Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare's most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into numerous modern films. The main plot of the opera follows Viola, a girl who is saved from a shipwreck and enters the service of Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rapidly raising his esteem, Viola begins sending love messages on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino's advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with Viola in disguise, Viola falls in love with Orsino and Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, who presumably died in the shipwreck, returns. After Sebastian's return, the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both misunderstandings and marriages in the play's final scenes. Alongside the main plot of Twelfth Night there is an almost equally important subplot involving Malvolio, a servant of Olivia, who falls in love with her and falls prey to a prank organized by the other members of the family who despise his aversion to the fun. In the article "The Design of Twelfth Night" by L. G. Salingar, Salingar examines the plot and structure of the play and addresses the meaning of the subplot. The purpose of this essay is to examine both the evidence for the play and the articles other authors, with particular attention to Salingar, who have written on the topic in order to determine the purpose of the subplot. In his article, Salingar comes to the conclusion that the purpose of the subplot is to provide a comic mirror of the main plot by amplifying the main themes of illusion, misrule, and festivity. Salingar presents a solid argument, yet he overlooked another minor but significant element of the subplot that illustrates…half of the paper…the underlying theme of holiday in the play. Edward Cahill's article and evidence from the work provide concrete evidence to support this argument. However, what Salingar didn't address in his article is that the subplot also serves to illustrate the dangers of uncontrolled festivity. The subplot is absolutely necessary to the play and adds a layer of depth and insight to the themes of Twelfth Night but, more importantly, the subplot is what allows this play to be classified as a comedy. Works Cited Cahill, Edward. "Malvolio's problem." University Literature June 1996: 62-82. Print.Logan, Thad Jenkins. "Twelfth Night: The Limits of the Party." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 Spring 1982: 223-238. Print.Salingar, LG "The Drawing of Twelfth Night". Shakespeare Quarterly Spring 1958: 117-139. Print.Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night or whatever.