;it is his…faith that all…love him and on that vice will my revenge…work”.The letter written by Maria in “[her] lady’s hand” refers subliminally to each of Malvolio’s character weaknesses and thus ensures that he is fooled by its meanings. His vanity and value of appearance are both fed by the order to wear “yellow stockings…ever cross gartered”, while his lack of humour and puritan philosophies are tormented by the request for continuous smiles which apparently “become [him] well”. He finds his quest for excellence fulfilled by Olivia’s supposed declaration that “[he] will have greatness thrust upon [him]”, and his own superiority and haughtiness are fed by the suggestion that he be “surly with the servants”, thus putting himself “into the trick of singularity”. Simply through succumbing to such a prank and carrying out the orders of the letter, Malvolio is being punished to an appropriate extent. Through believing and acting on them he shows himself to be obtuse, gullible and ironically, lacking in the superiority of mind that he so adamantly believes he possesses. Thus he lets the servants and Sir Toby achieve their aim. The conspiracy, having accomplished its purpose in secretly humiliating Malvolio, should have then been revealed to him and brought to an end. However it seems that out of sheer cruelty and selfish fun, the pranksters continue the mockery. They take its maliciousness to a further degree, convincing Olivia and other onlookers that Malvolio's bizarre behaviour is caused by his insanity rather than their own actions. At the same time they attempt to convince him of this through imprisoning him and twisting his words into those of a lunatic, “you speak ill of the devil…how he takes it to heart”. The extremity of their prank reaches its peak when Malvolio, locked in a prison begs for th...
