Extract 1: Twelfth Night

Extract 1

1) In what ways does the scene serve to set the romantic atmosphere of the play as a whole?
2) What are your feelings towards Orsino at the end of this opening scene?

Literary/historical context: The extract was written by William Shakespeare between 1599 and 1602, for the festivities of the night before the Christian Feast before Epiphany, also called Twelfth Night. As written for the purpose of festivities, Twelfth Night is fundamentally a play with humorous overtones.

Name of work and author(including dates): The extract is from Twelfth Night

o Context of extract: This extract is the start of the actual play itself, and introduces us to Duke Orsino, a very significant character in the play. He is shown to be pining for a woman named Olivia, who too serves as an important character, as they will come to form a love triangle of sorts where Viola comes into a picture.

Intro for the 2 sections of talk and line references: The commentary analysis can be split into two parts.
o Identify the three sections: My analysis shall be split into two parts the first being on the characterizations of Duke Orsino, and the second being how this scene serves to set the romantic atmosphere of the play as a whole.

For the main commentary:
o For poetry, comment on how the words contribute to the imagery, emotion, rhythm/rhyme, tone, word choice
o For extracts, add in the above, as well as how words contribute to characterization, setting/atmosphere, narrative style and main themes.

Section 1: Characterisation of Duke Orsino
o Regular use of blank verse as a medium, meaning that the audience will become accustomed to hearing its iambic rhythms, and to regulating their listening accordingly.
o Use of blank verse contrasts with prose such that spoken prose marks a deviation from the norm that is supposed to be noticed. In this extract, the switch is caused by Curio, whose use of prose indicates him as a commoner, emphasising Orsino’s use of verse which denotes his rank and nobility. High diction also marks Duke Orsino out as a nobleman.
o Much of Orsino’s initial speech makes reference to music, with words and phrases such as ‘music be the food of love’, ‘strain’, ‘fall’, ‘came o’er me ear like the sweet sound’ and ‘pitch’. This reference to Orsino’s love for music could show that he might possess hedonistic tendencies, or being a very idealistic person.
o In this way, a connection is drawn between the music and Orsino’s love, which is evanescent in nature.
o Orsino wishes to have ‘excess of it’, so that ‘the appetite may sicken and so die’.
o Words employed like ‘surfeiting’, ‘sicken’, ‘die’ and ‘dying’ gives a sense of passion that borders on decadence.
o He is convinced that he needs to be rid of love, and that getting Olivia’s love might be the way to do it.
o Hence, we wonder whether Orsino is truly in love, and his casual attitude to love creates the impression of a man who is fickle. The words ‘Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there’, also contrasts with the phrases ‘But mine is all as hungry as the sea, And can digest as much.’ In Act 2 Scene 4. We see that ultimately, Orsino could also be said to be arrogant, in a way, because he values himself highly, and possesses an egocentric view of the world.
o He contradicts himself, and the reader is ever more convinced that Orsino might be a man inconsistent in his endeavours?
o The following lines ‘Of what validity and pitch soe’er, But falls into abatement and low price. Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy That it alone is high fantastical.’ Only serves to allow Orsino to further describe his very own suffering at the hands of love, that his need for love causes all other good things in life to fall ‘into abatement’, or to lose their value. There is a great sense of self-indulgence here as he seems to be completely caught up in his own ideas.
o Punning on the word ‘hart’, meaning both a male deer, as well as “heart”. Orsino hunting for love? Gains the attention of the audience, and audience derives intellectual satisfaction from working out the pun.
o ‘Away before me to sweet beds of flowers! Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.’ Rhyming couplet closes long speech of blank verse. In this case, the ending couplet is typical of a romantic sonnet, showing how Orsino idealises the paradigms of traditional Romantic love, also drawing the attention of the audience to the meanings of Orsino’s departing words.
o Orsino’s self-absorbance is further emphasised with the imagery of ‘fell and cruel’ hounds. There is allusion to the myth of Diana, a goddess of chastity, whom sends her hounds to kill a hunter who saw her naked. Orsino is convinced that Olivia, by denying him, is being unnecessarily cruel to him in refusing his love. He compares himself to the hunter, who would die just to see Diana, again, another hyperbole regarding his actions.
o Pun on the word ‘hart’. Smarter then he appears to be. Audience assumes that he mistook the word ‘hart’ for heart’, then believed to be the noblest organ of the body, but the repetition of the word ‘hart’ proves that the pun is intentional, and that Orsino has still some wits about him?
o Orsino has praises Olivia to the point of exaggeration (‘purged the air of pestilence’, ‘hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother’ shows how he admires her devotion to her brother, who has also just died. If she is so devoted to her brother, how much more devoted would she be to Orsino if he becomes her husband.
o ‘Her sweet perfections, with one self king!’ Orsino hopes that Olivia will belong solely to him; he wishes to be her master and her king; a certain sense of arrogance here?
o ‘Away before me to sweet beds of flowers! Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.’ Rhyming couplet closes long speech of blank verse. In this case, the rhyme plays up the catchiness of the ending couplet, drawing the attention of the audience to the meanings of Orsino’s departing words.

Section 2: Romantic Atmosphere of the Play
o Romantic atmosphere is set by Duke Orsino, who seems to be the conventional lovestruck romantic; represented by ending couplets and use of high diction within the play.
o ‘Away before me to sweet beds of flowers! Love thoughts lie rich when canopied with bowers.’ Rhyming couplet closes long speech of blank verse. In this case, the rhyme creates a romantic, gentle flow within his closing words, drawing the attention of the audience to the meanings of Orsino’s departing words.
o Orsino lovesick, ideals of romance but nothing substantial?
o “Illyria”, a mythical land? Heightens the sense of myth surrounding the whole play
o Twelfth Night, a night of festivities; foreshadows that the play will end on a positive note, emphasising the romantic notion of the play.



Concluding thoughts:
o Explain importance of passage within the whole work
o How does it provide an answer to the guiding question? Evaluation of Orsino’s character
o From what other angle could you approach the extract? If there is time. Allusions to other literature, ideas or philosophy. From another perspective