Twelfth Night Key Quotes Flashcards
(20 cards)
What relish is this/ how runs the stream
“Or i am mad, or else this is a dream. Let fancy still my sense in lethe sleep.” -Sebastian 4,1
Sebastians acceptance of the madness in illyria.
For the rain it raineth every day
with tosspots still had drunken heads… but thats all one, our play is done.- Feste 5,1
“Tosspots” - Sir Toby’s drunkness will go unabated continuing chaos + dark undercurrents - creating ambiguity as to the outcome of the play because he doesnt talk about the ending of the play contrasts his role as the truthteller
“my stars shine darkly over me
“the malignancy of my fate may distemper yours” - Sebastian 2,1
S’s grief is darker than Olivias (showing her insincerity)
“the element itself..
“till seven years heat, shall not behold her face at ample view… she veiled walks” - Valentine 1,1
excess and self indulgence in olivias mourning
“but that he hath the gift of a coward…
“to allay the gust he hath in quarreling, tis though among the prudent that he’d quickly have the gift of a grave” - maria 1,3
Andrew belives himself to be braver than he is - highlighting his role as natural fool.
“where is malvolio..”
“I am as mad as he…”
“he is sad and civil and suits well for a servant of my fortunes - Olivia 3,4
Olivias self indulgence and self-inflcted murning - shakesperare pokes fun at melodrama
“if sad and merry madness equal be” - Olivia 3,4
Olivias excessive mourning contrasts with revelrous tone of scene - shes incinscere
“as there is no true cuckold but calamity…”
“… so beauty’s a flower”
Feste is saying to olivia that she cant stay grieving forever and that she must get on with life before her beauty fades -in this way Shakespreare highlights the superficiality of olivias mourning and positions feste as his mouth piece
“enter olivia in…
“In Black Dress and Veil”
Highlight the excess in olivias morunign, when constrasted with her actions towards cesario, the superficiality of her grief is clear: “I cannot love him. Let him send no more— Unless perchance you come to me again”
I cannot love him. Let him send no more -
“Unless perchance you come to me again” - Olivia 1,5
Shows olivias superficiality in her mourning.
“which will be now be so unsuitable to her disposition..
”.. being addicted to melancholy as she is” - Maria 2,5 (about olivia)
On one hand it shows how others recognise the self-indulgent element to oliias mournng, how it is inauthentic - dhoing the collapse of social roles - olivia is unfit to run her household, leadin to mistule and the topsy-turvy festivity.
“Now heaven..”
“O, when my eyes did see olivia first..”
“Walks the earth”- Orsino 5,1
Orsino’s idolisation of Olivia indicates that true love and equality cannot occur betwen men and women due to gender roles - Olivia remains an unnatainable ideal yet orsino can be intimate w/ cesario w/ a man.
“methought she purged the air of pestillence” - Orsino 1,1
Ironic, she brings a melancholic atmosphere to multiple scenes she is in contrasting the revelrous atmosphere
Stay and Hear…
“your true love’s coming, that can sing both high and low” - Feste 2,3
Echos the pleading motif of the love triangle, and the objects roaming implies unrequisted love - shows this theme within thr play “sing both high and low” may allude to violas androgyny”
“o, time must untangle this, not I…
“It is too hard a knot for me to untie” - Viola 2,2
Shakespreare dramatises love as an uncontrollable force - transcending social bounaries and distrupting order - nobody is able to control it
Links to orsino “give me excess of it” - he is a fool to attempt to control love
“my desire, more sharp than filed steel…
“did spur me forth” - antonia A3S3
Antonios selfless and pure love for Seb is highlighted as he s presented as heroic+loyal, making his fate more tragic.
“for andrew, if eh were opened and you find”
“so much floow in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea. Ill eat the rest of th’anatomy. SIr toby - 3,2
Sir andrew believes that he the couryy lover like orsino, dihotomy between his actions - cowardsice , and his own view of himself.
“have you not set mine honour at the stake..”
“…and baitied it with all th’unmuzzled thoughts that tyrannous hearts can think” - Olivia 3,1
Olivia sacrifices her honour and reputation for cesarios love, epmahsisng her feelings + shows the facade of her mourning
“cesario, come - for you shall be while you are…”
“man, but in other habits Orsinos mistress and fancy queen” - Orsino A5S1
Shows orsino felt genine love for CESARIO - homoerotic love + he refuses to refer to viola as a woman until he sees her in “other habits” - never seen on stage - festiity and disorder continue past resolution.
“theres no woman’s sides can bide the beating of..
“so strong a passion as love doth give my heart.. they lack retention.” - Orsino 2,4
Underscores orsinos instabiity + narcisssism.
“i love thee so that maugre all thy pride..”
“thy ______”
“nor wit no reason can my passion hide” - 3,1
rhyming couplts emphasise the genine nature of her love and links to love being a way of exposing human folly and ridiculousness.
“thy tongue” - Olivia 3,1 - olivia is in love with violas words, not her appearance as it is the first thing she complements - link to dark undercurrents (S)
A blank my lord. she never told her love..
but let concealment, like ta worm in the bud, feed on er damask cheek. she sat like patience on a monument , smiling at grief. - viola 2,4
she feels like her love is eating her from the inside.
