Skip to main content
Folger Teaching Homepage

Twelfth Night

Explore resources related to William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Overview

Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke (or Count) Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino’s service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia—only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles, these relationships.

Most Popular Resources

Introducing Twelfth Night with 2-Line Scenes

Teaching Resource

Introducing Twelfth Night with 2-Line Scenes

Tags:

Cutting a Scene: Twelfth Night 2.4

Teaching Resource

Cutting a Scene: Twelfth Night 2.4

Tags:

3-D Shakespeare: Twelfth Night 1.2

Teaching Resource

3-D Shakespeare: Twelfth Night 1.2

Tags:

Introducing Twelfth Night with 2-Line Scenes

Teaching Resource

Introducing Twelfth Night with 2-Line Scenes

Tags:

Cutting a Scene: Twelfth Night 2.4

Teaching Resource

Cutting a Scene: Twelfth Night 2.4

Tags:

3-D Shakespeare: Twelfth Night 1.2

Teaching Resource

3-D Shakespeare: Twelfth Night 1.2

Tags:

Creating a Promptbook: Twelfth Night 2.5

Teaching Resource

Creating a Promptbook: Twelfth Night 2.5

Give students a real purpose for reading closely and creatively, and be amazed at what happens.
Tags:

Professional Development