Twelfth Night (MAXNotes Literature Guides)REA's MAXnotes for William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night The MAXnotes offers a comprehensive summary and analysis of Twelfth Night and a biography of William Shakespeare. Places the events of the play in historical context and discusses each act in detail. Includes study questions and answers along with topics for papers and sample outlines. |
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Common terms and phrases
Analysis Answers Antonio Antony and Cleopatra aspect of love behavior character Cleopatra Clown's song comedy comic plot cruel dialogue disguise drop letters Duke Duke's love emphasis enters express Fabian falls in love Feste the Clown festive atmosphere fife fight fool Illyria insults letter lord of misrule love plot love theme love with Cesario love with Olivia lover Macbeth Malvolio's love Maria and Sir Merchant of Venice metaphor metonymy Olivia's house Olivia's love Orsino passion perverse play's ploce poetry Portia praise prose puns reader relationship requests reveals ring role Romeo Romeo and Juliet Sebastian and Olivia sense servant Shakespeare Shakespeare's plays simile sings Sir Andrew Sir Toby Sir Toby's Sir Topas soliloquy speech Study Questions Suggested Essay Topics suitor for Olivia Summary This scene synecdoche tells theme of love thinks tion Toby and Andrew trick Twelfth Night valor verse Viola wants William Shakespeare woo Olivia wordplay words
Popular passages
Page 9 - Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek? hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against The deep damnation of his taking-off ; And pity, like a naked new-born babe. Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, "'hat tears shall drown the wind.
Page 11 - O, then we bring forth weeds When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us Is as our earing.
Page 7 - It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth: it is just so high as it is, and moves with its own organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.
Page 22 - If music be the food of love, play on ; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Page 9 - Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office, that his virtues Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against The deep damnation of his taking-off; And pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind.
Page 13 - Laurence's cell Enter FRIAR LAURENCE, with a basket FRIAR LAURENCE. The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light, And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels.
Page 16 - Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt.
Page 8 - Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone. And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, That lets it hop a little from his hand, Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, And with a silken thread plucks it back again, i*e So loving-jealous of his liberty.
Page 10 - The phrase of importance in this quote is "the wry-necked fife." When a reader examines this phrase it does not seem to make sense; a fife is a cylinder-shaped instrument, there is no part of it that can be called a neck. The phrase then must be taken to refer to the fife-player, who has to twist his or her neck to play the fife. Fife, therefore, is a synecdoche for fife-player, much as boards is for stage. The trouble with understanding this phrase is that "vile squealing" logically refers to the...
Page 45 - There are four essential characters common to Gl'Ingannati, Bandello, Riche, and Shakespeare; namely, a lover, a heroine in his service disguised as a page, her twin brother (who at first has disappeared), and a second heroine. The basic elements common to all four plots are: the heroine's secret love for her master; her employment as go-between, leading to the complication of a cross-wooing; and a final solution by means of the unforeseen arrival of the missing twin. If Shakespeare knew Bandello...