The action of the play begins in Illyria, where we learn that the Duke, Orsino is madly in love with the lovely Olivia, with Viola being shipwrecked on the coast. Unable to find her twin brother Sebastian, Viola decides to take on the role of a man and seek work with Orsino, when Olivia falls in love with her, believing her to be a male. Immediately Shakespeare establishes profound pairs within the main plot. Some critics, such as John Manningham comment on how Twelfth Night borrows from The Comedy of Errors, where Shakespeare takes the tropes and motifs such as the idea of doubles or pairing (such as identical twins). Viola and Sebastian are the perfect example of this as they are identical twins, yet here Shakespeare pushes the boundaries and makes them male and female. Although the farcical tone establishes comedy, the use of doubles is the key comic element of the play that drives the plot. When Viola presumes Sebastian is lost at sea, Viola disguises herself as a man in order to fulfill the goal of finding her brother. The fact that she feels the need to hide her real gender in order to get a job with Orsino and to locate her brother suggests that women’s roles at the time were over circumscribed due to gender conventions and social rules. Through Viola’s disguise as a man she is able to bond with Orsino on more equal terms. The idea of Viola and Sebastian being a double is also reinforced at the very conclusion of the play where Olivia falls for and marries Sebastian, despite the fact that she was in love with Viola/Cesario. This therefore suggests that Viola and Sebastian are interchangeable. Viola’s chief problem throughout the play is undoubtedly one of identity. Due to her disguise, she must be both herself and Cesario. It is her twin’s appearance who saves Viola from this identity crisis as he successfully takes over the physical aspects that Viola no longer wishes to be – effectibly being liberated by him as she sheds her male disguise. The identical double appearance of Viola and Sebastian is therefore essential in the plot as this allows Viola to return to being herself, also therefore making it socially acceptable for her to be with Or