In Irène, Voltaire wrote, “Shakespeare is a savage with sparks of genius which shine in dreadful darkness of night.” One of Shakespeare’s sparks of genius was in his use of masks. These masks put characters in a sort of “darkness of night,” allowing them to become someone else. They are used for imagery, so one can discover who a person is—the inside of the mask. Masks are used throughout Shakespeare’s Twelfth …showed first 75 words of 930 total…

…showed last 75 words of 930 total…to conform to one’s own needs or to the needs of others, just as in real life. In the book, masks are used to hide something. Everyone eventually came out from that hiding. With masks removed, quality of life improved in the end and everyone became happy. Masks added a lot to Twelfth Night, but Shakespeare was trying to show his readers how much better the world could be if people took off masks.