Discuss how Twelfth Night disrupts ideas of class and status.

Twelfth Night, by nature, is a play of the world being turned upside down. This notion manifests itself in the systematic degeneration of established constructs of the medieval era in which the play was first introduced: some of the most notable of these being of class and status. The eponymous festival of Saturnalia is one of inverted class expectations, the Lord of Misrule, for example, was often far from a Lord all other days of the year. This class subversion is particularly seen in Feste's character, a lower class character and a fool. However, he is a fool that shows far greater intelligence than the other, often more upper class, characters seen through his constant witticisms. Significantly, he pretends on several occasions to speak Latin but it is merely a joke, yet he is believed by the upper class characters. Malvolio is a social climber, he not only wishes to accrue wealth through marrying Olivia and become a Lord but he acts with a moral superiority placing himself, in his own mind, above the lazy and hedonistic Sir Andrew and Sir Toby.
The key word in the phraseology of this question, however, is "disrupts" for the world of Epiphany celebrations in the Medieval era was never the all- year- round reality, just a break in the usual cycle, a bone thrust to the poor. It was a distraction from the perpetual unfairness of the feudal system by seeming to distort and mock it. In this way, Malvolio never reaches the aristocratic status for which he sacrifices his dignity and principles. He is instead humiliated by the idle aristocracy represented in Sir Toby and Sir Andrew and imprisoned, made to feel like he is going insane. This reflects, in many aspects, the view of the society at the time. Malvolio would have been shunned firstly as a Puritan and secondly as a social climber. Social mobility was not respected in a society that saw the Feudal system as installed and maintained by God Himself, the Lords and King being appointed by God. His final humiliation would have been comic to the audience in the most part, not tragic. So, we must be aware that while ideas of class and status are disrupted in Twelfth Night they are subsequently restored and the system that enforces rigid class boundaries is, overall, reinforced. The play thus serves the same purpose as the festival after which it is named.