# Is Twelfth Night supposed to be sad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702 "2013-01-10T01:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Wikipedia_Cites)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/1 "2013-01-10T01:57:10Z")
I recently watched a recording of the 1980 BBC production of _Twelfth Night_ and at the end for some reason I felt very sad. I thought this unexpected because it is a comedy, and the ending is happy. Perhaps they were tears of joy or what not, but do other watchers of this play feel sad or happy at the end? It seemed to get me at the end. I felt it before even this epilogue song: > [@](#): > > When that I was and a little tine boy, > with hey, ho, the winde and the raine: > A foolish thing was but a toy, > for the raine it raineth euery day. > . . . > > A great while ago the world begon, > with hey, ho, the winde and the raine: > But that’s all one, our Play is done, > and wee’l striue to please you euery day. That song made it even more sad. Is it just me or is the play the perfect comedy? I felt like I had “lived” after watching it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/2 "2013-01-10T01:58:49Z")
Sad? No. Maybe bittersweet. Was it the one with Felicity Kendal as Viola? Because that one is “Perfect Shakespeare.” ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/3 "2013-01-10T02:32:31Z")
> [@No\_Wikipedia\_Cites](#): > > I recently watched a recording of the 1980 BBC production of _Twelfth Night_ and at the end for some reason I felt very sad. I thought this unexpected because it is a comedy, and the ending is happy. _Is_ it a happy ending? The four main lovers end up paired, I guess, and with the “right” mates, but one couple has literally _just met_, and their various affections seem so mutable and random as to make me doubt that any of them will remain together. Meanwhile, Malvolio, who is a bit of a tool but has done nothing really wrong, is humiliated, heartbroken, locked in a dark cell, and at play’s end left bereft of dignity and (presumably) his former position. His tormentors marry and suffer not at all for treating him this way. He leaves swearing revenge on all of them. Is that a happy ending? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/4 "2013-01-10T03:28:42Z")
I will say that I saw a performance of it live this past summer, that managed to get the songs (“The Wind and the Rain” and “What is Love”) so stuck in my head, that they’re still in there. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/5 "2013-01-10T03:58:27Z")
I was adored once. Saddest line in all literature. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-twelfth-night-supposed-to-be-sad/646702/6 "2013-01-10T04:01:07Z")
It’s a comedy, but it’s got more tragic elements than is typical for Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote it right before entering a tragic phase, where he wrote Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth among others. It’s possible that he was beginning to focus more on tragedy, and this affected his comedy writing.