Viola has to disguise herself in order to work, which is in modern times illegal. Unknowingly Viola, or rather Cesario, completes a love triangle as Olivia falls in love with Cesario and Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino. Viola and her brother Sebastian bare a very striking resemblance, and because of this much confusion arises when they finally reunite. The carnivalesque mood of the Twelfth Night festivities only brings more confusion into the unraveling of this situation.
In the same way that Shakespeare uses complex roles to define the Twelfth Night theme, he uses symbols to make the theme more prominent. The subplot involving Malvolio, Olivia's advisor, holds one of the most important symbols found in this work. Malvolio often wishes that he held Olivia's heart and hand, but the social order and classes found in Renaissance times restrict him. Sir Toby and Maria trick him into believing that Olivia wishes to be his, and they later overhear him dreaming of one day being Count Malvolio. Claiming that he is insane, Sir Toby and Maria have him quickly thrown in jail. They then try and convince Malvolio that the light in his cell is truly darkness. This darkness symbolizes Malvolio's non-existent insanity. This insanity does not truly exist, but is what Sir Toby and Maria force upon him. Being a wise man, Malvolio turns this scenario around to mean that the darkness is the madness that exists outside of his cell. In response to his imprisonment, Malvolio says, "I say this house is as dark as ignorance, though/Ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say there was/Never man thus abused."" (IV.ii.46-48). Shakespeare also shows his theme of reversed roles by making Olivia's character chase after Cesario. Olivia is of noble blood, and for her to chase after someone, let alone someone not of noble blood, is unthinkable in Renaissance times. However, Olivia tells Cesario to continue to visit her by saying, "Yet come again, for thou perhaps mayst move/That heart which now abhors, to like his love.
