Twelfth Night Literary Methods Act 2
Irony
Foreshadowing
"My stars shine darkly over me" Shows the audience that Sebastian is grieving over his dead sister.
"But you sir, altered that for some hour before you took me from the breach of the sea was my sister drowned." The audience knows that Viola is alive but Sebastian believes she is dead.
Relationships
"If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant." Antonio loves Sebastian
"My bosom is full of kindness, and I am yet so near the manners of my mother..."Showing his feminine side and his weakness by comparing himself to his mother.
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Fourth Wall Break
Soliloquy
Used when the character is alone, to show the audience that Olivia is in love with Cesario
"Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy does much" Lady Olivia is in love with a a fake personality like Cesario but in reality he is really Viola which is a woman.
Prose v iambic pentameter
Sir Toby and Aguecheek talk in prose while Duke Orsino and Viola talk in iambic pentameter
Songs
Sometimes used for mockery ex. when malvolio told Toby and Andrew to leave
Trickery:
Allusion
Penthesilea (queen of the amazons) great warrior
"My father had a daughter loved a man as it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, I should your Lordship." Viola exposes her feelings for the Duke
"The malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper yours. Therefore I shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It were a bad recompense for your love to lay of them on you." Foreshadows the trouble that will overwhelm Antonio for following Sebastian to go see Duke Orsino.
As Antonio is willing to risk everything for Sebastian by following him to the Duke's court it becomes evident to the audience that Antonio has strong feelings of love and loyalty toward Sebastian.
This idea also goes with the time period in which a man crying is seen as something only a woman is capable of doing. Sebastian doesn't want anyone to view him in his weak and fragile state that would make him seem less masculine.
"But come what may, I do adore thee so
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go."
As Viola claims to have "left no ring with [Lady Olivia]" she is exposing the reader to the fact that Lady Olivia seems to have fallen for Cesario (Viola in disguise) and is trying to draw him back to visit her again. As she says "I am the man" she is making it clear to the audience that Lady Olivia is unaware Cesario is actually Viola. She is conflicted which is seen as she asks herself "What will become of this?", "as [she] is a woman" and has no desire to be with Lady Olivia. The soliloquy also adds into the irony that Viola is a woman advocating for the man who actually loves Olivia, but Olivia fell in love with the messenger.
"Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know"
Contributes to the idea of the love triangle that has been established and foreshadows its eventual ironic resolution.
Malvolio
"Have you no wit, manners nor honesty but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night?" Portrays how he is uptight and has a superiority complex.
This distinction is done in order to portray the division between the class of the characters. Although Sir Toby is a "sir" and Aguecheek is a "knight", neither one of them have any class, rather they are both vulgar and act like dimwitted commonners. While Viola and Duke Orsino are both people of high standing and act as respected intellectual individuals. They express their thoughts in poetic form.
Mary
Mary is a deceptive character that formulates a plan to embarrass Malvolio. "I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love, wherein by the color of his beard, the shape of his leg, the manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and complexion, he shall find himself most feeling personated."
She is determined to "make him look like an ass."
"Observe him, for the love of mockery, for I know this letter will make a contemplative idiot of him."
"Here comes my noble gull catcher."
"I am all the daughters of my fathers house, And all the brothers too- yet I know not." Shows that she is unaware her brother is still alive.
"the trout that must be caught with tickling" shows that similar to the way trout are caught through tickling Malvolio is going to be a victim of their trickery because he's a sucker for flattery.
Animals
"Contemplation makes a rare turkeycock of him. How he jets under his advanced plumes!" Shows Malvolio's cocky nature after his ego gets fluffed.
"Now is the woodcock near the gin." This quote is talking about Aguecheek, having the woodcock which is a proverbially stupid bird represent his character.
The instance on page 79 where Malvolio drops the "sir" from Sir Toby's title and solely acknowledges him as Toby shows how he believes himself to be superior to Sir Toby because of his actions.
The way Malvolio comes to the conclusion that the letters M.O.A.I. are a riddle for his name, just show how cocky he is and how desperate he is to be Lady Olivia's object of affection.