Soliloquy Twelfth Night

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Recommended: EARTH University English: Idioms #2

Soliloquy Analysis
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a comedy of love and betrayal. This play was written in verse which adds a metrical pattern which consists of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse). At the start of the trumpets, Duke Orsino enters wanting to be loved by Countess Olivia. However, she refuses to be seen for seven years because she misses her father and brother. Meanwhile, after a shipwreck, Viola is found a survivor. Viola disguises herself as a man with the name, Cesario. Within Countess Olivia’s estate, we are introduced to a multitude of new characters: Sir Toby Belch (Olivia’s cousin), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (her wooer), Feste (the fool) and Maria (her chambermaid). Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario …show more content…

For example, “For though my soul disputes well with my sense/ That this may be some error, but no madness, / Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune/ So far exceed all instance, all discourse, / that I am ready to distrust mine eyes” (IV.iii.9-13). This quote shows that Sebastian cannot believe his eyes at meeting such a beautiful lady. This is ironic because he does not know the Countess, yet he is willing to marry her in the following lines. This impacts the audience because it identifies how even though he knows what he is doing isn’t completely right, he still does it in order to ensure that he has an okay future with a beautiful lady, which makes it an overall ironic scene. Within this quote there is an idiom when he states, “Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune” (IV, iii, 11). This quote helps enhance the understanding of the audience and it relates to what is actually happening throughout the scene. When Shakespeare makes Sebastian’s role as this he makes it so Sebastian is a little struck with disbelief and by saying that this may be a flood of fortune by saying may, he is really quite unsure and unable to confirm if what he is saying is true and exact. So by creating this ironic scene and making Sebastian as an unsure figure Shakespeare succeeds in making this a comedy because of the way Sebastion is presented in speech and thought to the audience. This quote also reveals the verse aspect of the book which also shows how he is from a higher class in society because of the way he speaks. Sebastian talks in a poetical manner by stressing some of the words more than others creating a pattern. This soliloquy would also be considered verse because the beginning phrases of each word are capitalized and made so that it rhymes. This is different from a prose which is straight talking and it is natural and

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