Comparison of Twelfth Night by and All my sons

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Daniel Murphy SS122962

         Assignment 2

In this essay I will be comparing two dramatic extracts, ‘Twelfth night’ and ‘All my sons’. I will be considering theme, form structure and language to comment on the two authors’ thoughts and ideas.

In the first extract we can see that Shakespeare uses poetic devices such as metaphor, pun and hyperbolic language to emphasize on the power of love and its effect on a person. In the second extract, the use of contemporary prose seems to emphasize the face to face interaction and dialect between two people in love, which is very unlike the verse used in ‘Twelfth Night’.

 In ‘twelfth night’, the desire for love from the duke Orsino is highlighted at the very beginning. Orsino’s hunger for love, music being ‘the food of love’, and the metaphors ‘excess’ and ‘surfeit’ all emphasize on the overwhelming feelings of love. It can also be said that the hyperbole in his language suggests a passionate obsession with being in love, we are then later aware of his object of love (Olivia), but she is not mentioned until line 20.

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The paradox ‘dying fall ‘contradicts his feelings, changes  tone and  emphasizes the effect of having ‘excess’ of love and it subsequently dying, like the appetite. The metaphor ‘fresh’ (used several time throughout the scene) can be metaphorically associated with stale food providing reflection on whether Orsino’s love can preserved.  This can also be said for The Dukes expectations of Olivia, mourning her ‘brother’s dead love’ then being ‘kill’d’ (‘dying’) by the ‘affections’ of another (himself).

Equally to ‘Twelfth Night’ we can also notice Anne’s ‘dying’ love of her fiancé and her finding the affections of somebody new. The repetition ...

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