1. Twelfth Night
Discussion Questions

2. Lesson 2
Are there any holidays that, in your experience, are connected with carefree fun and merry-making? Tell about a holiday, or a time, when you were inordinately silly.

3. Lesson 3
Sketch or describe in your own words your first impressions of Orsino, Olivia, and Viola.
If you like, sketch or describe your preliminary ideas about a set for a Twelfth Night production.

4. Lesson 5
Find and comment on four lines from the scenes you’ve read so far:
A line that has beauty in it
A line with a good joke
A line that sounds modern
A line that appeals to you for any reason

5. Lesson 6 (Feste)
How long do you think he has been in Olivia’s household?
Is he a carefree fool with no troubles?
Does he have a brain?
If you were a director, who would you cast as Feste?
How would you costume him or her?
Can you find some clues in the script that suggest action for Feste?
If you were a director, what would you want the Fool to be doing physically in this scene?

6. Lesson 8
Are you more of a Toby or more of a Malvolio when it comes to getting rowdy?
Look again at Feste’s song in this scene. Does it seem to keep with the mood of the scene? Do the words reflect what’s going on? How?
Find what you consider a pretty good joke in this scene. What’s funny about it to you?

7. Lesson 9
Draw a diagram or chart that shows the characters and their relationships to each other.

8. Lesson 10 Think about the views of love from 2.4:
Do you think there’s a difference in the way men love and the way women love?
Do either viola or Orsino express views similar to your own?
Find a line in this scene that you like or that strikes you in some way and comment on it.

9. Lesson 13
Have you ever played a practical joke on someone, or been the victim of a practical joke?
Write about your experience, making parallels between what happened to you and what’s happening to Malvolio.

10. Lesson 14
Find lines that show how Viola and Orsino express love and reflect on how their method of expressing love defines their personalities.
Express an opinion on whether or not Feste knows that Cesario is a female.

11. Lesson 15
Choose what you consider the four choicest lines, copy them, and tell why they are great.

12. Lesson 16
Look at Antonio’s speech in 3.4. Paraphrase it, comment on it, and give some examples of what he is talking about.

13. Final Reflection
If you were commissioned to design and direct a production of Twelfth Night, where would you set it? What would your Illyria look like? What would be your take on each character? What costumes, music, and special effects would you want?
How would you get each character off the stage at the end? Think about where they are going and how they feel? Do they stop and shake hands with other characters? Do they slink off or run off? This will be the last time the audience will see them. What impression do you want to leave?