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Twelfth Night
Sir Toby uses a metaphor and personification. An example of a literary device in Scene 3 is used by Sir Toby in response to Olivia’s mourning over her brother. What a plague means my niece, to...
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Twelfth Night
One of Shakespeare's central points in Twelfth Night is to show that appearances aren't really what they seem. Essentially, he shows that appearances can be deceptive. He shows us the deception of...
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Twelfth Night
Viola is a smart and resourceful character. As a young woman shipwrecked alone, she successfully disguises herself as a man, and quickly enters the service of Duke Orsino. This shows her ability to...
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Twelfth Night
Viola and Olivia are both gentlewomen raised to self-esteem, manners, breeding, wealth and luxury (Olivia more so) who both recognize and accept the role of Fate in their lives. This is where their...
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Twelfth Night
Romantic comedy had a history in Italy before Shakespeare popularized it in England. Just like Chaucer before him, Shakespeare drew upon sophisticated Italian sources and some French sources for...
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Twelfth Night
The inciting incident is one that catches the audience's interest and pulls them into a story. It sets the entire plot into motion, as the audience wonders what will happen next. In particular, the...
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Twelfth Night
One of the themes of Twelfth Night has to do with the extreme behaviors of what Shakespeare equates with insanity in love. One manifestation of this insanity in love is love at first sight. The...
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Twelfth Night
The best example of miscommunication leading to heartbreak and humor would be Olivia's unrequited love for "Cesare," who is actually Viola in disguise. Olivia is infatuated with Cesare, thinking...
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Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is a play about love of all kinds, and not just its happy aspects. Many of the characters — including Viola — discover that grief, fear, and despair can come to those who lose their...
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Twelfth Night
The significance of female free will, or agency, in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night hinges on the fact that the women steer the plot line entirely. Maria, Olivia's servant, authors the practical joke...
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Twelfth Night
In act 1, scene 3 of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, in which this line occurs, witty and light-hearted Maria (the lady-in-waiting to the mistress of the house, Lady Olivia) is mocking Sir...
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Twelfth Night
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night begins with Viola washing up on the shores of new land. Her first lines are to the captain and ask, “What country is this?”, allowing the audience to see she is...
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Twelfth Night
For the purposes of this question I will be refering to the film version of this play that came out in 1996 and was directed by Trevor Nunn, starring Toby Maguire and Helena Bonham Carter. This is...
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Twelfth Night
Viola, crossdressed under the guise of a servant named Cesario, inadvertently seduces Olivia with the famous “Make me a willow cabin at your gate” speech in act 1, scene 5. Viola was sent to Olivia...
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Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino's views on love prove to be a bit contradictory, and all of his contradictory views culminate in his sudden, fickle switch from loving Olivia to loving Viola by the end of the play....
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Twelfth Night
This is an excellent question, and critics have much debated why it is that in Act V scene 1, Orsino continues to address Viola as "boy" and then as "Cesario" even after Viola has revealed herself...
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Twelfth Night
As one of Olivia's suitors, Sir Andrew Aguecheek is a rival of Duke Orsino for her affection. A foolish, vain, self-absorbed man, he is discouraged and even a little insulted by feeling that she...
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Twelfth Night
You can find the answer to your question at the beginning of act 1, scene 2, of Twelfth Night. The scene takes place on a sea coast where Viola has just landed after being rescued from a shipwreck....
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Twelfth Night
In the very first scene of Twelfth Night, Orsino has just finished giving a long winded, over-the-top description of his feelings on love when Cruio asks him if he would go hunting "hart" with him....
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Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino asks Cesario to woo Olivia because Olivia is in mourning over her brother's death, and she refuses to accept any marriage proposals or meet any strangers. Also, from a narrative...
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Twelfth Night
Maria, Olivia's lady-in-waiting, first serves as "a balancing character" who points out in Act I the drunkenness of Sir Toby and introduces "the foolish knight," his vulgar friend Sir Andrew...
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Twelfth Night
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night opens with Orsino, Duke of Illyria, expressing his passionate love for Lady Olivia. Orsino previously sent one of his attendants (appropriately named Valentine) to Lady...
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Twelfth Night
Love is a very common theme in Shakespeare's comedies. The structure of a classical Comedy is such that, after a series of complications for at least one romantic couple, the play ends "happily"...
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Twelfth Night
The phrase "Twelfth Night" refers to the Church calendar and the last night of the twelve days following Christmas Day, December 25th. The Twelfth Night falls on January 5th or 6th, depending on...
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Twelfth Night
One reason why Olivia falls in love with Viola disguised as Cesario is because Viola is extremely direct and forthright with her, which can be very attractive. Unlike Orsino, Viola is able to view...
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Twelfth Night
This opening speech by the Duke immediately introduces the theme of love, the central one of the play. It explores the nature and effects of love, which appear to be overwhelming. The Duke asks...
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Twelfth Night
The setting in Twelfth Night is noteworthy largely because it seems to offer a fantasy world. Illyria is as much a place of the mind as a geographical location. While there is a real Illyria, on...
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Twelfth Night
Duke Orsino is madly in love with Lady Olivia and opens the play by expressing his deep love for her, which encompasses his entire being and distracts him from his everyday duties. Duke Orinso ends...
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Twelfth Night
For the most part, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is an exploration of and exposure of human nature. In particular, Shakespeare exposes human nature and behavior as being sometimes pretty bawdy and...
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Twelfth Night
As the play's court jester, Feste is characterized as both a witty and wise person. One of Feste's functions is to illustrate the merry, festive themes of Twelfth Night that are associated with the...
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Twelfth Night
Love is the central concern of Twelfth Night, and most of the characters indulge in sentimentality at one time or another. The overall satirical stance is conveyed early on by Duke Orsino, as he...
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Twelfth Night
Orsinio, the Duke of Illyria, is an intense, emotional, and passionate man who is in love with the idea of love. A statement he makes early in the play characterizes him: If music be the food of...
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Twelfth Night
One of the dominant love themes in Twelfth Night is the arbitrariness or foolishness of love. We especially see both the arbitrariness and foolishness of love with respect to both Duke Orsino and...
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Twelfth Night
Viola's reaction when Malvolio returns the ring goes through a few stages. First, she is confused, as she does not recall leaving a ring behind. Then, she is offended by Malvolio's snobby manner,...
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Twelfth Night
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Maria is Olivia's waiting-gentlewoman and a central figure in Olivia's household. Maria intends to humiliate Olivia's dour, pompous, prideful, self-righteous steward...
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Twelfth Night
Feste, the fool in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, is, like many of Shakespeare's fools, more clever than he seems. The primary way that Feste proves his intelligence is through his wit. Nearly every...
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Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is ultimately centered around Viola's transformation into Cesario, the woman disguised as a man, in order to access Orsino's court. This is where your use of the specific term...
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Twelfth Night
A double entendre is a form of figurative language in which a given phrase of words can be interpreted as having more than one meaning, usually the second meaning is sexually suggestive. Double...
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Twelfth Night
In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the issue of taking someone at face value, or "judging a book by its cover," is a pivotal one. The characters assume disguises and false names, pursuing...
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Twelfth Night
Disguise, deception, and false appearances are central to the plot of Twelfth Night. William Shakespeare fills the plot with multiple layers of these themes, as characters literally wear...
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Twelfth Night
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night begins in act 1, scene 1 with Orsino, the Duke of Ilyria, declaring his love for Olivia, a wealthy countess, despite having only once caught sight of her. When one of...
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Twelfth Night
It is important to recognise that Viola is not forced or compelled to wear man's clothes and to disguise herself as if she were a male. This is a choice that she makes, partly to protect herself...
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Twelfth Night
Viola and Feste are similar in that they both travel between Orsino's and Olivia's households. Viola is pretending to be Orsino's page, and Feste is employed as Olivia's clown or fool. Both...
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Twelfth Night
Firstly, Orsino and Malviolio are linked in their mutual pursuit of Olivia's love. While their social statuses are very different, they both exhibit pride, self-importance, and inconstancy of...
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Twelfth Night
To some extent, Malvolio acts as the antagonist to many of the play's characters. He is extremely critical and judgmental of Maria, Sirs Toby and Andrew, and even Feste. But at the same time, many...
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Twelfth Night
Maria warns Sir Toby that his niece Olivia does not approve of his drinking and that Sir Andrew is a fool. Maria wants Sir Toby to be careful. In this scene, Maria is reminding Toby that he should...
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Twelfth Night
When choosing a quote spoken by Duke Orsino, what you first want to do is figure out what you want to say, prove, or argue with the quote concerning Duke Orsino. To do that, it is first helpful to...
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Twelfth Night
Literary critics have pointed out that Shakespeare wrote during a time of important sociopolitical changes considering that there was a switch from a patriarchal monarchy to a matriarchal monarchy....
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Twelfth Night
Feste, the Clown, has his character traits established by other characters comments, action and dialogue from his first entrance in Act I, scene v. He and Maria enter and she is admonishing him...
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Twelfth Night
This scene occurs in Act IV scene 2, when Feste, the clown, disguises himself as Sir Topaz, the curate, and tries to reason with the "lunatic Malvolio." What he does is engage in a series of puns...
