Malvolio initially seems to be a minor character, and the trick played on him seems little more than an amusing subplot to the Viola-Orsino-Olivia love triangle. But he becomes more interesting as the play develops into one of the most complex characters in "Twelfth Night". When we first meet Malvolio, he seems to be a simple type--a puritan, a stiff and proper servant who likes to spoil other people's fun. It is this dour, fun-despising …showed first 75 words of 1182 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1182 total…the people who just ridicule him in real life. By the end of the play, even audience-members who don't sympathize with him early-on will feel troubled by the awful way he gets treated by the pranksters. He has a dual purpose in the play. The first is to provide a stereotypical character that most audiences find amusing and the second is to show how the happiness of some is due to the misery of others.