Twelfth Night

Question 1

Orsino - “If music be the food of love play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting. The appetite may sicken and so die.”

Answer 1

Theme of excess - Orsino has unhealthy ideas about love - firstly he wishes to kill of his appetite for love by bingeing on it and also how this links to excess and self-indulgence.

Question 2

CAPTAIN Be you his eunuch, and your mute I’ll be.

When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see.

Answer 2

Theme of Identity - Viola plans to disguise herself as a boy but her high pitched voice could expose her
She decides to pretend to be a singing eunuch
Sea captain continues this idea of bodily mutilation when he says he’ll be her mute
He implies that his eyes should be put out as punishment if he exposes her secret

Question 3

MARIA That quaffing and drinking will undo you. I heard my lady talk of it yesterday, and of a foolish
knight that you brought in one night here to be her
wooer. (1.3)

Answer 3

Theme of excess - Maria accuses Toby of excessive drinking and quaffing - downing large amounts of liquid quickly
Sir Toby Belch is nearly synonymous with the bodily excesses which he indulges

Question 4

VIOLA I’ll do my best
To woo your lady: Aside. Yet a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife. (1.4)

Answer 4

Theme of love - Sudden love declaration leaves the audience confused. Orsino comes across as Moody and self-centred
Orsino tells Cesario to “act my woes” when he goes to see Olivia - to behave as if he shares Orsinos adoration for the noble woman

Question 5

ORSINO Dear lad, believe it;
For they shall yet belie thy happy years
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,
And all is semblative a woman’s part. (1.4)

Answer 5

Theme of identity - Orsino’s description of Cesario’s mouth (“lip”) throat (“small pipe”), and voice (“maiden’s organ”) is made even more provocative because Orsino would be describing a very attractive and androgynous boy actor, who is playing the role of a young woman, who is cross-dressed as a boy. The passage is also an erotic description of the anatomical features of female genitalia.

Question 6

MALVOLIO Not yet old enough for a man, nor young
enough for a boy—as a squash is before ‘tis a
peascod, or a cooling when ‘tis almost an apple. ‘Tis
with him in standing water, between boy and man. (1.5)

Answer 6

Theme of identity - Malvolio implies that Cesario isn’t quite ripe enough to be a man. He compares him to a “squash” (an undeveloped peapod) and a “codling” (an unripe apple) to explain away Cesario’s androgynous good looks.
- Elizabethans often lumped young boys into the same category as girls and women. Boys wore dresses until “breeching” age, when they were allowed to wear breeches, go to school, and talk shop with their fathers and older boys

Question 7

OLIVIA Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit
Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast! Soft,
soft!
Unless the master were the man. How now?
Even so quickly may one catch the plague? (1.5)

Answer 7

Theme of love/madness - Olivia is surprised when she falls in love with Cesario seeing as she has sworn off men for 7 years. Olivia compares falling in love with catching the plague (think Orsino and overindulging on love to make him sick).

Question 8

ANTONIO I have many enemies in Orsino’s court,
Else would I very shortly see thee there.
But, come what may, I do adore thee so
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go. (2.1)

Answer 8

Theme of Love/madness - Antonio cares so deeply for Sebastian that, despite the fact he has enemies in Orsino’s court, he will go with him to make sure that he is safe.

Question 9

Viola/Cesario How easy is it for the proper false
In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!
Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,
For such as we are made of, such we be. (2.2)

Answer 9

Theme of identity/love - Viola claims it is not Olivia’s fault that she has fallen in love with Viola. She says that women fall in love with handsome men easily because they are born fragile.

Question 10

•Viola/Cesario As I am man,
My state is desperate for my master’s love.
As I am woman, now, alas the day,
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!
O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me to untie!

Answer 10

Themes of Madness/love/identity - Viola’s disguise (dressing as a man) has caused a whole lot of problems!
Problem 1 – she has fallen in love with Orsino, but can’t tell him because her disguise will be ruined.
Problem 2 – Olivia has fallen in love with Viola and Viola can’t tell her she is actually a woman because (again!) her disguise will be ruined.
She decides just to run with thing as they are – she hopes that ‘time’ will sort it out.

Question 11

Maria (about Malvolio) the best persuaded of himself, so crammed, as he thinks, with excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all that look on him love him. And on that vice in him will my revenge find notable cause to work. (2.3)

Answer 11

Theme of love/identity - Maria declares that Malvolio is ridiculously full of himself and aspires to be nobility. She says that she can trick him because of his pride (self-love).

Question 12

ORSINO If ever thou shalt love,
In the sweet pangs of it remember me;
For such as I am, all true lovers are,
Unstaid and skittish in all motions else
Save in the constant image of the creature
That is beloved. (2.4)

Answer 12

Theme of love/madness - Orsino declares that Cesario/Viola will know when she is in love because she will think of the way he is acting. He claims that anyone who is truly in love is pained by it and they will be moody and unable to focus.

Question 13

ORSINO Let still the woman take
An elder than herself. So wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband’s heart.
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are. (2.4)

Answer 13

Theme of love/identity/madness - Cesario pretty much tells Orsino that it is him she has fallen in love with. She tells him it is someone who looks like him and is the same age as him. In response he tells her that she needs to find someone younger than herself so she can shape her ‘wife’ to her needs so that she will not get bored and be unfaithful. Orsino claims that men change their minds and desires a lot.

Question 14

ORSINO Then let thy love be younger than thyself,
Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
For women are as roses, whose fair flower
Being once displayed, doth fall that very hour. (2.4)

Answer 14

Theme of love/identity/madness - Orsino continues his ‘inspiring’ speech on marriage by concluding that Viola/Cesario should marry someone young to keep her feelings for longer because a woman’s beauty fades quickly.

Question 15

ORSINO Tell her my love, more noble than the world,
Prizes not quantity of dirty lands;
The parts that fortune hath bestowed upon her,
Tell her, I hold as giddily as fortune;
But ’tis that miracle and queen of gems
That nature pranks her in attracts my soul. (2.4)

Answer 15

Theme of love/excess - Orsino once more sends Viola/Cesario to speak to Olivia about his love for her. He tells Viola/Cesario to tell Olivia he is not interested in her wealth. It is her jewel-like beauty that he has fallen in love with. Still a pretty shallow reason to love someone…

Question 16

VIOLA/CESARIO Too well what love women to men may owe.
In faith, they are as true of heart as we.
My father had a daughter loved a man
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship.

Answer 16

Theme of love/identity/madness - Despite Viola/Cesario’s claim that women are weak and fragile earlier in the play, she defends women and says that it is possible for women to feel love as strongly as a man. Again, she pretty much tells Orsino she is in love with him - my father had a daughter who loved a man in the same way that I might love you, if I were a woman.