In modern times, women are often seen as more emotionally and mentally manipulative than men, with girls being marked for gossips and rumor-starters. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is famous for its play with gender roles, which often pertain to the side characters as much as the lead ones. Perhaps the most notable example of this is through Sir Toby. Olivia and Maria are already shown to be masters at manipulation, with the former sending a ring after Viola/Cesario at the end of Act 2, Scene 2 and the latter coming up with the infamous letter idea to mess with Malvolio in Act 2, Scene 3.
However, it was Toby and Fabian together who manipulated Sir Andrew into staying at Olivia’s house, because she wanted “to exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valor, to put/fire in your heart and brimstone in your liver” (3.2.17-18). Toby then goes further to say, “Challenge me the Count’s youth to fight with/him…My niece shall take note of it” (3.2.30-32). Together, the two men manipulate Sir Andrew to not only stay and pursue what they know is a hopeless quest but to fight Viola/Cesario for no other reason than to cause trouble. After Sir Andrew leaves, Fabian remarks that, “This is a dear manikin to you, Sir Toby,” (3.2.48), something that Sir Toby recognizes with, “I have been dear to him,” (3.2.49). They’re messing with Sir Andrew by playing on his affections for Olivia and putting him in a situation that poses legitimate danger (if Cesario was actually a good fighter), which it does later in Act 5 when he runs into Sebastian. It is also Sir Toby in Act 3, Scene 4 who goes back and forth between Viola/Cesario and Sir Andrew, promising to each to help talk the other down only to come back and inflame the situation more with cries of “he’s a very devil” (3.4.261) and “bloody as the hunter” (3.4.212). Sir Toby seems to enjoy causing trouble just for the sake of it.
In the end, while both Olivia and Maria have meddled, both seem to be let off as Olivia’s marriage to Sebastian works out after Viola is revealed and Fabian vouches for Maria’s letter, claiming it was written “at Sir Toby’s great importance” (5.1.359). Only Sir Toby seems to have paid for his actions as Sebastian had given him a “bloody coxcomb” (5.1.173) as a result of the fight he had earlier instigated. Toby’s end is fitting for his cruelty, but perhaps it is also a reminder that a man’s place is in the battle of swords and that the battle between minds should be left to the women better suited for it.
Works Cited:
Shakespeare, William. “Twelfth Night.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams, 9th ed., A, W.W. Norton & Co., 2012, pp. 1189–1250.