Quotations

Part B: Quotation Analysis Using the proper paragraph (SICA) organization, explain the importance of each quotation to the works’ themes, plot, characterization or literary elements. Twelfth Night

Viola Speaking to Duke Orsino I'll do my best To woo your lady:... Aside yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife. (1.4.7) EXPLANATION Viola's sudden announcement that she's smitten with Duke Orsino may come as a shock. How could Viola fall for Orsino so quickly when she's only been working for him for three days? Also, what does Viola see in this guy anyway? After all, Orsino comes off as a moody, self-centered guy who lounges around and spouts off about deer hunting metaphors and flowers all day. It's easy to dismiss the question by saying that Viola's love for Orsino is totally unrealistic but is nevertheless important to the plot. Does Viola fall for Orsino because he's a kind of passionate poet? Does this make her just as silly and foolish as Orsino, Olivia, and Malvolio? Viola's a sharp girl. Does the play seem to suggest that love and desire transform even the brightest and shrewdest people into sappy fools?

Olivia to herself Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and... spirit, Do give thee five-fold blazon: not too fast: soft, soft! Unless the master were the man. How now! Even so quickly may one catch the plague? (1.5.48) EXPLANATION Olivia seems surprised that she has fallen in love with "Cesario," who has been sent to woo her on behalf of Duke Orsino. (Remember, she has sworn off men for seven years while she mourns for her dead brother.) Here, Olivia's comparison of falling in love to catching the bubonic "plague" is not unlike other passages we've seen that align desire with illness and injury. (There's also a bawdy reference to venereal disease, which was rampant in Shakespeare's London.)

I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein by the color of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion,he shall find himself most feelingly personated. I can write very like my lady your niece: on a forgotten matter we can hardly make distinction of our hands. ( ) EXPLANATION: Maria to Sir Toby and Sir Andrew Maria's plan to forge a love letter (in order to trick Malvolio into believing Olivia loves him) furthers the play's notion that "epistles of love" are not to be trusted. Maria's forged letter is not so different from Duke Orsino's messages for Olivia (which aren't necessarily forged but are contrived nonetheless). Translation: I’ll drop some mysterious love letters in his path. He’ll think they’re addressed to him, because they’ll describe the color of his beard, the shape of his legs, the way he walks, and the expression on his face. I can make my handwriting look just like Lady Olivia’s: she and I can’t tell the difference between each other’s handwriting.

There is no woman’s sides Can bide the beating of so strong a passion As love doth give my heart. No woman’s heart So big, to hold so much. They lack retention. Alas, their love may be called appetite, No motion of the liver, but the palate, That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt; But mine is all as hungry as the sea, And can digest as much. Make no compare Between that love a woman can bear me And that I owe Olivia. ( ) EXPLANATION: Duke to Cesario/Viola Throughout the play, Duke Orsino makes several contradictory speeches about the way women love. Here, he claims that women are incapable of "passion." In fact, he implies that women are physically incapable of love – their bodies are too weak to sustain the "beating" of a heart and they are also too small to contain big love. Women were thought of as "leaky vessels" in the 16th century. Here, Orsino's use of the term "retention" not only implies that Olivia is incontinent (can't control her bladder) but also suggests that she can't hold or "retain" any passionate feeling because it would seep or spill out of her, like urine. No woman is strong enough to put up with the kind of intense passion I feel. No woman’s heart is big enough to hold all my love. Women don’t feel love like that—love is as shallow as appetite for them. It has nothing to do with their hearts, just their sense of taste. They eat too much and get indigestion and nausea. But my love’s different. It’s as all-consuming and insatiable as the sea, and it can swallow as much as the sea can. Don’t compare a woman’s love for a man with my love for Olivia.

Duke to Cesario/Viola Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or... thy affection cannot hold the bent; For women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once display'd, doth fall that very hour. (2.4.8) EXPLANATION Here, Orsino tells "Cesario" to marry a young woman, because a woman's beauty (like a flower) fades just as quickly as a husband's sexual desire for his wife (especially once he's "deflowered" or, slept with her).

Malvolio reads the lines from a counterfeit letter made to appear to be from a loving Lady Olivia in one of the numerous deceptions of the play. "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.“ (2, 5, ) EXPLANATION In this scene, the comic plot (as opposed to the romantic plot) unfolds when Malvolio, Countess Olivia's priggish steward, comes upon a letter that the merrymakers in the play have left for him to find. One night as Sir Toby, Andrew, Maria and Feste are carousing, Malvolio bursts in to scold them for their behavior. His egotism and condescending manner so offends them that they decide to play a practical joke by arranging for him to find a love letter that he will believe is from Olivia to himself. The writer of this anonymous letter suggests that he can become "great" by doing certain things, each of which is more absurd than the next. Malvolio, in his ambitious and pretentious egotism, never questions the validity of the letter, nor the author, whom he firmly believes is Olivia. Later, as he carries out the ridiculous instructions in the letter, Olivia thinks her steward has gone mad and has him locked up.

Malvolio enters Olivia’s garden moments before finding the false love letter. He is greedily weighing the possibility that Olivia may be falling in love with him. The thought of Malvolio's being "Count Malvolio" overwhelms him. To be Count Malvolio! […] Calling my officers about... me, in my branched velvet gown; having come from a day-bed, where I have left Olivia sleeping,-- […] And then to have the humour of state; and after a demure travel of regard, telling them I know my place as I would they should do theirs (2.5.2) EXPLANATION Malvolio's unrealistic fantasy about marrying Olivia is not so much about erotic desire as it is about Malvolio's social aspirations. Here, he imagines himself leaving Olivia's bed, not being in it for any length of time. He also seems to get excited about the idea of wearing fancy clothes and bossing around his servants and Sir Toby. This seems to make him just as self- absorbed as, Duke Orsino.

Cesario/Viola to Olivia I am not what I am. (3.1.29) EXPLANATION "Cesario's" cryptic statement to Olivia, who has fallen in love with "him," is both revealing and concealing. Olivia has no idea that "Cesario" is really Viola in disguise. The audience, however, knows that "Cesario" is not what "he" appears to be. "Cesario" suggests that "he" is neither a boy nor an appropriate object for Olivia to love.

Viola/Cesario to herself [Aside] Pray God defend me! A little thing would... make me tell them how much I lack of a man. (3.4.12) EXPLANATION When "Cesario" (Viola in disguise) prays that she doesn't get pummeled in the duel with Sir Andrew, she makes a joke about what she "lack[s]." Read alone, this passage would seem to suggest that being born with a penis somehow predisposes one to picking and winning a fight. However, given the fact that Sir Andrew was born with a penis and is a total coward, it seems that the play is pointing out that one's sex doesn't necessarily determine whether or not someone will be brave.

Duke Orsino to Viola/Cesario at the end of the play "Cesario", come; For so you shall be, while you... are a man; But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen. (5.1.30) EXPLANATION It's pretty striking that Duke Orsino calls Viola "Cesario," even after they are engaged and Viola's identity is revealed. Clearly, the Duke is not quite used to the idea that his "boy" is actually a girl. This passage also raises the question of whether or not Orsino is attracted to "Cesario" or "Viola" or both.