2.5).


4) In the letter, Malvolio is reminded that Olivia likes to see him in yellow stockings that are cross-gartered (2.5.152-154).  Malvolio agrees that Olivia did recently mention this to him (166-168).

Maria makes it clear that Olivia dislikes this style (199-201).
Olivia clearly does not know what Malvolio is talking about when he points out his wonderful stockings and garters to her (3.4.49-58). She is hardl;y likely to have mentioned it.


5) It is clear that Sebastian and Viola were on the same ship(2.1.25-31), yet:

Sebastian does not arrive in Illyria until three months after his sister (5.1.94 & 99). What took so long?


6) Viola is in Orsino’s court 3 days when sent on her embassy to Olivia. Add a day for the shipwreck and call it four days (1.4.3). Counting the days that pass as I read the play, the story appears to take five days to tell. You can argue for six.  You really can’t argue for seven.

There is the testimony of 5.1.94 & 99 that three months have passed. There are many such time paradoxes in Shakespeare.

Return to Home Page.

This paper was created as a handout for the Continuing Studies class "Shakespeare's Firey Couples" at Stanford University. Some things in Twelfth Night do not quite make sense. Here is a list of them.