Music in Twelfth Night Essay - 1321 Words

Critics call Twelfth Night one of William Shakespeare’s most poetic and musical plays. Shakespeare writes poetic lines for the major characters, Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, and gives the Fool, and other minor characters, songs to sing throughout the play. The particularly romantic lines of the play make it seem as if the characters are professional poets themselves. Shakespeare also uses the music and poetry in Twelfth Night to foreshadow what is going to happen for the rest of the performance and to reveal major themes in the play. Music and poetry become major characters in the play themselves. The opening soliloquy of Act I Scene I, given by Duke Orsino, is another perfect example of Shakespeare using music to show the upcoming†¦show more content†¦At first he pleads for the â€Å"excess of it, that, surfeiting† (I.i.2). For, music nourishes the soul; therefore he wants more of it. However, later in the soliloquy Orsino says that because of love, music  "tis not so sweet now as it is before† (8). Shakespeare is already showing how Orsino tries to force passionate love for Olivia that it is not as sweet and fulfilling as it should be if it was genuine true love. This theme goes throughout the play and even comically plays out in Olivia’s forged love for Malvolio. Any type of false love in Twelfth Night comes to a crash landing at the end. Viola also associates music with the major theme of love and connection in the scene of her first appearance in the play in Act I Scene ii. Viola’s plan is to be presented to Orsino as a eunuch. She tells the captain â€Å"For I can sing/ And speak to him in many sorts of music† (60-61). Viola recognizes that music is the food of love too, as Orsino states in his opening soliloquy. These lines also imply that Viola will try to woo Orsino with music, which the audience discovers is true in Act II Scene iv when she tells Orsino the story of about â€Å"Cesario’s sister,† although Orsino resists her at the time and continues to try to woo Olivia. The way that Orsino poetically speaks to Cesario, gives the audience a hint that Orsino is already starting to have feelings for Cesario that would develop into more if he knew that Cesario is actually Viola.Show MoreRelatedThe Function of Different Settings in A Dolls House and Twelfth Night606 Words   |  3 PagesDolls House and Twelfth Night The setting comparison and deliberation in this essay is between Henric Ibsens A Dolls House and William Shakespeares Twelfth Night. A Dolls House deals with the social life and duty, the womans proper place and role within the family and the society. Twelfth Night is about illusion, deception, disguises, madness, and the extraordinary things that love will cause us to do and to see. 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