These Footnotes accompany our episode on William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Twelfth Night or What You Will, and include additional notes on the characters of Viola and Sebastian.

Not listened to the episode yet? You’ll find it here.

Ronke Adekoluejo as Viola
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London, September 2025
Photo by Helen Murray

Sebastian
Time did not permit us to talk much about the character of Sebastian in my conversation with Will in the podcast. He plays a crucial role in the plot, although he does not have much individuality as a character, because of course the whole point of him is that he is a duplicate of Viola who can step in to fill Cesario’s role. It is amusing how quickly he accepts that role, readily succumbing to Olivia’s advances. He’s married within virtually minutes of meeting her!

But in some ways, the most striking thing about him in the story is his relationship with Antonio. Although it feels like the shipwreck has only just occurred within the stage time of the play, we learn that Sebastian and Antonio have been together for three months before they appear to us, with“not a minute’s vacancy / Both day and night did we keep company”, as Antonio tells us. An intimacy that suggests that they slept side by side at the very least.

However, somewhat mysteriously when we first meet them Sebastian reveals to Antonio that his name is not Roderigo as he had told him, but Sebastian, son of Sebastian of Messaline. What’s going on there? Why did Sebastian disguise his true identity? I think that we are to understand that this signals that there is a difference in their respective social class, Sebastian being an aristocrat and Antonio a sea-captain. This difference may be a factor in Sebastian’s decision to separate from Antonio, now that they are coming into the city and into court society. Does Sebastian stop the relationship because he cannot be seen to be with this man, either because he is from a lower class, or because he is a man, or both?

From the way that Antonio talks, it appears that he may feel more strongly for Sebastian than he for him. Certainly, Antonio’s declarations are explicit, and there are many productions that have presented their relationship as a sexual one. I also read analysis that points to the heightened style of the language that Antonio uses when describing his love for Sebastian. It is couched in the language of religious devotion, which may be an acceptable form in which to express what is in fact a more profane love. Though of course their friendship may also be a kind of bond or love between men that was more specifically understood at the time, in the way that the ancient Greeks apotheosized such relationships.

Antonio refuses to accept Sebastian’s decision initially, and the strength of his feeling is apparent in his devastation at what he sees as Sebastian’s terrible betrayal when Cesario denies knowing him. Given the obvious depth of his feeling for Sebastian, we can only wonder at the bewilderment and pain he must feel on learning that Sebastian has married Olivia. We do not hear from him again after this point, so can only imagine whether there is any future place for him or not in Sebastian’s world.

For his part, while Sebastian’s decision to part from Antonio may have been socially expedient, the intensity of his reaction when he is reunited with him suggests that his feelings for Antonio may be just as strong: Antonio! O my dear Antonio,/ How have the hours racked and tortured me/ Since I have lost thee.

As Will suggested in our conversation, he didn’t rule out Antonio remaining somewhere in Sebastian’s life even after his marriage. The fluid sexual desires and identities proffered in the play may intimate such a future.