What is Twelfth Night about?

Answer 1

It is based on a short story "Of Apolonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich, which in turn was based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The plot is of a young girl, Viola, who is shipwrecked in a hostile country and disguises herself as a young man to get a job with the local duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with a lady called Olivia and sends his new servant (called Cesario but really Viola in disguise) to persuade Olivia to reciprocate. Unfortunately Olivia falls for Cesario instead. Meanwhile Viola falls in love with Orsino, who is in love with Olivia, who is in love with Viola, who . . . you get the picture. The resolution comes about by the arrival of Viola's identical twin brother who went missing in the same shipwreck. He and Viola believe each other to have drowned.

There is a subplot about the humiliation of Olivia's sour and puritanical head steward, Malvolio, at the hands of Olivia's other servants, her drunken cousin, and a foolish young man hoping to marry Olivia.