I have my degree in English... I like reading and teaching with this version as "help" not as a substitution. It gives a clearer understanding to Shakespeare for people who have difficulty with it.

"Twelfth Night" is built upon the reliable comedic premise of mistaken identity. We begin with a shipwreck and a twin brother and sister, Sebastian and Viola, each of whom believes that the other has died at sea. Viola disguises herself as a boy and, assuming the name of Cesario, gets a job as a page for Orsino, the duke of Illyria, with whom she is in love. Orsino, however, is in love with a lofty young countess named Olivia, who has no interest in him and furthermore is mourning her own brother's recent death. Orsino dispatches Cesario/Viola to relay his amorous entreaties to Olivia, hoping that Cesario's youth may make him a more appealing messenger and soften her heart; but, wouldn't you know, Olivia becomes attracted to Cesario instead.

Meanwhile, Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch, a knavish and idle aristocrat, is distressed by his niece's apparent desire to remain unmarried and tries to prepare his protege, the dimwitted but affable Sir Andrew Aguecheek, as a suitor. As part of a secondary plot, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew cooperate with Olivia's maid, Maria, to play a practical joke on Olivia's steward Malvolio, a humorless stuffed shirt whose conceit has finally piqued them all, by forging a letter that leads him to believe that his beautiful employer is in love with him. The ruse pays off, and Malvolio is imprisoned for madness after satisfactorily making a spectacle of himself in front of Olivia. Rounding out this retinue of clowns is Olivia's jester, named Feste, who, like King Lear's fool, seems to know more about the people around him than they know about themselves.

"Twelfth Night" is not just a comedy but, as the title indicates, a festive play in which songs and holiday spirit figure into the mood, providing a relaxed and joyous atmosphere in which the audience may feel privy to an elaborate jest. Certainly the plot is predictable, but its predictability is part of what makes it truly funny. We all (Shakespeare not the least of us) know how absurd it is that Viola disguised as a boy would look and sound so exactly like her twin brother as to make the two indistinguishable to the other characters in the play, but this is the indispensible device that holds the comedy together. Pretending to be someone or something you are not is the essence of the act, the idea encapsulated in "Twelfth Night" and expressed by Feste's sarcastic riposte to Sebastian, "Nothing that is so, is so."

After reading Twelfth Night, I realized that I have never read a better Shakespearean work. Not only does this have signs of comical mischef, but it has so many deeper meanings as well. The first deep message that I uncovered was the fact of gender confusion. Viola, using the power of a man to her advantage, begs the question to whether or not she is struggling with issues of gender identity. Her conversation even begs the question much futher, and by the end of the play leaves the reader with so many questions....This was a wonderful read, and quite possibly one of Shakespeare's best works.

Of all Shakespheare's plays I've read so far, I like Twelfth Night the best. I read it so many times I even lost my dependence on the modern language translation and I could read the Elizabethan language with the right conversational rhythm, losing all the awkwardness. I particularly liked the role of the snobby servant Malvolio, who tries to move up to the level of his Countess Olivia and leave his other "inferiors" behind. There is a couple of elaborate pranks being played upon characters in the play, in which Malvolio becomes one of the victims. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Maria are the comic "team" that set these pranks in motion, all with amusing results. I just like the playfulness of these characters and their continual search for fun.

The main plot of the play is little less interesting involving the old disguised, mistaken, or confused identity ploy that Shakespheare uses from time to time. This time out a woman named Viola is a character pretending to be a man who is sent to woo Countess Olivia for Duke Orsino. She has a brother that looks just like her, especially now since she is dressed like a man. Identity confusion ensues. Also the pranks of the subplot mesh with the main plot for an amusing end.

I liked the play. It was pretty interesting. Shakespeare writes in the most beautiful language I know. Even though I did not understand everything, I really enjoyed reading it.
However I think the end is a little bit too facile. I do not like love stories with such easy happy endings. I suppose the play should have been a little bit longer so that Orsino could have had enough time to fall in love with Viola. This just went on too fast. Maybe it is the way men are. But well, such is life...