Act 3, Sc 1

Upon Orsino's command, Viola, in disguise as Cesario, goes to Lady Olivia’s house to bring her another
message of love from Orsino.

Outside the house, Cesario meets Feste who jokes and makes puns with him. They exchange light
hearted banter and Cesario even gives Feste some money in return for quick wit. Feste then goes inside
to announce the arrival of Cesario to Olivia.

Sir Toby and Sir Andrew meet Cesario for the first time here as well. The situation is made awkward by
the fact that as per usual, Sir Andrew behaves foolishly and both men are slightly drunk.

Just then, Olivia comes down to the garden, accompanied by Maria. She sends everyone else away in
order to listen to what Cesario has to say.

Olivia begs him not to give her any more love messages from Orsino as she is deeply in love with Cesario
instead.

Cesario tells Olivia as politely that he cannot love her and Olivia seems to accept this rejection, but she
realizes privately that she cannot get over him quite so easily.

Cesario swears to Olivia that no woman shall ever be mistress of his heart and turns to go. Olivia begs
him return, suggesting desperately that maybe Cesario can convince her to love Orsino after all.

Act 3, Sc 2

Elsewhere in the house, Sir Andrew tells Sir Toby that he has decided to leave. He says that he has
realized that Olivia will never marry him and that he suspects she loves Cesario instead.

However, Sir Toby tries to convince him to stay, saying he must win her over by showing off how manly
he is. Here we learn that the reason Sir Toby is so keen on making Sir Andrew stay, is because he has
been spending his money, and will be cut off from it, if Sir Andrew leaves.

Sir Andrew agrees, and Sir Toby encourages him to challenge Cesario to a duel, in order to prove his
love for Olivia.

Maria comes in and reports that their plan is working and Malvolio has been doing everything that the
letter has asked him to do and looks and acts absolutely ridiculous.

Act 3, Sc 3

We see that Sebastian and Antonio have arrived in Illyria. We are reminded here that Antonio is not safe
in Illyria, for many years ago he was involved in a sea fight against Orsino in which he did them much
damage.

While Antonio tries and find them a place to stay, Sebastian roams around the town. Knowing that
Sebastian doesn’t have much money, Antonio gives Sebastian his purse so that Sebastian can buy
himself something if he wants.
Act 3, Sc 4

Olivia sends a servant after Cesario to persuade him to return and tries to figure out how to make him
love her.

She asks for Malvolio's company, thinking that someone as serious as him, could help her with a strategy.
However, when Malvolio appears, she is shocked by his appearance and behaviour. He wears crossed
garters and yellow stockings, smiles foolishly, and continually quotes strange phrases from the letter he
thinks Olivia wrote to him.

Olivia thinks Malvolio has gone mad. When Cesario returns, she instructs Maria and Sir Toby to take care
of Malvolio, and goes away to see Cesario.

Meanwhile, Malvolio is convinced that in spite of Olivia’s reaction, that she is just playing with him, and
that she does really love him.

When Sir Toby, Fabian, and Maria come to see him, they pretend that they believe he has been
possessed by the devil.

Malvolio, remembering the letter’s advice that he speak rudely to servants and to Sir Toby, does exactly
that, and storms out.

The group then decide together to lock Malvolio into a dark room, a frequent treatment at the time, for
mad men, or people thought to be possessed by the devil. Sir Toby realizes that since Olivia already
thinks Malvolio is crazy, they can get away with this.

Elsewhere, Sir Andrew enters with a letter challenging Cesario to a duel. Sir Toby privately decides that
he will not deliver the letter but, instead, will walk back and forth between Sir Andrew and Cesario, telling
each that the other is fearsome and hungry for blood. He does this because he thinks it will create an
extremely amusing situation.

Outside the house, Olivia talks to Cesario and insists that he take a locket with her picture, as a token of
love. She requests him to return the next day and then goes back inside.

Sir Toby approaches Cesario, delivering Sir Andrew’s challenge and telling him what a fierce fighter Sir
Andrew is. Cesario says that he does not wish to fight and prepares to leave. Sir Toby then returns to Sir
Andrew and tells him the same thing about Cesario.

When Andrew and Cesario finally meet, Sir Toby creates further confusion by telling each of them that the
other has promised not to draw blood in the duel. Reluctantly, the two draw their swords and prepare for a
fight, because if they don't, they will look like cowards.

Suddenly, Antonio enters the court and sees Cesario, mistaking him for Sebastian. Therefore, in order to
save his friend, he offers to fight Andrew in place of Cesario.

Several Illyrian officers enter as well, recognizing Antonio, and wanting to arrest him on Orsino's behalf.
Antonio, realizing that he will need to pay a bail bond in order to free himself, asks Cesario, whom he still
believes is Sebastian, to return his purse.
Viola, however, has no idea who Antonio is. Antonio thinks that Sebastian is betraying him by pretending
not to know him, and he is heartbroken. The officers take Antonio away, thinking he is insane.

Viola is hopeful after having heard her brother's name, that he may yet be alive. She runs off, hoping to
get to the bottom of the matter, leaving Sir Andrew and Sir Toby very confused.

Analysis and Deeper Meaning

Act 3 moves the plot of the play along quite quickly, while at the same time revealing further important
aspects of the characters' personalities.

If we begin with Feste, for instance, we notice that although a clown, beneath his nonsense, he is
obviously intelligent. In fact, Viola even realizes and comments that a good clown must be able to judge
the personalities and moods of all the people with whom he interacts, and to know when to talk, what to
say, and when to keep quiet. Shakespeare reminds us of the element of irony here once again - Feste is
skilled as a fool, yet he is also one of the play’s most intelligent characters.

Olivia’s character continues to go through quite a momentous shift. When we first meet her, she is deep
in mourning and dismissive of romantic love, and almost close in personality to the serious and sombre
Malvolio. Now, however, we see how alike she is to Orsino, in the sense that just as his love is self-
indulgent, so is Olivia's grief. Both emotions are fickle at best, and serve only to satisfy their immediate
needs. Now that her grief is replaced by infatuation, Olivia behaves in a romantically hopeless, forward
way. She even takes Cesario’s hand, a very unusual action for a noblewoman to do at the time. By the
end of the scene, Olivia is reduced to begging Cesario to come back again, saying that perhaps she will
change her mind about Orsino after all. Passion has clearly replaced dignity and order in Olivia's life and
personality. She is now as chaotically caught up in matters of the heart as the rest of the characters.

Viola continues to struggle with the emotional turmoil her disguise brings, although she tries her best to
retain her dignity and composure. In rejecting Olivia, she is mindful not to hurt her too much, and
therefore replies in more abstract terms, such as how no woman will ever own his heart.

Shakespeare also compels us to dig deeper with Antonio and Sebastian's dynamic, in this Act. On the
one hand, Antonio's fierce loyalty and generosity towards Sebastian can be seen as a remarkable bond of
friendship. On the other hand, some of the words he uses, like “jealousy” and “desire” may suggest that
he feels more than just a platonic bond for him.

As mentioned earlier, the plot decidedly speeds up in this Act, and the cases of mistaken identity and
deception become increasingly complicated. First, we see the hilarious results of Maria’s plan, in the
comical actions of Malvolio. His earlier egotism and self-regard has become pure, self-centered delusion
now in which he interprets everything that happens as how he wants to - which is that Olivia loves him.
His mistake, of course, is to twist facts to suit his beliefs rather than adapting his beliefs to the facts.

At this point, the play takes a darker turn as well, despite the comedic situation. In ordering Malvolio to be
rude to Sir Toby and the servants, Maria's letter makes certain that Malvolio will not explain himself to
anyone. Thus, Maria has ensured that Malvolio’s behavior will be the justification for the others’ treatment
of him as if he were possessed. This treatment, we soon learn, is the rather inhumane act of locking him
up in a dark room. As Sir Toby notes, Olivia already thinks that Malvolio is mad, so they can torture him
until they grow tired of it. It is here that we begin to feel pity for Malvolio. His humiliation may be deserved,
but we cannot deny that the treatment thereafter, is unnecessarily cruel.
Sir Toby’s trickery in convincing Cesario and Sir Andrew to a duel, ends up adding yet another layer in the
web of deception, for Viola, who has been in disguise throughout the play, is now mistaken for yet a third
person, Sebastian.

It is at this point that Shakespeare continues to merge somewhat darker thematic elements with the
overall comedic nature of the play. Antonio’s mistake is after all, made much more poignant by his badly
timed arrest and his grief and anger at thinking that Sebastian has stolen his money and betrayed him.
His anguish here is far more touching than the melodramatic grief of Olivia or the lovesick declarations of
Orsino. Not only because he really has proven that his feelings are legitimate, but also because we
realize that if he does indeed love Sebastian romantically, it will remain forever unrequited (unreturned).

Similarly, while Antonio’s mistaken insistence that Sebastian knows him and owes him money causes his
arresting officers to think that Antonio, in turn, is insane and the disguises, secret identities, and crossed
lines of communication lead to humorous circumstances, they also tinge the action with hints of tragedy.
Antonio is arrested, and Malvolio is confined as a madman, both steps going a little far away from what
one expects from a comedy.