Chapter 17 - Hospitality

Summary

Twelfth Night engages audiences in exploring the failure of hospitality from the positions of shipwrecked strangers seeking refuge in Illyria. While the law polices against strangers presumed hostile and households remain oblivious to the plight of the refuge seekers, household hospitality, grounded in patriarchal property relations, remains open to mercenary perversions from within. With Viola and Sebastian assuming nonthreatening roles as domestic servant and tourist, the play stages comedy’s marriage drive as the means by which society assimilates strangers deemed desirable and excludes individuals deemed undesirable. This repurposing of plot device effectively probes the will’s affective disposition to others in prompting a range of action from hospitable to hostile. The process reveals inhospitality not just to strangers without but also to members within the household; it also renders imaginable instances of mutual and even unconditional hospitality. In posing the problem of hospitality, Twelfth Night speaks to the global migrations—climate, economic, political—we confront in our communities today. Viola stands for the migrant here, her wit and resourcefulness countering stereotypes that normalize fear and inaction, even as her stalled nuptial indicates the need for systemic social inclusions based on mutual hospitality, fueled at heart by a transformation of the will.