This content analyzes the opening scene of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, introducing Duke Orsino's self-absorbed romanticism and his unrequited love for Olivia, who is in deep mourning for her brother.
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hello everyone and welcome to the first
episode of our journey through 12th
night and we will begin where you would
expect which is act one scene one and if
I just get the pointer ready as well so
here we are
and you might know a bit about the play
already I hope you do I'm not going to
explain a lot of the background but I
will do some of the context as we go
through and talk about
characters and anyway join me on this
journey enjoy yourselves and I plan to
enjoy myself as well with this so here
we go so opening scene we have key
character here orino Duke of ayria ala
again a bit of the context is IA was a
real place it's
really in real life on the Adriatic
Coast but really it doesn't really
matter so much because in Shakespeare's
time they the general audience weren't
very worldly wise they didn't have a
great understanding of geography so
Shakespeare's just set it somewhere that
sounds foreign and exotic and
interesting and it lets him do certain
things in the play that he wouldn't be
able to do if he'd set it in
England so orino we get him here as a
romantic character he's obsessed with
love a student of mine years ago put it
really well and I always just borrow
this which is the idea of orino is a
character who's in love with the idea of
being love being being love he's in love
with the idea of being in love and he
doesn't really understand what love is
at this point in the play but by you the
time you get to the end he does so we
have this really famous line and it's
written in iic P pentam pentameter
that's that's a completely different
thing I Amic pentameter
if music be the food of Love play
on give me excess of it that surfeiting
the appetite May sicken and so die he's
listening to music here the that strain
again has a dying fall as he's listening
to the
music he's really indulging in being sad
about love almost you know very much
like a stereotypical Lovick teenager
almost even though he's older than that
but he's he's a little bit like that if
you think of it that way he's it's like
he's moping around in his bedroom he's
putting on love songs and and dreaming
of love and he doesn't really understand
it at this point say this is Oro so he's
got this he's got this idea about love
anyway he's enjoying indulging in this
music Shakespeare uses nice simile here
came over my ear like The Sweet Sound
that breathes upon the bank of violets
and I haven't highlighted that for some
reason but that's nice bit of
personification there as well stealing
and giving odor and there is a bit of
antithesis as well stealing and
giving so he's getting all these what
Shak is doing is preventing these
presenting these mixed emotions as he's
sitting there listening to the music
indulging in love he's feeling all these
different mixtures of feelings as he's
doing it and he's so good word he like
capricious he's very he's very kind of
sudden in his decisions he's very
impulsive enough no more in the music
he's very
inconstant is not to not so sweet now as
it was before Oh Spirit of love how
quick and fresh thou art that actually
I'm going to highlight that one as well
that's a bit of apostrophe there which
is when you're invoking not apostrophe
as in what I always call the hovering
tadpole not the not the punctuation mark
apostrophe but apostrophe when you
address other God or the gods as in like
the ancient gods or the embodiment of something
something
and that's apostrophe it's the same
spelling it's the same spelling how
quick and fresh Thou Art sorry fresh art
thou so he's addressing the spirit of
Love there and then his idea of say it
goes it comes and goes these feelings of
love even in a minute oh I just did a
bit of high I forgot to switch back to the
the
pointer such is oro's obsession with
being in love and thinking about love
curio who is one of his servants asked
will you go hunt my Lord now that's a
standard thing for an aristocrat to do
he's a jke a high ranking Noble so they
would go hunting in fact ordinary people
were banned from going hunting you had
to be of noble birth to do to hunt particular
particular
animals and you go hunt my Lord what
curio the heart he's not actually even
listening to curio and when curio says
the heart so he's thinking about a deer
why so so I do the noblest that I have
he's only thinking about pursuing Olivia
Olivia is the object of his affections
and we will meet her very soon in act
one as
well when mine eyes did meet Olivia
first always was more pacification there
well done Shakespeare that me thought
she purged the air of pestilence that
instant was I turned into a heart and my
desires like fell and cruel hounds ever
since pursue me so Shakespeare is using
the polysemic the polysemic double
meaning of the word heart he's using it
like a phonological pun actually as well
I mean obviously it's a different
spelling to it's a different spelling to
how we spell heart in Shakespeare's time
they didn't have fixed spellings so it
wouldn't actually matter how you spell
heart you could spell it differently as
long as it sounded right so Shakespeare
is making a little pun there on the idea
of heart as in obviously matters of
romance versus the idea of hunting heart
and then Shakespeare has oreno his
obsession with love the idea is is that
he's saying I I feel like I was a
pursued heart to myself as in the deer
my desires like felon cruel hounds ever
since pursu me so he's got this
unrequited love for
Olivia and now we find out a bit more
why Olivia isn't
returning oro's overtures of love so
here is Valentine and again a a word
associated with romance as
well what news from her so please my
Lord I might not be admitted so we find
out a bit of background about Olivia is
it but like a Closter she will veiled
walk and water once a day her chamber
around with eye offending brine so this is
is
actually a metaphor she's crying she's
grieving she's wearing a veil she's
walking around she's crying for her dead
brother and she would keep fresh and
Lasting in her sad
remembrance so in Shake spe's time death
was really everywhere it was that common
place and there was a socially accepted
time of grieving but you were expected
to eventually move on with it you know
got to move on with your life death is
all around you it's called you just it's
just part of life move on don't
necessarily be heartless about it but to
to realize that life goes on so Olivia
is grieving Maybe longer than normally someone
someone
would Oro because he is really suffering
from self- delusion really like he's in
love with
Olivia when someone is blindly in love
logic doesn't actually make any sense
there's no logic when someone's in love
or Ceno or Shakespeare presents
orino as seeing this as a positive
because he's in love oh that she that
had a heart of fine frame to pay this
debt of love but to her brother how will
she love when the rich golden shaft have
killed the flock of all affections else
that Liv in her when liver brain and
heart these Sovereign Thrones are all
supplied and filled her sweet
Perfections with one self King so he
sees this as saying well if she can show
this depth of grief for her brother for
this long time when she's over that that
means she's got loads of capacity to to
love me this is really so he sees as a
effectively away sweet beds of flowers
love thoughts Li rich and canopy with
Bowers so now he's he's moved from
immersing himself in the romance of
Music Shakespeare then ends the scene
again rhyming couet here you look with
IC pentameter as well Oro is now going
to immerse himself in flowers he's now
going to sit and think about love but
surrounded by flowers as well so he's
very as we said before capricious he's
moved from one thing to another and
again he's very delusional and he's
seeing this this messenger of saying oh
she's not going to see she's not going
to admit me to to uh pass on your
messages of love because she's so much
in grief for her brother oh brilliant so
there you go that's Shakespeare
establishing the main plot of the play
actually and that is scene one so pretty
short we will move on to scene two on
the next one so follow these I'm going
to be making these as quickly as I can
and hope you enjoy it see you on the
next one notification Bell subscribe
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