Twelfth Night

Just a quick observation about Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

I’m about an Act-and-a-half in, and I noticed something right away. Now, I’m just this joe-guy-off-the-street type who’s reading Will for the first time in most cases. I’m positive this little thing was noted a few centuries before I stumbled along. Probably written about, too, in great depth.

Right off the bat I noticed the names of three major characters –

Olivia
Viola
Malvolio

Contain a preponderable commonality of the letters v, l, o, and i.

Indeed, Olivia and Viola are almost anagrams, save for the extra i. Take away the “mal” prefix from the last character and it’s still not too far removed from an anagram. And of course we all know that “mal” prefix denotes or at least infers something evil, or at least bad.

Now I’m excited about how this plays out with the characters’ personalities and, perhaps, identities. Surely Shakespeare is too great the wordsmith to not allow such similarities be significant.

We’ll see. I’m still under the weather, and I want to possibly finish the play soaking in a hot therapeutic tub later tonight.