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Characters in Twelfth Night frequently use metaphorical language to talk about love and desire. One especially evocative metaphor that appears more than once throughout the play likens the human heart to a book and the act of loving to the act of reading. In Act 1, Scene 4, Orsino compares his soul to a locked book:
In perhaps the most famous metaphor of the play, Orsino's opening words are, "If music be the food of love, play on. / Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken and so die" (1.1). In this metaphor, Orsino equates music with something that "feeds" love. He asks to have more and more music so that he will overindulge and ...
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A summary of Act I: Scenes i & ii in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Twelfth Night and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
Feste uses metaphors to get a third coin out of Orsino. “Play” is a reference to a child’s game in which players call out “one, two, three.” “Third plays for all” means third time’s a charm, and “triplex” is a musical beat played in triple time.
Go and find the coroner then, and let him investigate my uncle—for he's in the third degree of drunkenness, and has drowned. Go look after him. FOOL. He is but mad yet, madonna, and the fool shall look to the madman. FOOL. He's still only in the second degree, my lady, so the fool will take care of the madman.
Full Play Analysis. Twelfth Night is a play about desire’s power to override conventions of class, religion, and even gender. Several characters begin the play believing they want one thing, only to have love teach them they actually want something else. Orsino thinks he wants Olivia, until he falls in love with Viola (dressed as Cesario.)
Twelfth Night Full Play Summary. In the kingdom of Illyria, a nobleman named Orsino lies around listening to music, pining away for the love of Lady Olivia. He cannot have her because she is in mourning for her dead brother and refuses to entertain any proposals of marriage. Meanwhile, off the coast, a storm has caused a terrible shipwreck.
