Literary Elements of
Twelfth Night
Mrs. Cole
OMMS
Literary Terms
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Aside – an actor’s speech, directed to the
audience, that is not supposed to be
heard by other actors on stage
Blank Verse – poetry made up of
unrhymed iambic pentameter

Blank verse is considered best for dramatic
verse in English since it is the verse form
closest to the rhythms of everyday English
speech and has been the dominant verse
form of English drama and narrative poetry
since the mid-Sixteenth Century.

Iambic pentameter – a verse
with ten syllables per line,
beginning with an
unstressed syllable
 Iamb means “foot;”
pentameter means “five in
the meter.” Together, you
have a five pairs of
unstressed/stressed
syllables.
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Shakespeare often uses contractions to
make lines shorter, or stresses to make
lines longer, in order to fit this strict meter.
Use of contractions


“My soul the faithful’st off’rings have breathed
out/ that e’er devotion tendered – what shall
I do?” V.1.116-117
Extra Stresses

“More than light airs and recollected terms of
these most brisk and giddy-paced times.”
II.4.6-7
Poetry Vs. Prose
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Shakespeare uses both poetry and prose
in his plays
In most modern editions of the plays,
each line in multi-line verse passages
begins with a capital letter.
Each line in multi-line prose passages
begins with a small letter except the first
line or a line beginning with the opening
word of a sentence.
In addition, verse passages have a
shortened right margin, but prose
passages have a full right margin.
Poetry Vs. Prose

Why alternate between the two?
Both higher class and lower class
characters use poetry, so it is not just a
class distinction.
 What seems more likely is that the use
of poetry indicates high emotion, wit,
and clarity of mind. A person speaking
in prose, then, would be considered less
intelligent. Or, what they are saying
could be considered more common and
everyday.

Poetry Vs. Prose
 Consider
Maria’s marriage to Toby.
Although they are different in social
class, what makes them equal
enough to be considered a good
match?
 What does that tell us about
Shakespeare’s values?
Literary Terms

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Dramatic Irony – when the readers know
things the characters do not
Monologue – A long speech delivered by
one character to another
Soliloquy – Occurs when a character
stands alone on the stage and makes a
speech.
Rhyming Couplet – A pair of lines ending
with rhyming words that sum up a speech
Literary Terms

Paradox – Two seemingly contradictory
ideas that make sense together

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Oxymoron – A pair of words that are
opposite alone, but together make
sense


“Wise enough to play the fool” III.1
“The Fortunate Unhappy” II.5
Pun – a play on words, including two
words that sound alike

“Hart” and “Heart” I.1
Literary Terms

Apostrophe: an address to someone or
something that is absent, abstract, or
inanimate.


“Come away, come away, death/ And in sad
cypress let me be laid.” II.4.49 -50
Epigram: a very short humorous poem.

“You water the grass to make it grow/Then
you find out you have to mow!”
Forms of Comedy
Few comedies are one purely distinct form
or another, but rather they include a blend
of types. Here are some rough categories
that can help focus discussions.

Low Comedy: Laughter is often based on
the physical mishaps, slapstick, and bodily
functions.

Ex. Beavis and Butthead, Dumb and Dumber

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Farce: The devices that drive the plot
identify this form of comedy: mistaken
identities, coincidences, and mistimings.
The characters become puppets of fate.
Characters interested in each other must
often struggle to be together as others
contrive to keep them apart.
There are always coincidences, doublings,
or obstacles, i.e. twins, busybodies,
marriages that happen at the wrong time.
Money and class figure prominently in the
action.
Ex. Seinfeld, That ’70s Show, Sydney
White
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Comedy of Manners: emphasizes the
mechanisms of language and reduces life
and its problems to verbal repartee.
Uses clever insults, put-downs, puns,
paradoxes, and epigrams
Does not hesitate to sacrifice a character’s
feelings to the cause of witty dialogue
3 groups of characters:
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the true wits: insightful, self-aware
the would-be wits: witty, but not insightful
the witless: unaware of the true meaning of
lives around them
Ex. The Office, Thirty Rock

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Comedy of Ideas: Characters argue
about important issues like war, gender,
marriage, religion, class, and government.
Characters represent different approaches
to these issues.
Satire is a type of comedy of ideas, that is
often irreverent and challenges the
conventional thinking on issues.
Ex. Monty Python, M*A*S*H, and, at
times, South Park and The Simpsons
What type of comedy would you guess
Twelfth Night to be? Remember,
Shakespeare had to entertain an audience
of multiple classes.
Forms of Comedy courtesy of
apcentral.collegeboard.com/PreAPWorkshops
Copyright 2004 College Entrance Examination Board