Discuss the dramatic irony in Twelfth Night. Provide at least two examples.

Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night
follows the outline of Elizabethan comedy as it has the elements of mistaken
identity, separated twins, and gender-crossing disguise.  With these elements comes the
dramatic irony that contributes to the comedic effect of the
play.

1.  Perhaps the most salient example of dramatic
irony is the disguise of Viola, who is saved after being shipwrecked by a captain who
puts in to shore on Illyria.  After learning that the captain knows the Duke of Illyria,
Viola asks him to disguise her as a eunich so that she may work in his service.  In this
disguise, that only the audience is privy to, Viola is better able to perceive the true
nature of the characters as they confide in Cesario, her male disguise.  When she goes
to work for the Duke, he has Cesario go to Olivia's house to plead his love for him. 
However, Viola who is actually in love with the Duke, says in an aside after telling the
Duke,"Ill do my best to woo your lady,"

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Yet a barful
strife!

Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.
(1.5.41-42)

The original love
connection of the Duke has been skewered by the end of this scene since there are two
twists to the plot:  Viola states her attraction to the Duke Orsino; Olivia reveals a
liking for Cesario/Viola.  The effect of this dramatic irony is to demonstrate the
subjectivity of love.  For, when a person sees someone with whom he/she falls in love,
this love is felt in the person who does the loving of another.  And, a person cannot be
made to feel love simply by the attraction of the other for
him/her.

2. Another example of dramatic irony occurs when
the Puritan Malvolio mistakenly believes that Olivia is in love with him after he
receives a forged letter actually written by Maria that he believes is from Olivia.  In
Act I, Scene 5, the letter to Malvolio, supposedly written by Olivia, he is instructed
to wear yellow hose and crossed garters.  When he approaches Olivia, she is astounded by
his attire and smiles.  This scene about the "full of water Malvolio" affords
Shakespeare the opportunity to assail the hypocrisy and judgmental nature of Malvolio, a
hypocrisy not untypical of the unpopular
Anabaptists.

3.  In Act IV, Sebastian and Olivia are
brought together.  Since Olivia has already spoken to Cesario about her love, she
assumes again that she is speaking to Cesario when it is Sebastian that she addresses. 
Even though Sebastian is confused by her declaration of love, he enjoys the sentiment,
and takes part in the illusion:

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What relish is in
this?

Or I am mad, or else this is a
dream.

Let fancy still my sense in Lethe
steep;

If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!
(4.1.60-3-63)

The irony here
produces the result of enlightening the audience to the fact that some lovers delight in
the illusions of love and often are satisfied with being the object of someone's else
love.