Sebastian

Play

Twelfth Night

Summary

Sebastian is Viola's twin brother, believed drowned in the same shipwreck that stranded his sister on Illyria's coast. He survived, and his arrival in Illyria — where everyone mistakes him for the disguised Viola/Cesario — creates the play's climactic confusion and resolution. Good-natured and adaptable, he accepts Olivia's passionate advances with baffled delight and marries her, solving the comedy's central tangle. His bond with his rescuer Antonio is one of the play's most intensely felt friendships.

Notable Quotations

"What relish is in this? How runs the stream? / Or I am mad, or else this is a dream." *(IV.i)*

"Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; / If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!" *(IV.i)*

Cross-references

• Twelfth Night — the play
• Comedies — genre
• character_viola — his twin sister
• character_olivia — whom he marries in comic confusion