[Sorry--I forgot to post this last night!]
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: At the end of Act 4, Scene 1, Olivia, mistaking
Sebastian for Cesario, tells him, "O, say so, and so be!" Why might
this be the motto of the entire Act (if not the play)? How do characters change
identities and fortunes merely by the act of speech? Discuss how someone in
this act uses language to change themselves or are changed by someone else's
language. Are we really constructions of our and other's language?
Q2: In her article, “Twelfth Night: A Modern Perspective,”
Catherine Belsey reminds us that Viola is named (as Viola) only once in the
play, and only then in Act 5. She goes on to mention that she “has no fixed
location in the play. Even when she speaks “in her own person”—and it is not
easy to be sure when that is—the play does not always make clear where we are
to “find” her identity “ (203). Why do you think Shakespeare makes Viola so
transparent in the play and so difficult to pin down? How does that affect the
idea of both Olivia and Orsino falling in love with her?
Q2: How does Malvolio change in Act Five? While he’s still
very much the same character, what about his language and his words undergoes
an interesting transition? How do we—and Olivia—read him differently in the
final act? (or, how does Shakespeare suggest we do?)
Q4: Interestingly, in a play about love, none of the men
seem remotely in love with the women in question: Sebastian has no reason to
love Olivia (he doesn’t even know her!), and Orsino never quite convinces us
that he loves Olivia, either. The men are much more convincing when espousing
their love for other men: Orsino for Cesario, and Antonio for Sebastian. Why do
you think this is? Why can men speak of love more convincingly among each other
than to the opposite sex?
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