Headscratchers / Twelfth Night

• Something that has always bugged me: Why is it written as fact that a female servant is able to write at all? Surely literacy was a scarce commers during the 1600's?
  • Maria isn't just any servant, she's the Countess' most trusted maid, confidante, and friend. She is pretty much at the top of the servant's hierarchy, other than Malvolio the Steward, of course. Maybe it would be a bit unusual that Maria is literate, but clearly it was accepted enough that Shakespeare didn't feel the need to explain. In fact, considering that Maria's handwriting is said to look almost identical to Olivia's, and Olivia can tell them apart on sight, maybe Olivia taught Maria how to read and write.
  • The real question is how Fabian can read.
    • Why not? Literacy may have been rarer than today but it was hardly unheard of, especially among the servants of the rich and important which all the common characters of this play are.
    • Fabian's role in the household is never made clear, and he could well have been employed as a sort of secretary, precisely because he is literate. Some prose adaptations have suggested this.
  • Because Most Writers Are Writers?
  • The rareness of literacy has been rather overstated. Yes, a lot fewer people could write/read than now but it's not as if being able to read and write would have been seen as unusual, just uncommon.