Some Structure in Twelfth Night

1
Some Structure in Twelfth Night

• A look at key structural devices with heavy
  emphasis on that shining star of thinking and
  writing, CONTRAST!

2
repetition

• Virtually always worth discussing
• a whole body paragraph can be written on
  repetition, if warranted
• Look for a repetition of
• ideas
• motifs
• lines
• character types

3
Parallel events

• Look for same actions and different characters
• ex. Love at first sight (also a convention)

4
Vs. recurring events

• Here, look for the same actions AND the same
  character
• Ex Violas treks to and from Olivias on
  Orsinos behalf

5
parody

• Parody may be defined as incongruous imitation.
  A parody imitates the serious manner and
  characteristic feature of the original, but
  deflates the original by applying the imitation
  to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject.
• M.H.
  Abrams

6
Look at the representations of love

• Think about Viola and Orsino
• Orsinos love for Olivia
• Olivias love for Cesario
• Malvolios love for Olivia
• (N.B. In some instances the word love could be
  put into quotation marks.)

7
Contrast your new best friend

• Contrasts are always useful!
• I recommend that when you are doing a
  close-reading, make a list(in the margin) of all
  of the contrasts you see.
• Incorporate the best ones into your analysis of
  your examples.

8
Contrasts plays and novels

• Contrasts are equally vital here for writing
  expository essays -- timed or untimed -- about
  these genres. As you think about contrasts, try
  to group them for a more useful and useable
  presentation.
• In Twelfth Night, for instance,...

9
Think about contrasts in terms of

• characters names
• characters classes
• characters natures
• characters uses of language

• plot
• setting
• theme

10
Characters Names

• Feste -- his name means fete -- feaster in
  spirit. See 2.3.27 - 71.
• Malvolio -- his name means bad appetite. See
  2.3.87 - 93.

11
Characters Classes

• The high-born characters Viola, Sebastian,
  Orsino, Olivia
• The lowborn (or base-acting) characters
  Malvolio, Maria, Fabian, Sir Toby

12
Characters Natures

• Malvolio, the precise, self-loving, longing-for-a
  social-climb steward (and puritan)
• vs.
• Sir Toby Belch the caterwauling kinsman 2.3.114
  - 123.
• This represents the Puritan/Cavalier issues, so
  divisive during Shakespeares time at issue
  during the civil war in England

13
And...

• Violas understandable cowardice about dueling
  (Shes had no training!Shes not a he!) 3.4.281 -
  283 and 3.4.314 - 316.
• VS.
• Sir Andrews cowardice. (Hes a knight!)
• 3.4.243 - 249.

14
also

• Look at Violas plan to deceive Orsino so she can
  gain employment 1.2.50 -64.
• VS.
• Her patience on a monument speech 2.4.122 - 130.

15
And speaking of Viola,

• She looks like a man (albeit a feminine man) and
  acts like a man, and accidentally wins the love
  of Olivia. 1.5.297 - 301
• VS.
• Sebastian, who looks, acts, and is a man and gets
  the hand of Olivia (fortunately). 4.3

16
And while were thinking of Viola...

• She knows what love is. She has real love for
  Orsino. See her discourse about her sister.
  2.4.116 - 134
• VS.
• Orsino, who likes the notion of love. See 1.1.1
  - 15.

17
And speaking of love...

• Malvolio loves himself more than anyone else.
  His employer, Olivia, comments, O, you are sick
  of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a
  distempered appetite. 1.5.89 - 90. Then see him
  with the love letter. in 2.5.143 - 183. VS.
• Violas humble comment to Orsino And I, most
  jocund, apt willingly,/To do you rest a thousand
  deaths would die. 5.1.135 - 136.

18
Characters Language

• As we discussed before, think of blank verse vs.
  prose --
• Go hang yourselves all! You are idle, shallow
  things. I am not of your element. 3.4.132 -
  134. VS.
• Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,/ Of
  what validity, and pitch soeer 1.1.11 - 12.

19
Think, too, about the end -- Act 5

• Malvolio Ill be revenged on the whole pack of
  you! 5.1.401.
• To which gentle Olivia responds, (in Malvolios
  absence), He hath been most notoriously abused.
  5.1.402.

20
Examine these, please.

• Make me a willow cabin at your gate
• And call upon my soul within the house,
• Write loyal cantons of contemnèd love
• And sing them loud even in the dead of night,
• Hallow your name to the reverberate hills
• And make the babbling gossip of the air
• Cry out Olivia! 1.5.271 - 277. And...

21

• I go After him I love
• More than I love these eyes, more than my life,
• More by all mores than eer I shall love wife.
• If I do feign, you witnesses above,
• Punish my life for tainting of my love.
  5.1.138 -142.

22
plot

• Main plot/ comic sub-plot
• above stairs characters/ below stairs characters
• finding ones self and ones true love/ examining
  humans in their folly
• Look at Act 3 scene 1 main plot 2 subplot
  3 main plot (Sebastian and Antonio arrive) 4
  subplot (Mal. cross-gartered)

23
setting

• The shipwreck and danger prior to the opening of
  the play -- the force and danger of the sea are
  mentioned several times, specifically by the
  rescued twins
• the idyllic world of Illyria, where most people
  are gentle, kind, and helpful

24
themes

• Violas search for her true identity vs.
  Malvolios self-indulgence, self-satisfaction,
  delusions, and meanness.
• Remember that final line, Ill be revenged on
  the whole pack of you! 5.1.401.

25

• Also note what Antonio says to Sebastian, The
  gentleness of all the gods go with thee!/But
  come what may, I do adore thee so/ That danger
  shall seem sport, and I will go. 2.2.43 - 47.
  

26

• Whereas when Malvolio speaks to the revelers,
  Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, the fool, and Maria, he
  declares, My masters, are you mad? Or what are
  you? Have you no wit, manners, honesty but to
  gabble like tinkers at this time of night?Is
  there no respect of place, persons, nor time in
  you?
• 2.3.87 - 92.

27
consider

• All of the times where true love is contrasted
  with idealized love, misguided love, love that
  cannot be requited, parodies of true love.
• Shakespeare is advocating the power of love when
  it is genuine.