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Shakespeare's language in Twelfth Night is among his richest and most varied. This lesson analyses the play's key imagery patterns, the use of prose versus verse, Feste's wordplay, dramatic irony, and provides close analysis of six important quotations.
Music is woven into the fabric of Twelfth Night more than almost any other Shakespeare play. The very first word of the play is about music:
"If music be the food of love, play on, / Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die." (1.1.1--3)
| Function | Example |
|---|---|
| Expresses emotion | Orsino uses music to feed his lovesickness (1.1) |
| Comments on themes | Feste's "Come away, come away, death" (2.4) reflects unrequited love |
| Creates atmosphere | Songs establish the mood of scenes (festive, melancholy) |
| Bridges plot and theme | Feste's final song closes the play on a note of realism |
| Marks social occasions | The drinking songs (2.3) embody festive misrule |
"O Mistress Mine" (2.3)
"O mistress mine, where are you roaming? / ... What is love? 'Tis not hereafter."
Theme: seize the day (carpe diem) — love and youth are fleeting.
"Come Away, Come Away, Death" (2.4)
"Come away, come away, death, / And in sad cypress let me be laid."
Theme: the pain of unrequited love; love and death are intertwined.
"When That I Was and a Little Tiny Boy" (5.1)
"But when I came to man's estate, / With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, / ... For the rain it raineth every day."
Theme: life is harsh; the festive world of the play is an illusion; reality ("rain") always returns.
Examiner's tip: If you write about music in Twelfth Night, show that it is not just decoration — it is a structural and thematic device. Feste's songs mark emotional turning points and provide commentary the characters themselves cannot articulate.
The play begins with a shipwreck and is saturated with sea imagery throughout.
| Quotation | Speaker | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| "And what should I do in Illyria? / My brother he is in Elysium." (1.2.3--4) | Viola | "Elysium" (heaven) puns on "Illyria" — the boundary between life and death is crossed by the sea |
| "I am all the daughters of my father's house, / And all the brothers too" (5.1) | Viola | The sea has unmade her family; she must be both genders |
| "O Time, thou must untangle this, not I; / It is too hard a knot for me t'untie." (2.2.39--40) | Viola | "Knot" suggests tangled ropes — a nautical image for the tangled plot |
| "tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love" (3.4.372) | Sebastian | The sea that nearly killed him also delivered him to love |
The sea represents:
Feste is the play's master of language. His wordplay serves multiple functions.
Feste: "Good madonna, why mourn'st thou?" Olivia: "Good fool, for my brother's death." Feste: "I think his soul is in hell, madonna." Olivia: "I know his soul is in heaven, fool." Feste: "The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul, being in heaven."
Feste uses syllogistic logic (a logical argument) to prove that Olivia is foolish for mourning someone who is in heaven. This is comedy, but it also makes a serious philosophical point: grief can be a form of self-indulgence.
"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit." (1.5.33)
A chiasmus (ABBA structure) that inverts "fool" and "wit" to argue that knowing you are foolish is wiser than being foolish while thinking yourself wise.
"I wear not motley in my brain." (1.5.52)
"Motley" is the fool's multicoloured costume. Feste distinguishes between the costume of foolishness and the reality of wisdom — reinforcing the appearance vs reality theme.
Shakespeare uses prose and verse (blank verse / iambic pentameter) strategically in Twelfth Night.
| Form | Used By / When |
|---|---|
| Verse (iambic pentameter) | High-status characters in emotional or formal moments: Orsino, Viola, Olivia |
| Prose | Lower-status characters (Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria) or comic scenes |
| Songs (rhymed verse) | Feste — standing outside the normal speech patterns |
Examiner's tip: Noting a shift from prose to verse (or vice versa) is a high-level analytical move. It shows the examiner you are engaging with Shakespeare's craft, not just the story. Always explain why the shift matters — what does it reveal about the character's emotional state or social position?
Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something the characters do not. Twelfth Night is built on dramatic irony because the audience knows Viola's secret from the start.
| Moment | What the Character Thinks | What the Audience Knows |
|---|---|---|
| Orsino confides in Cesario about love (1.4, 2.4) | He is talking to a loyal male servant | He is talking to a woman who loves him |
| Olivia falls for Cesario (1.5) | She is falling for a charming young man | She is falling for a woman |
| Malvolio finds the letter (2.5) | Olivia loves him | Maria forged the letter |
| Antonio accuses Cesario (3.4) | Sebastian has betrayed him | Viola is not Sebastian |
| Viola says "I am not what I am" (2.2) | Olivia sent a ring to a man | The audience knows Cesario is Viola |
Language: Metaphor (love as appetite); imperative verb ("play on"); "excess" and "surfeiting" create semantic field of overindulgence. Effect: Establishes love as an obsessive, physical craving rather than a spiritual ideal. Orsino's first words tell us everything about his character.
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