Malvolio

Question 1

What are some traits of Malvolio?

Answer 1

• Puritan
• pompous
• fun spoiler
• humourless
• killjoy
• snobbish
• superiority complex

Question 2

What boundaries does Malvolio cross?

Answer 2

• class
• sanity
• deception
• gender
• religion

Question 3

“You might have saved me my pains”

Answer 3

Act 2 Scene 2
- irritated
- believes he is better than those in his social class

Question 4

“My masters, are you mad?”

Answer 4

Act 2 Scene 3
- abstract noun
- pronouns indicate lower class
- questioning sanity

Question 5

“Is there no respect of place, persons nor time in you?”

Answer 5

Act 2 Scene 3
- speaking to them like infants
- emphasises high view of himself

Question 6

“To be Count Malvolio…”

Answer 6

Act 2 Scene 5
- ellipsis
- cocky, wants to be a higher status

Question 7

“Let me see x3”

Answer 7

Act 2 Scene 5
- repetition and list of 3
- shows his desire to read the letter as he’s desperately in love with Olivia. love makes you foolish and mad

Question 8

“I will be strange, stout in yellow stockings”

Answer 8

Act 2 Scene 5
- lower class wore plain clothes and were prohibited to wear bright colours
- crossing gender boundaries

Question 9

“Go hang yourselves all”

Answer 9

Act 3 Scene 4
- imperative
- aggressive

Question 10

“This house is as dark as ignorance”

Answer 10

Act 4 Scene 2
- simile

Question 11

“There was never a man so notoriously abused”

Answer 11

Act 4 Scene 2
- adverb
- mental abuse
- prompting audience to consider harshness

Question 12

“I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”

Answer 12

Act 5 Scene 1
- exclamatory
- ‘pack’ suggests they’re all the same

Question 13

“I do not now fool myself to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me.”

Answer 13

Act 2 Scene 5
- Malvolio does indeed fool himself, but his self-love on display means that he cannot be redeemed
- Maria’s letter is so successful in deceiving him because he was already deluding himself into thinking Olivia might marry him
-

Question 14

“To bed! ‘Ay, sweetheart, and I’ll come to thee!’”

Answer 14

Act 3 Scene 4
- inviting himself into bed with Olivia, misinterprets what she says as a sexual advance
- AO3: a sexual ballad of the time

Question 15

“Go off, I discard you. Let me enjoy my private”

Answer 15

Act 3 Scene 4
- imperative
- acting above his status
- verb “enjoy” is ironic as he is Puritan

Question 16

“That the soul of our grandam might happy inhabit a bird.”

Answer 16

Act 4 Scene 2
- believes soul goes to heaven or hell
- Pythagoras believed ‘transmagration’ of soul: soul being reborn

Question 17

“As I am a gentleman, I will love to be thankful to thee for’t”

Answer 17

Act 4 Scene 2
- he does not act like a gentleman so his words mean nothing

Question 18

“There was never a man so notoriously abused”

Answer 18

Act 4 Scene 2
- mental abuse
- prompts audience to consider how harsh he’s been treated

Question 19

“Keep me in darkness, send ministers to me - asses! - and do all they can to face me out of my wits.”

Answer 19

Act 4 Scene 2
- exclamatory minor sentence
- talking about his mistreatment
- increasingly suffering

Question 20

“I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”

Answer 20

Act 5 Scene 1
- gets no revenge, just humiliation
- walks off stage while everyone is celebrating; shows how love can be cruel