Quotations
Twelfth Night
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.
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.)
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).
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.
(2.3.155)
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.
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.
There is no woman’s sides
No woman is strong enough to put up
with the kind of intense passion I feel.
As love doth give my heart. No woman’s heart No woman’s heart is big enough to
hold all my love. Women don’t feel
So big, to hold so much. They lack retention.
love like that—love is as shallow as
Alas, their love may be called appetite,
appetite for them. It has nothing to do
with their hearts, just their sense of
No motion of the liver, but the palate,
taste. They eat too much and get
That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt;
indigestion and nausea. But my love’s
different. It’s as all-consuming and
But mine is all as hungry as the sea,
insatiable as the sea, and it can
swallow as much as the sea can. Don’t
And can digest as much. Make no compare
compare a woman’s love for a man
Between that love a woman can bear me
with my love for Olivia.
And that I owe Olivia. (2.4.94-104 )
Can bide the beating of so strong a passion
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, 156-159)
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 selfabsorbed 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.