Twelfth Night, or What You Will Characters

Viola is Twelfth Night's gender-bending heroine. The survivor of a ship-wreck that separates her from her twin brother, Viola washes up on shore in Illyria, where she decides to cross-dress as a bo...

Orsino is the powerful Duke of Illyria – he's a bachelor and the object of Viola's affection but he's trying to woo the inaccessible Olivia. The play's opening scene gives us our first gander...

Countess Olivia is the gorgeous heiress with no father, brother (they're both dead), or husband to tell her what to do or how to balance her checkbook. Characters like Duke Orsino, Sir Andrew Aguec...

Malvolio is the steward (head servant) to Lady Olivia. He's a big time hater and criticizes just about everything – Toby's partying lifestyle, Feste's licensed fooling, and all other forms of...

Toby Belch is Olivia's free-loading uncle and the ring leader of a raucous little crew of party animals. He whoops it up 24/7, drinking, eating, belching, singing, dancing, and trash-talking his wa...

Feste the Clown is Olivia's licensed fool, which means he literally has a license to say whatever he wants. (Bet you'd like to know where you can get your hands on one of those.) Feste's job is to...

Maria is Olivia's lady in waiting or, her "chambermaid" (but not the kind of chambermaid who scrubs toilets and changes sheets). Though we never see Olivia and Maria giggling about boys and paintin...

Sir Andrew Aguecheek is Toby Belch's super-wealthy drinking buddy. Like Toby, Aguecheek is always down for some fun and spends most of his time drinking, singing, and dancing, which helps create th...

Sebastian is Viola's twin brother who has been lost at sea. Off-stage, he's separated from Viola at but survives the ship wreck by clinging to the ship's mast. Eventually, he's fished out of the oc...

Antonio is the sea captain who fishes Sebastian out of the ocean and saves his life. He's a relatively minor character in the play, but his relationship with Sebastian is fascinating for the way it...