Act 1 Scene 1 Flashcards
QUOTES
“If music be…”
“If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, the surfeiting.
The appetite may sicken and so die!”
QUOTES
“So full of shapes…”
“So full of shapes is fancy,
that it alone is high fantastical.”
QUOTES
“liver, brain and heart,…”
“…liver, brain and heart,
these sovereign thrones, are all supplied and filled
her sweet perfections with one selfsame king”
How is love presented by Orsino? Why is this?
It sets the status of love (Orsino’s for Olivia) as a rather self-indulgent emotion.
He talks less of her as an individual and more of his gains once she has loved him in his idealised world
Is Orsino’s love for Olivia conventional? What could this further explain?
Yes it is, it is almost cliched.
This could further explain how Orsino’s love for Olivia is narrow and self-serving.
How does Shakespeare produce a possible comic effect in the first scene? What devices does he use?
Orsino’s first speech has a sudden shift in mood.
He uses a caesura (full stop) to disrupt the rhythm of the iambic pentameter.
He then follows this with a half line, which becomes part of a couplet to market the end of Orsino’s wallowing in romantic music.
Name a few observations one can have when analysing Orsino’s language.
- only mentions Olivia at the end - self-serving
- characterised by excess - hyperbole, appetite
- consumed by physical desires - “fell hounds”
What, perhaps, in an alternative view of Orsino’s language in reference to his love for Olivia?
that he is showing a capacity for strong feelings and responsiveness to music
what is often characterised as extravagance could be interpreted at passion and a zest/vigour for life’s pleasures
What can the reader interpret from the dynamic already present between Olivia and Orsino? What is the effect on the audience?
both are characters for strong emotions
they can be seen as opposites but they also are similar: they confine themselves to difference thoughts. Orsino is consumed with thoughts of love and Olivia with grief.
The audience’s curiousity is raise and interested in how events will unfold
Orsino’s famous line: “If music be the food of love”. What does this mean and signify in the play?
- he wants an excess of music to kill his appetite for love
- he could also be indulging his love of being in love
- it sets a certain tone for the rest of the play: goes from appetite, to feasting and revelry and then to the alter-effects
How is Orsino’s famous opening line influenced by the works of Italian poet Petrarch?
Orsino uses: extended metaphors (conceits), similes and apostrophes, paradox (“stealing and giving odour”)
Summarise events in Act 1 Scene 1 of Twelfth Night:
- Orsino, Duke of Illyria, expresses deep love for Countess Olivia
- Orsino’s servant Valentine returns from Olivia’s house where Orsino’s courtship has been rejected as Olivia is mourning the death of her brother for 7 years
