“To what extent is Viola truly a comic heroine?”

 When the audience first meets Viola, she is the victim of a tragedy and is a stranger to the exotic land of Illyria. It is in this crucial moment in the play that Viola decides to disguise herself as a man that Shakespeare defines Viola as a comic heroine and makes the play into a comedy instead of a tragedy. By revealing that Viola is disguised as Cesario at this point in the play, Shakespeare is exploiting the use of dramatic irony that is present for the rest of the play. In addition, by revealing Viola’s disguise, Shakespeare builds an intimacy between the audience and Viola as no-one else in the play except for the Captain knows Viola’s secret disguise. Furthermore, the fact that from this point onwards in the play Viola is motivated by the love for her dead brother makes her extremely endearing. In some versions of the play, such as Carroll’s Globe production and the original Elizabethan era production, an extra dimension of comedy is added as the actor playing Viola is a man playing a woman who is pretending to be a man, adding to the bizarre nature of the play. Viola's disguise is key to her comedic role within the play.
Viola’s interactions with other characters make her a comic heroine, as she is always kind to others, yet can keep her wit intact. This can most commonly be seen in Shakespeare’s dialogue in Viola’s exchange with Feste, whom she engages in witty repartee with and admires his intellect when she says, “This fellow is wise enough to play the fool”. By doing this, Shakespeare is showing the audience that Viola is comic, yet keeps her dignity and does not resort to degrading others, unlike killjoy puritan Malvolio who calls Feste “a barren rascal”. In addition to this, in Malvolio and Viola’s only interaction, Malvolio is cruel to Viola, yet she does not retaliate it, instead choosing to remain level-headed. This can also be seen in the duel scene when Viola is forced to fight Sir Andrew, plus physical comedy is added due to her lack of experience of sword fighting as she is a woman and in the historical context it would be highly unlikely that she would know how to duel. In this sequence, Viola also breaks the fourth wall and provides the audience with an insight into her feeling when she says “Pray god defend me! A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man!”. Here, Shakespeare is once again reminding the audience that she is a woman and exploiting the dramatic irony of the situation, whilst also demonstrating that Viola is a comic figure even when facing danger, as this bawdy comment is juxtaposed with the threat of death, reminding the audience that the play is in fact a comedy and there will be no fatalities.