Shakespeare uses many language techniques to bring the play alive:
- “O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou”
In this quote, Orsino is saying how his love for Olivia is keen and hungry, and that he won’t give up showing his love.
In this quote Curio uses a pun or play-on language. This quote means that Orsino heart and his love for Olivia have been lost and Curio will be looking for them. It compares to being chased by hounds.
- “Hath kill’d the flock of all affections else”
In this quote Orsino uses a metaphor to say that his love for Olivia has been killed along with all of his other emotions. By saying this it shows us that Orsino is a very emotional character.
- “But like a cloistress she will veiled walk”
In this quote Curio is saying that Olivia is keeping herself to herself and is acting like a nun. By using a veil Olivia is able shield her emotions and it shows that she is still grieving for her brother and her father.
The structure of the scene is mainly rhyming couplets in which Orsino expresses his feelings for Olivia. Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets to make this scene seem like a love poem wrote by Orsino for Olivia. Curio is Orsino’s messenger. Orsino shows his love for Olivia in the form of Eros of sexual love.
In this scene we don’t yet know the character of Olivia but we do know what has happened to her and what her feelings are. We know that her brother recently died and she is grieving for his loss, this made her very unsure of what to do next. This is why she doesn’t accept Orsino’s love. Her character is very sensitive and she hides all of her emotions behind a veil. Even though she is heir to her father’s fortune, she vows to become a nun and stay inside her house for seven years. This makes her seem scared to come out and enjoy life now that her brother and father have passed away.
The audience is interested in this scene because they want to know what happens to Orsino and his love for Olivia and if Olivia will ever remove her veil to accept Orsino’s love.
In the first scene Orsino describes his love for Olivia and in amongst his speech he mentions the sea and love’s desire can hold us much as the sea. “That notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea.”
In this quotation Orsino is talking about his love for Olivia. It also is a link to how Viola arrives from the sea and the sea holds her love for her brother – Sebastian. This makes a link with Scene 2.
Viola and the Captain arrive in a foreign country and Viola is unsure of what to do next. She fears that her brother was killed in the ship wreck and she believes that she can’t carry on without him. The Captain tries to encourage her and tries to persuade her to let him help to guide her through her future in this foreign country. Viola feels that she doesn’t have any choice, so she allows the Captain to do so by saying, “Lead me on.”
The Captain knows Illyria and the people in it. The place Illyria is located just above Greece and left of Macedonia. Today we know Illyria as Albania or The Republic of Albania. Shakespeare called Illyria a place of mysteries and decided to set Twelfth Night in Illyria. I think he chose Illyria because Twelfth Night is a bundle of love mysteries and is related to the sea. Illyria’s coast line is a beautiful setting for romantic comedy.
During Act 1 Scene 2 a link is created between Olivia and Viola. Olivia has lost her brother and her father and is grieving, while Voila believes that her twin brother didn’t survive the ship wreck and is unsure of what to do next. This link between the two characters later on forms a trustworthy friendship even though Olivia thinks that Viola is a man – Caesario.
The purpose of Act 1 Scene 2 is to introduce 3 new characters. Viola and her twin Sebastian are introduced by the shipwreck. And every ship has a Captain so he gets introduced when he comforts Viola. This scene is a flash back to when the shipwreck happened and Viola is talking about her feelings towards her brother and his feared death. Another purpose of the scene is to show the audience the link that is created between Olivia and Viola.
In this scene the audience don’t really know much about Sebastian apart from he is Viola’s twin and that he is feared to be dead. To the audience, Viola seems an indecisive type of person who doesn’t know what to do without her brother. She seems very emotional and depressed. On the other hand the Captain is the type of person you can rely on when you need someone to help you through tough times. He is brave and helps Viola to make up her mind about what she will do in the future. This shows that he is an understanding and helpful character.
In Scene 2 the Captain uses persuasive language when Viola is upset and unsure of what to do next; he also gives her suggestions about what she could do. By giving suggestions to Viola he strengthens her character and shows her she can carry on with life without Sebastian. An example of this suggestive and persuasive language could be: “Be you his eunuch, and your mute I’ll be.” This quote shows Viola an option she could take and the Captain persuades her to take it.
Viola’s type of language is very different to the Captain’s. Unlike him, she shows her worries and questions her brother’s death. Her use of language is full “what ifs.” By using this type of language she is expressing her thoughts and feeling. As the scene progresses she takes the Captain’s advice and she is becoming more positive in her character and in her use of language.
In this scene the characters show love in the form of Philos. Philos is the love that you share with friends and family. The type of love is different from the first scene because the type of love in the first scene is Eros – the sexual love. However in the first scene we know that Olivia shows Philos Love for her brother and father.
The attention of the audience is maintained in this scene by Viola showing her feelings dramatically and the Captain’s concerns for her worries. The audience would want to know what happens in Viola’s future and if she finds her brother. This makes them want to keep watching the performance.
The purpose of this scene is to introduce three new characters – Maria who is Olivia’s housekeeper, Sir Toby Belch who is Olivia’s kinsman and Sir Andrew who wants to marry Olivia. In this scene Sir Toby and Sir Andrew come home drunk and Maria advises them to mend their ways. It also introduces the relationships between the new characters and Olivia and this scene lets the audience know that the action of the play is about to begin.
Maria’s use of language is very authoritative because she is constantly telling Sir Andrew and Sir Toby to change their ways. This makes Maria seem like a strong character in this scene because she is telling them to change.
Sir Toby seems like the type of person who doesn’t like doing what they are told to do. He also is very argumentative but sensitive as well. However when he around Sir Andrew his character likes to be the centre of attention and constantly makes jokes.
Sir Andrew’s character is always joking about something and he fails at trying contain his jokes. This shows the audience that he isn’t a sensible character and that he wouldn’t be the best person to share a secret with. His character is weakened by his jokes letting him down.
I think that a contemporary audience would have liked this scene because of the drunken slapstick antics of the two ‘fools’.
In terms of Scene 4 we know that Caesario is really Viola dressed as a man but of all the characters, only the Captain knows of her secret and vowed to keep it safe. Orsino and the other characters begin to question Caesario’s ‘feminity.’
“That say thou art a man: Diana’s lip
Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe
Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound.”
In this quote Orsino is expressing his questions about Caesario’s feminity. It means that he has noticed how her lip looks like a woman’s lip and how her voice sounds womanly. He is questioning her sex but she doesn’t let on that she is a woman. On the other hand the audience know that Caesario is really Viola because they read about the scene in which the Captain saves Viola from the shipwreck but fails to save her twin. So the audience have an insight above the characters. This gender confusion unravels slowly towards the end of the play. It causes many problems and confusions among the characters and by doing so it increases the irony. In the end it finally unravels and it becomes clear to the characters why Caesario looked similar to a woman and they learn her true name – Viola.
The irony in the lines “Prosper well in this…” is clear to Viola but not to Orsino. In secret Viola does fancy Orsino but he doesn’t know this yet so she intends to share his riches as his wife and not as his servant. In the last scene of the play Orsino and Viola do end up together with Viola as his wife.
The final lines in the scene are significant:
“I’ll do my best
To woo your lady. Yet, a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.”
These last lines of which Viola speaks, mean that it would be hard for Caesario to try to win Olivia’s heart for him. She says that it would be a struggle full of obstacles. Her words are very important at the end of this scene because she is not only hiding her feminity from Orsino but in a way she also giving him clues that she is a woman. The clues would be “a barful strife” because this means that it would full of obstacles such as telling Olivia about Orsino’s love and because she has heard it all before she will not want to listen to his message. A more important obstacle would be describing his love message to Olivia when she, herself loves him, this would be difficult for anyone in her position.
In the final scene the first impressions of Olivia would be that she is a very emotional character who doesn’t wish to forget her brother and her father’s deaths. But from the language she uses at the beginning of this scene she reflects her position above everyone in the household.
“Take the fool away”
In this quotation is Olivia expressing her feelings toward Feste the Fool but she is also expressing her confusions and anger because she can’t be bothered to listen to the fool. Throughout the scene she keeps these feelings but towards the end of the scene she doesn’t seem as tense and finally talks to Caesario about the message that she has come to deliver.
The theatrical imagery that Olivia uses when she talks to Viola for the first time could be that Olivia shows the audience that she fancies Viola but she doesn’t let on anything to Viola. This creates more confusion for the characters.
Olivia totally ignores the fact that Viola is trying to persuade her to love Orsino but she does pay attention to Caesario’s looks. She expresses this by describing her looks to Caesario in a catalogue type way. Viola is only pretending to be Cesario so she feels almost offended by what Olivia is saying. Olivia doesn’t know that Caesario is really Viola in disguise so she doesn’t stop even when Viola is in a stress. This annoys Viola even more so she goes back to Orsino.
Olivia’s last lines in the scene:
“I do I know not what, and fear to find
Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
Fate, show thy force; ourselves we do not owe
What is decreed, must be: and be this so.”
In her last lines she is talking about her eyes having too much influence over her mind and that we sometimes do not control our thoughts. This means that she has fallen for Caesario even though Orsino is asking for her love. She believes that she doesn’t have control over this thought. These words are very important to the play because it sets the base of confusion when Sebastian arrives.
Act 1 as a whole is designed to introduce all the characters and to set the tone for the rest of the play. The confusions that unravel in amongst it give the audience an urge to want to read on. The act sets the scene because it shows us nearly all of the problems that the characters are involved in. The audience would want to know if these problems got sorted out and what happens with the love triangle.
What would the Twelfth Night be about if it didn’t have its problems???
