This scene from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night delves into themes of deceit, disguise, and mistaken identity, particularly through Viola's soliloquy, as she grapples with the complex web of romantic entanglements and her own evolving sense of self.
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hello and welcome to the next part of
scene I've sort of jumped ahead of
myself and here we are and I've also
forgotten to highlight hang on with the
magic of the
internet there we go there you go act
two scene two so without further Ado
let's jump into it but don't forget to
like subscribe notification Bell watch
my other videos etc etc you know all
that good stuff so let's carry on so
it's another pretty short scene actually
but we' got Vier and
malvolio and remember that we've got
Olivia has sent malvolio in pursuit of
Viola and it always gets really
complicated doing these summaries Violet
obviously has been adopting the disguise of
of
Cesario and Olivia has fallen in love
with who she thinks is a man Cesario
who's actually a woman who is working
for the for the count or jke ofo who is
in love with Olivia himself and he sent
her to pass his messages on anyway who
yeah it's confusing this play it's not
so much a love triangle it's more a love
love not or tangle anyway sorry about
the strange noises
outside but anyway it's the wind blowing
anyway so again we've got Shakespeare
starting in the middle of things media R
again at the start of the scene malvolio
has pursued via who he also thinks is
Cesario as
well and she returns this ring to you
sir now you may remember of course that
this is actually more artifice as in
more cunning more deceit from Olivia
this kind of nice deceit she's not
trying to be horrible about it but this
is an excuse to get Cesario to return to
her so she's pretended that Cesario has
thrown a ring at her of giving her a
ring and she'd refused it and Olivia had
refused the
ring so it actually then fits in with
this whole theme of Deceit disguise is
part of that in itself but look out for
other characters doing similar things
so we
have and one more thing you never be so
hardy to come again in these Affairs
unless it be so to report your Lord's
taking of this so again with the idea of
looking at a sense of pragmatics as an
implication the implied meaning
here the audience again is a sense of
dramatic irony as well because the
audience know
that Viola didn't leave this ring and
also the audience are privy to the
information that Olivia is in love with
Cesario and this is just an excuse to
get him to come back or I say him the
perceived him to come back she took the
ring of me all none of it come so youly
threw it to her and her will is that it
should be so returned so this is all
artificial this is a completely artificial
artificial
scenario if you be worth stooping for
there it lies in your ey not be it his
that finds it so malvolio leaves
thinking he's doing his what he is doing
his mistress's
bidding but the whole scenario that he's
been told isn't actually real at
all it's very performative and so that's
another theme of the play as well isn't
it we've talked about that in the past
so Viola has an important Soliloquy here
and we've said about soliloquies before
I think you probably know what are but
it's always worth mentioning it we can
take what the character says at total
face value
via is essentially or Shakespeare's got
via articulating her inner thoughts for
the benefit of the audience it's not
quite the same as a monologue because a
monologue can be delivered with other
characters on the stage a monologue can
be still delivered to an audience but a
character may not actually be telling
the truth in a monologue so Soliloquy is
different it's part of the conventions
of the theater of Shakespeare's
time and we have a nice bit
of personification here with Fortune
forbid my outside had have not Charmed
her so the idea of Fortune as in like
you know Lady Luck that's still a phrase
you may hear I often say these things
and people go I've never heard of that
before but Lady Luck as an
embodiment of luck
basically so you also have this is
another technique again which you well
you'll know the word but this is a bit
of a strange way
you can cite this as an example of
apostrophe but it's not apostrophe in
the sense of what I always refer to as
the hovering
tadpole which is the normal apostrophe
that everybody knows and the hovering
tadpole I've always thought would make a
great name for a pub actually but
anyway in terms of what apostrophe is in
this case it's a different form of it's
the same word I can't do anything about
that I'm sorry but it's when a character
invokes God God or gods or in this case
the embodiment of something the
embodiment the spirit of something and
you invoke it particularly in this kind
of speech actually so yeah it's the same
spelling as apostrophe the normal one
you know it's just one of those weird
little quirks there is a good reason for
it but I'm not going to go off on that
right now so we will leave it there then
you've got via's self-realization of she
loves me sure
she actually realizes that Olivia has
fallen in love with her as well I love
the word
Jurish it's a word that's archaic now
but means rude
effectively why he sent her none of my
lords Rings why he sent her none
so obviously V is Shakespeare is also
making this clear to the audience what's
happened as well in case you missed it
in case in Shakespeare's time people
would Mill about particularly in the
cheaper area of it you the Groundlings
where they could just walk around and
stuff so they might have gone off to get
some nuts or gone and had a chat with a
friend or something so Shakespeare
actually does make it clear that just to
make sure that you listen to this squ
this is an important bit it's an
important character saying important
things and just to make it clear that
the ring wasn't given to Olivia by Vier
as Cesario right so this is clear so it
does help reemphasize that but in terms
of the character significant line here
for if you're looking at a of identity I
am the man so via realizes that her
masculine identity has been
completely accepted completely believed
completely credible in all of these
aspects and so much so that Olivia has
fallen in love with who she thinks is
Cesario and you can really unpack this
you can you can go it might depend on
how different Productions portray vus
Cesario so you can read this into lots
of different ways you can say that the
reason Olivia has fallen in love with
Cesario is because Cesario is actually a
woman and that's why she's fall in love
with you can you can have a reading of
it like that
completely it also would connect
to Antonio's love for Sebastian we
talked about in the previous scene as
well which again it's all open to
interpretation this is why it's so much
fun and what's even better is you're
allowed to have your own opinion you
don't have to agree with everything that
I'm saying and I don't even expect you
to I don't want you to sounds rude now
doesn't it anyway let's carry on then I
am the man great line she would better
love a she would better love a dream
this even better disguise I see that art
of wickedness wherein the pregnant enemy
does so much and of course what's this
another example of rhetorical question
time no it's not rhetorical question
that's me doing a rhetorical question
stop confusing the L this is another
example of apostrophe so disguise I see
thou art a wickedness so again Vier is
invoking the spirit of Disguise here is
another example of
apostrophe wherein the pregnant enemy does
does
much so there is a real sense of wisdom
here in this Soliloquy as well Vier as a
character has a heightened awareness of
gender her
experience of living as a man and being
perceived as a a man and obviously
living as a woman being perceived as a
woman she's she's got heightened
heightened awareness and if you do if
you do Classics it reminds me of the uh
the legend of um tyresius and who was a
gender switching character say character
mythological figure who gained great
wisdom because tyresius lived both as a
man and as a woman and therefore
understood human nature better as a
result so I think there may be a link to
that I no evidence for it but it just
reminds me of that particular that
particular myth look it up it's
interesting anyway there is a lot more
to it than I'm saying right
now also VI realizes that wow it's
really easy isn't it for men who want to
deceive women it's actually really easy
how easy it is for the proper force in
women's wax and hearts to set their
forms it's a nice metaphor so the idea
about wax being malleable and something
easy to shape like women's Hearts as
something that easy to shape so the idea
of being able to mold it so the proper
Force you know so Cesario so imagine if
I was a man with Wicked intent I could
easily deceive a woman like this just
really really surprising there but such
we made of of such we be how will this
fagge always get to laugh that word
there as well but yeah there may be some
there may be some sexual connotations to
it but normally is how is this going to
how is this going to work out
Shakespeare has
Violet offer the summary of the
situation my master loves her dearly and
I poor monster fond as much on him and
she mistaken seems to dot on me I think
sometimes when I've had students write
essays about this I think they take that
line maybe a bit too literally is
seeing seeing herself as a as a as a
kind of I don't know almost say a freak
I don't want to use that word but in
this case that's how I've seen people
write about it like that uh I don't see
it like that I don't think it's being
used as the same way I think it's more a
reference to She's In This Very Lial
space neither quite male or female and
she's in this unusual
situation where she's in love with
someone who's in love with someone else
and this love is crossing over gender
boundaries and in the society that
Shakespeare's writing this play this
isn't conventional kind of relationships
but of course it would actually be
reflecting real people and real emotions
because those things don't change over
hundreds of
years like when I was talking about
Antonio in the last scene as well so
again you can explore and expand all of
this as
well what will become of this as I am
man my state is desperate for my
Master's love As I Am Woman now alas the
in it so you may as well have a
dream and I've now lost where that
is it's there she would better love a
dream so that's another metaphor so the
idea what thft this sigh shall poor
Olivia breathe she's saying she's going
to be wasting her time sighing in love
over me because I'm basically there that
but poor Olivia is in love with just an
idea and the idea that she's in love
with is in
reality a woman in love with
osino then Shakespeare rounds it off
with a rhyming coulet as he always will
with the sililo oh time look at that oh
look more apostrophe here as well look
oh time the embodiment of time being
capitalized there you see that's your
clue thou must untangle this not I it is
too hard a not for me to untie so that's
a nice metaphor there of this
effectively I think I said at the start
didn't I I said it was like a not a love
triangle it's more like a love tangle
it's a love tangle very complicated and
it's actually going to get more
complicated lots of different
complicated elements all combining
together here to really you know add to
the themes of the play so anyway it's
only a short one that one thank you for
listening like comment subscribe
comments hope you enjoy the
rest and have a great day or night
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