Today, Illyria makes up modern-day Croatia.

See how the different characters in Twelfth Night are linked together and how their relationships change over the course of the play. The real Illyria was located near the coast of the Adriatic Sea, in the Northwestern region of the Balkan Peninsula. "Twelfth Night" is a reference to the twelfth night after Christmas Day, called the Eve of the Feast of Epiphany. and find homework help for other Twelfth Night questions at eNotes

During Shakespeare’s time, the area, off the Adriatic Sea, was controlled by the Venetian republic. Genre classification: Twelfth Night is regarded as a Comedy.

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Lesson Summary. Illyria, like the characters in Twelfth Night, is unusual and abnormal. Why is it called the twelve night? We can say that ‘Illyrian’-style cultures of the Late Iron Age stretch from Albania to the Danube and from the Adriatic to the plains and mountains of Thrace (in modern Bulgaria). The fictional Illyria of Twelfth Night is an ideal setting for the play because the place, like the characters, is unusual.

Every performance of Twelfth Night will be set in a place that has all of the things above but they can do that in lots of different ways. Ancient authors used the terms ‘Illyria’ and ‘Illyrian’ in the way we use the word ‘Celt’: to give meaning to an otherwise amorphous idea of people and place.

Get an answer for 'Why is the play set in Illyria?' Read the full, original Twelfth Night text. 3 More Answers. Look at how they are linked together by love and by power and status.

It is an unusual place with characters who behave in unusual ways. For example, the play could be set in any land that is 'foreign' to Viola and Sebastian where there is a ruling class who have servants, … An extensive history of Illyria by Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, was published by …

See Full Answer. Read more about Twelfth Night settings. William Shakespeare chose a fictionalized Illyria as the setting for his play Twelfth Night. (In the modernised film spoof She's the Man, this function is served by "Illyria High School" in California.) Date written: 1601. Twelfth Night is set in in Illyria, a real place from classical antiquity, that existed as far back as the tenth century B.C.E. 20 Related Answers.

The Twelfth Night play is set in Illyria, an imaginary country.

However, with the exception of the name, Illyria, Shakespeare’s setting is completely fictional. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. Illyria is the setting of William Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night.

The setting is less important than the domestic comedy that takes place in The Duke’s palace, the house of Olivia and in the streets around it.