Twelfth Night Group

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lorimo1
lorimo1

Does Viola in "Twelfth Night" have a mother?  If yes - what is her name?

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Posted by lorimo1 on Thursday March 26, 2009 at 1:27 PM and tagged with family, mother, shakespeare, twelfth night, viola.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    I presume she must have had a mother at some point - or how could she be alive? But we never hear about her mother in the play - she's never mentioned once. We do, however, obviously know about Sebastian, her brother, and the two fo them, in the play's final scene, talk about their father in very affectionate terms:

    SEBASTIAN:
    What countryman? what name? what parentage?

    VIOLA:
    Of Messaline: Sebastian was my father;
    Such a Sebastian was my brother too:
    So went he suited to his watery tomb:
    If spirits can assume both form and suit
    You come to fright us.

    SEBASTIAN:
    A spirit I am indeed;
    But am in that dimension grossly clad
    Which from the womb I did participate.
    Were you a woman, as the rest goes even,
    I should my tears let fall upon your cheek,
    And say ‘Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!’

    VIOLA:
    My father had a mole upon his brow.

    SEBASTIAN:
    And so had mine.

    VIOLA:
    And died that day when Viola from her birth
    Had numbered thirteen years.

    So yes, Viola and Sebasitan have a father also called Sebastian. But Shakespeare makes no mention of their mother. She's one of a line of mother who goes unmentioned: Queen Lear, Mrs. Leonato in Much Ado, Mrs Duke Frederick in As You Like It... and so on.

    Hope it helps!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/twelfth-text/act-v-scene-i

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Friday March 27, 2009 at 3:58 AM