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Melonchony - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Feste sings a song to Orsino, and when Orsino asks him to leave, Feste sings this final segment, in which he mocks Orsino's melancholy nature. He calls upon Saturn, the Roman god associated with "melancholy," o protect him. He tells Orsino that he hopes he can find a tailor that can make him clothing that changes color, because his mind is "opal," an iridescent, cloudy stone, and he never seems to know what he wants. Because of his position as the fool, Feste has the ultimate freedom to poke fun at the masters without getting in trouble. Here he comments on the foolishness of Orsino's performative melancholy and sad, over-the-top musings on love. Yet Orsino is so involved in the song and his love that he doesn't notice the sarcasm. Love is all consuming for him. We also see here that Orsino's childish lamenting of love doesn't go unnoticed by members of the court, as well as his own fool.
  - - - My father had a daughter loved a man,
      - As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
      - I should your lordship.
      - Orsino: And what's her history?
      - Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
      - But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
      - Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,
      - And with a green and yellow melancholy
      - She sat like patience on a monument,
      - Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?
- - - - Act 1 Scene 3 introduces us to Maria, a clever lady-in-waiting of Olivia's, Sir Toby Belch, Olivia's uncle and a drunkard, and Sir Andrew, a rich, foolish man who hopes to marry Olivia. During this scene Sir Andrew and Maria enter into a verbal warfare, teasing and taunting each other's sexual appeal. After being outmatched by Maria's wit, Sir Andrew has a moment alone with Toby. Toby is shocked that Maria has outsmarted them both and Sir Andrew replies with this line.
        Calling himself an "eater of beef" is Sir Andrew's way of calling himself dimwitted. During Shakespeare's time it was believed that eating too much meat made an individual stupid or foolish.Twelfth Night reflects on how the excess of anything, particularly love, can make an individual behave foolishly. Similar to the meat Sir Andrew consumes, love can be all consuming, causing a person to behave uncharacteristically.