How does Shakespeare present the character of Viola?
Nicola Coombs English Literature Shakespeare Coursework How does Shakespeare present the character of Viola? Viola arrives in Illyria after being shipwrecked. She makes a decision to disguise herself as a man while in Illyria. The fact that Viola wants to conceal her true identity is a sign that she is 'out of balance', one of the main themes of the play. Viola is involved in many of the main themes in the play. These themes are order, love, foolery, balance and disguise. Viola arrives in Illyria in Act 1 Scene 2. She believes her twin brother, Sebastian, drowned in the shipwreck. In this scene Shakespeare shows Viola to be deeply saddened by her loss, presenting her as a caring character. Viola thinks logically, after such an event, in her decision to disguise herself as a eunuch and work for Olivia. With the help of the captain Viola disguises herself as a eunuch named Cesario. Within only three days Viola befriends and gains the trust of the Duke Orsino. The imagery Orsino uses in Act 1 Scene 4 confirms that, as his page, Viola (disguised as Cesario) has become Orsino's friend as well as his confidant; lines 13-14 'I have unclasp'd to thee the book even of my secret soul.' This shows Viola to be an easy character for people to trust. The way the character Orsino relates to Viola's character gives promise that Olivia will also respond to her in a positive way. She seems
Using the text to support your ideas investigate the importance of "madness" as a theme in Twelfth night
Using the text to support your ideas investigate the importance of "madness" as a theme in 12th night The theme of madness is often used in Shakespeare's play "twelfth night". It seems that the whole play revolves around this theme. Throughout the play we discover many kinds of madness. The main type of madness is love. Love is intertwined in the story lines and causes confusion and chaos. Each character seems to be involved with this one feeling - love. Orsino appears to be madly in love with Olivia and with the idea of love for its own sake. Malvolio acts madly because of his love for Olivia and Olivia loves Viola/Cesario whom she then mistakes for Sebastian and marries. Most of the chaos and confusion revolves around this one idea; Orsino loves Olivia, who loves Viola/Cesario but Viola/Cesario loves Orsino. Then, Sir Andrew loves Olivia and so does Malvolio. There is also the love of Antonio for Sebastian. Even though, it seems the causes of this confusion are appearance and reality as Viola is disguised as a man. Viola says to Olivia when Olivia hints of her love for Viola 'I am not what I am.' Then, when Sebastian suddenly appears the chaos begins as everyone confuses Viola and Sebastian. Sir Toby who thinks Sebastian is Viola attacks him. Then Olivia invites Sebastian to marry her and Sebastian has no idea what is happening so he thinks he must be mad or in a dream,
Imagine you are directing a production of 'Twelfth Night' with reference to the scenes Act II.V and Act III.IV what notes and advice would you give to the actor playing Malvolio?
Imagine you are directing a production of 'Twelfth Night' with reference to the scenes Act II.V and Act III.IV what notes and advice would you give to the actor playing Malvolio? Dear Actor playing Malvolio in the production of 'Twelfth Night', As you are the one that's going to play the role of the Character Malvolio in the production of 'Twelfth Night', I feel its my responsibility to write to you and give you notes and advice on how you should play the Character Malvolio within this production. Malvolio is a character that creates a range of different responses in our minds, on one hand he is unlovable and making claim to distinction or importance, on the other hand he has our sympathy for the disrespectful way in which he is treated by Sir Toby and Maria. The character Malvolio is a Puritan, a person with strict views about conformity or the conventional standards of moral conduct. In act two scenes five Malvolio picks up a letter and decides Olivia has written it to him. The comedy in this scene comes from Malvolio's interpretation of the letter. The letter contains hints that it refers to Malvolio, but not enough to justify his reaction. Fabian says that Malvolio is the reason that he is out of favour with Olivia, so he would 'exult' if Malvolio were made a fool of. Maria reports how Malvolio has been 'practising behaviour to his own shadow this half- hour'.
Comparison between the two heroines of the play "Twelfth Night"(by William Shakespeare): Olivia and Viola.
Despite being the two "heroines" of the play, caught up in matters of love, Viola and Olivia could not have been more different. We do not immediately meet Olivia, but are introduced to her through Duke Orsino, who describes her breathtaking beauty. Then, Valentine, who has been sent to woo Olivia for the Duke, comes back with the message that Olivia has gone into mourning for seven years during which time she will veil her face and show it to no man. While it must be remembered that Olivia has lost her entire family within twelve months, it is neither practical nor sensible for a young beauty like Olivia to go into mourning for seven years. Viola is then introduced to the audience, in a completely different scene. She has just landed in an unknown country; she, too believes her brother to be dead, and she has nobody around her who she knows and can rely on. However, Viola is seen acting resourcefully and practically. She immediately tries to find proof of her brother still being alive, and then makes a plan to work in the Duke's court. She does not, like Olivia, go overboard and begin mourning for her brother. Immediately one can see the contrast between the two: Viola is not the damsel in distress that Olivia comes across as. Here, one must admire Viola for her resourcefulness and courage. After all, she is alone in a strange country, but manages to keep her wits about
Compare and contrast the role of two minor characters from two different plays.
Compare and contrast the role of two minor characters from two different plays In the play Twelfth Night Maria is a waiting gentlewoman for Lady Olivia. She mainly plays the part of a catalyst and shows an interest in playing jokes particularly on Malvolio. Another waiting gentlewoman is Charmian in the play Antony and Cleopatra. She can best be described as a loyal servant and friend to Cleopatra. Both of these women play significant roles in their respective plays although they do not serve for the same purpose. Maria role in Twelfth night is to stir up trouble. Although she is a servant to Olivia she is not genuinely thinking of Olivia when she tries to enforce the rules. This is shown when Maria says "My lady will hang thee for thy absence." (Act I Sc. 5 Line 3). She is exaggerating but it is interesting how instead of saying, "You are supposed to be here!" she says, "My lady will kill you when she sees you". It more seems like Maria is trying to tell Feste how much trouble he is in then to scold him. This is in contrast to how I believe Charmian would have handled the situation. Charmian is portrayed as a friend to Cleopatra and therefore is truly thinking about pleasing Cleopatra. In the same situation Charmian would have been angrier that Feste left and that he did not think about Olivia. This shows the different ways that Maria and Charmian feel about serving their
Twelfth Night
Choose an exert from the play and comment on: a) How it is made dramatically powerful b) How it contributes to your wider understanding of the play Act II, Scene v is one of the main scenes in the play and is the scene where Malvolio is set up by Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Sir Fabian and Maria. They place a letter for him to read pretending to be Maria. Malvolio instantly falls for this and does all of the ridiculous things in the letter such as wearing cross gartered yellow stockings. This scene has the main characters of the group; Maria, Fabian and Sir Toby while Sir Andrew is silenced at every comment he makes this builds up the personalities and helps with the powerfulness of the scene. This scene is dramatically powerful for many reasons, one of them is comedy, which is very clear in this scene, as when Malvolio is talking to himself, this is funny to the audience not only as he is talking to himself but the role-play he does and the status he gives himself married to Olivia "having been three months married to her, sitting in my state..." and as the hero he talks about " Calling my officers about me, in my branched velvet gown, having come from a day-bed, where I have left Olivia sleeping...". When he is reading the letter from (he thinks) Olivia. This shows Malvolio as a daft and ridiculous character both for the fact that he fell for the letter and the way he reacts.
Shakespeare uses language as a tool for disguise in Twelfth Night and King Lear. Discuss
Shakespeare uses language as a tool for disguise in Twelfth Night. In Act 1 Scene 5, when Viola attempts to woo Olivia for Orsino she calls her ‘most radiant, exquisite and unmatchable beauty’. This is the type of language Orsino would use to compliment her beauty. She uses courtly love language which would have been mocked in the Renaissance era as Shakespeare did in Sonnet 130 and Much Ado About Nothing. Although these works were intended to attract both the educated and ordinary folk, this particular aspect related to the more educated of the audience. In this same scene, Viola says ‘No, good swabber’, exaggerating her masculinity by speaking as she thinks a man would speak. This shows she doesn’t think highly of men, and thinks they all speak this harshly. The word ‘swabber’ emphasis this point as it is sailor language, something that Viola thinks is the epitome of manliness. When Shakespeare would have staged this play, the actor playing Viola would have been male as no women were allowed to act. This would create comedy as it would be a man acting as though he didn’t know how to be masculine. In Act 2 Scene 4, Orsino and Viola talk about Viola’s ‘sister’ dying of love and she says ‘I am all the daughters of my father’s house, and all the brothers too’. In this she is admitting the truth and then adding ‘and all the brothers too’ to make is
All about Twelfth Night. The play starts in Illyria with the Duke Orsino talking of Olivia
The play starts in Illyria with the Duke Orsino talking of Olivia a countess he is supposedly in love with. We then are introduced to Viola and the captain at sea-coast of Illyria. Soon realising her brother is dead she dresses up and keeps a pretence of being a man. This is because without a male figure she would not have been able to survive as it was a patriarchal society and without a man anything could have occurred to an isolated, alone woman. We are then introduced to Sir Toby Belch who is a drunken uncle of Olivia's who wastes all his money on booze and lives of his niece Olivia. Maria a lady in waiting is also introduced and early on we get hints of a possible relationship between the two, this would have been extremely shocking within the Shakespearean audience as within this time this would have been unacceptable as if you were from upper-class who were expecting to marry within the same social status and social mobility was nearly impossible. The fact that there is a lot of craziness within the play could be because the play is called twelfth night which mean within the twelfth days of Christmas anything was okay but all of that would have come to an end on the twelfth night when the Christmas season and festivity would end. These two characters are comic relief characters who have a romantic storyline but are characters making the play more intriguing and least
Twelth Night Production of Act 2 Scene 5.
Parminder Sandhu 9W2 2nd May 2000 Twelth Night Production Essay If I had been asked to produce Act 2 Scene 5. I would use light, sound and scenery. This is essay is to show how I would set it out. The scenery will show where each character is standing in the play. The play is set in the 1600's. The scenery will be in the gardens of Olivia's house and will be set in the daytime. When Malvolio picks up the 'love' letter birds will start flying around his head and around the tree where the Knights are to show the audience that somebody is watching Malvolio. The Characters costumes will show what standing they have in the scene. The Knights and will be wearing grand clothes to show that they are Sirs but Fabian will be wearing less spectacular clothes. Malovolio will be wearing boring unimaginative clothes showing he is dull and a puritan. The lighting of the scene will be varied according to which character the light would be on. This is to give the audience an idea who is the main character in the act and what they see around them. In Act 2 Scene 5 I would have a brighter light shining on Malvolio. Also on the three knights Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian I would shine a bright light on the tree but a darker light on the Knights themselves. This would therefore give the effect of Malvolio being the main
After performing a scene from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night I received a much greater insight into some of the characters in the play. I played the character of Sir Toby Belch in Act IV, scene i.
Drama Essay - Twelfth Night: Sir Toby Belch After performing a scene from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night I received a much greater insight into some of the characters in the play. I played the character of Sir Toby Belch in Act IV, scene i. Sir Toby Belch is a drunkard, making what he says and does appear comical, hence the reason we used the wine bottle as a prop which Sir Toby does not stop clutching throughout the whole scene. To show the element of comic in Toby's character we used the sword fight between him and Sebastian accompanied by music. With every pause in the music, Toby would take a swig from the bottle, taking it in turns with Sebastian who would do a flamboyant spin on his heel. I thought this portrayed a good contrast between the two characters, Toby being the drunk, lethargic one, Sebastian being the bold and brave show off. There is also a sly element to Sir Toby. He is often callous towards Sir Andrew Aguecheek and it sometimes seem like Sir Toby is just using the foolish Andrew for his own entrainment, and isn't a true friend to him at all. In the act we performed I tried to convey this by taking a while to break up the fight between Sir Andrew and Sebastian, suggesting my character quite enjoyed, and found it comical, watching Sir Andrew get pummelled by Sebastian, coming across as somewhat of a stirrer. When I played sir Toby, I expressed my voice