Malvolio
Malvolio is the pompous steward in Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night*, tricked into believing his mistress loves him and making a fool of himself with yellow stockings and crossed garters.
The name has become shorthand for a self-important killjoy whose vanity makes him easy to manipulate: He's such a Malvolio, always preening and lecturing everyone.
Final Yuletide evening
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- OliviaFemale given name
- stewardManager for another
- IllyriaAncient Balkan coastal territory
Maria · letter · Elizabethan · comedy · disguise · subplot · revenge · dark room
Easily deceived
- dupedDeceived into believing
- fooledLed to believe falsely
- deceivedMisled into false belief
- credulousProne to blind trust
misled · tricked · deception · fantasy · misinterpretation · wishful thinking · naïve · manipulated
Exaggerating one's own significance
- vainExcessively proud or futile
- conceitedExcessively proud of oneself
- arrogantExcessively high self-regard
- haughtyDisdainfully proud
supercilious · pretentious · grandiose · overbearing · ambitious · snobbish · social climber · affected
One who dampens merriment
- sanctimoniousFeigning moral superiority
- moralisticProne to lecturing others
- strait-lacedExcessively proper and strict
- sternStrict or ship's aft
sober · austere · self-righteous · disapproving · prudish · holier-than-thou · pious · rigid
Twelfth Night
Final Yuletide evening
- ShakespeareElizabethan dramatist and poet
- OliviaFemale given name
- stewardManager for another
Illyria · Maria · letter · Elizabethan · comedy · disguise · subplot · revenge · dark room · madness
gullible
Easily deceived
credulous · misled · tricked · deception · fantasy · misinterpretation · wishful thinking · naïve · manipulated · hoax
self-important
Exaggerating one's own significance
- vainExcessively proud or futile
- conceitedExcessively proud of oneself
- arrogantExcessively high self-regard
haughty · supercilious · pretentious · grandiose · overbearing · ambitious · snobbish · social climber · affected · peacock
killjoy
One who dampens merriment
- sanctimoniousFeigning moral superiority
- moralisticProne to lecturing others
- strait-lacedExcessively proper and strict
stern · sober · austere · self-righteous · disapproving · prudish · holier-than-thou · pious · rigid · repressive
- Shakespeare CharactersHamlet, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo, Juliet
- Elizabethan comedyTwelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice
- Shakespeare comedymistaken identity, comic relief, dramatic irony, Falstaff, eavesdropping
- Stage CharactersHamlet, Ophelia, Romeo, Juliet, Macbeth
- Twelfth Night CharactersOlivia, Sebastian, Maria, Antonio, Fabian
- TV CharactersHomer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Marge Simpson, Maggie Simpson
malice, malicious, maliciously, malevolent, malevolence, malign, malignant, malady, malcontent