Twelfth Night – Act 3

‘A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit’ Feste (Act 3 Scene 1)- metaphor implies language can be manipulated by wit. It can be used to disguise.
‘But indeed, words are very rascals since bonds disgraced them’ Feste (Act 3 Scene 1)- metaphor of ‘rascals’ implies words cannot be trusted, especially since contracts include words, which cannot be trusted.
‘Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere’ Feste (Act 3 Scene 1)- simile used to show that foolery is everywhere
‘…send thee a beard!’ Feste (Act 3 Scene 1)- questions Cesario’s masculinity through symbolism
‘I am almost sick for one’ Viola (Act 3 Scene 1)- reveals love for Orsino and desire to have a beard as disguise. Polysemous.
‘And, like the haggard, check at every feather/That comes before his eye’ Viola (Act 3 Scene 1)- compared Feste to untrained hawk, suggesting he is naturally witty and opportunistic
‘If one should be a prey, how much the better/To fall before the lion than the wolf’ Olivia (Act 3 Scene 1)- semantic field of animals used to compare Cesario and Orsino as the ‘lion’ and the ‘wolf’ while ‘prey’ suggests she has fallen in love. She sees Cesario’s love as more noble than Orsino’s
‘Nothing that can be can come between me and the full prospect of my hopes’ Malvolio (Act 3 Scene 4)- ‘prospect’ is clinical and suggests amibition rather than romance- written in prose to highlight how Malvolio hides true motive in his love for Olivia
‘Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief;…’ Sir Toby (Act 3 Scene 2)- imperative suggests manipulation of Sir Andrew and listing used to show enjoyment this brings
‘This is a dear manikin to you, Sir Toby’ Fabian (Act 3 Scene 2)- ‘manikin’ is symbol of puppet. Sir Toby can mould Sir Andrew which ever way he wants
‘…if he were opened, and you find so much blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea…# Sir Toby (Act 3 Scene 2)- simile implies Sir Andrew’s stupidity and dehumanises him
‘A little thing would make me tell them how much I lack of a man’ Viola (Act 3 Scene 4)- ‘little thing’ is a penis pun.- suggests to an extent she cannot play as a male
‘I snatched one half out of the jaws of death’ Antonio (Act 3 Scene 4)- iambic pattern places emphasis on ‘jaws’ and ‘death’, highlighting courage.- metaphor connotes danger and betrayal after saving Sebastian from drowning
‘Virtue is beauty, but the beauteous evil/Are empty trunks o’erfluorished by the devil’ Antonio (Act 3 Scene 4)- eye-rhyme highlights disharmony and appearance vs reality
‘Yet living in my glass…’ Viola (Act 3 Scene 4)- metaphor shows that she was attempting to keep Sebastian’s memory alive, but now he is alive she may live outside it.
‘To bed? Aye, sweetheart, and I’ll come to thee’ Malvolio (Act 3 Scene 2)- comic and shows Malvolio’s compete misunderstanding of the situation
‘It’s Jove’s doing and Jove make me thankful.’ Malvolio (Act 3 Scene 4)- Malvolio positioned as foolish for believing a God has made Olivia ‘love’ him. Presents his narcissism.
July 9, 2019