Quotes and Possible Essay Questions for Twelfth Night

Quotations:

1. "If music be the food of love, play on." (Duke Orsino, 1.1)

2. "What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care's an enemy to life." (Sir Toby Belch, 1.3)

3. "Lady, cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much to say as, I wear not motley in my brain." (Feste, 1.5)

4. "I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal." (Malvolio, 1.5)

5. "O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distemper'd appetite." (Olivia, 1.5)

6. "A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight." (Sir Andrew Aguecheek, 2.3)

7. "He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural." (Sir Andrew Aguecheek, 2.3)

8. "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" (Sir Toby Belch, 2.3)

9. "If ever thou shalt love, / In the sweet pangs of it remember me; / For such as I am all true lovers are. . ." (Orsino, 2.4)

10. "No, indeed, sir; the Lady Olivia has no folly: she will keep no fool, sir, till she be married." (Feste, 3.1)

11. "This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; / And to do that craves a kind of wit." (Viola, 3.1)

12. "Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; / If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!" (Sebastian, 4.1)

13. "I say, there is no darkness but ignorance." (Sir Topas, 4.2)

14. "A spirit I am indeed; / But am in that dimension grossly clad, / Which from the womb I did participate." (Sebastian, 5.1)

15. "Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!" (Olivia, 5.1)

16. "And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges." (Feste, 5.1)

17. "I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you." (Malvolio, 5.1)

Possible Essay Questions:

1. Compare and contrast Malvolio and Viola as bad servant and good. How do their loves differ?

2. Discuss the BBC production of Twelfth Night.

3. Discuss the masks in Twelfth Night. Which characters are self-deceived and which characters are not? How are the various masks shattered by the end of the play?

4. Discuss Orsino as an inexperienced lover who must be educated by a woman. Why is it important (from Orsino's point of view and from Shakespeare's) that Viola is a boy actor playing a girl who is disguised as a boy?

5. Compare any two (or all) film versions of Twelfth Night, discussing their strengths and weaknesses and suggesting what an ideal production might look like.

6. Discuss the problems of staging (and filming) a play with twins, using examples from the videos. What reason might Shakespeare have had for using twins in spite of the difficulties?

7. Compare the filmed performances for any one of the following characters: Viola, Feste, Sir Toby Belch.

8. Some critics have argued that the play is about appetites—good and bad—and that the characters (except for Malvolio and Feste) overindulge those appetites and therefore sicken of them. Agree or disagree and support your position.

9. The comic journey in Shakespeare's plays is usually from the darkness of ignorance to the light of self-knowledge. Discuss this journey in Twelfth Night, keeping in mind that the festival the play's title suggests was the discovery of the true king (Christ) by the three wise men.

10. Discuss the various mistakes in Twelfth Night and the motives behind them. Is it fair to say that on some levels the play is about generosity and its opposite?

11. Discuss Olivia's love and her would-be lovers. How do the parallels and differences illuminate the play's themes?

12. Discuss community as one of the themes of Twelfth Night. Why is it important that no one is married at the beginning of the play and that almost everyone is by the end? In what way does this affirm the value of life in the face of difficulties?