anagnorisis

This term came up when Prof. Little was talking about Twelfth Night. It literally means "recognition" or as in the Greek tragedies, it is the "critical moment of discovery." It would seem a little strange to use anagnorisis to describe what happened at the end of the play because this play is not a tragedy. Twelfth Night is nonetheless a late Elizabethan comedy, and instead of experiencing a release of festivity as the play comes to an end, the audience experience a repression of it. The couples certainly got together but in an unrealistic way (Orsino suddenly forgot his feeling for Olivia and fell in love with Viola; Olivia is satisfied to have married a Viola's look-a-like), and there were no weddings like in the Elizabethan comedies. Because anagnorisis is a term that was only applied to tragedies; therefore, I believe the not-really-happy ending in this play signals the beginning of the dark/gloomy period under the reign of James I and the repression that would come with it (followed by more tragedies).


Trang Nguyen
Discussion 1A