Previous
Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Act 1, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Sonnet Love:
Throughout Twelfth Night, Shakespeare parodies the popular Elizabethan concept of "sonnet love." In 17th century England, romantic sonnets usually centered on the poet's desire for an idealized, unattainable love object, and these sonnets often contained a catalogue of the love object's physical attributes called a blazon.
When Viola attempts to woo Olivia on Orsino's behalf, in Act 1, Scene 5, she argues that it would be unfair for Olivia to die without having children:
Viola: ’Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on.
Lady, you are the cruel’st she alive
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Myself Would Be His Wife:
At the end of Act 1, Scene 4, Viola comments on the irony of her situation: as Cesario, she is tasked with wooing Olivia on Orsino's behalf, but as Viola, she desires Orsino for herself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Viola: Yet a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Maiden's Organ:
In Act 1, Scene 4, Orsino expresses his belief that Cesario's youth and feminine nature will make him more successful at wooing Olivia:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Orsino: She will attend it better in thy youth
Than in a nuncio’s of more grave aspect.
Viola: I think not so, my lord.
Orsino: Dear lad, believe it;
For they shall yet belie thy happy years
That say thou art a man. Diana’s lip
Is not more smooth and rubious, thy small pipe
Is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound,
And all is semblative a woman's part.
I know thy constellation is right apt
For this affair.
Related Themes:
Act 1, scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Sonnet Love:
Throughout Twelfth Night, Shakespeare parodies the popular Elizabethan concept of "sonnet love." In 17th century England, romantic sonnets usually centered on the poet's desire for an idealized, unattainable love object, and these sonnets often contained a catalogue of the love object's physical attributes called a blazon.
When Viola attempts to woo Olivia on Orsino's behalf, in Act 1, Scene 5, she argues that it would be unfair for Olivia to die without having children:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Viola: ’Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white
Nature’s own sweet and cunning hand laid on.
Lady, you are the cruel’st she alive
If you will lead these graces to the grave
And leave the world no copy.
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Viola and Sebastian:
The fact that neither Viola nor Sebastian know that the other sibling is alive, while the audience knows that both have survived the shipwreck and are in Illyria, leads to numerous moments of dramatic irony.
In Act 2, Scene 1, Sebastian comments to Antonio that he and his sister look very much alike:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sebastian: A lady, sir, though it was said she much
resembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful.
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 3
Explanation and Analysis—Yellow Stockings:
All the scenes of Twelfth Night involving the prank that Maria pulls on Malvolio (the entirety of Act 2, Scene 5, the first part of Act 3, Scene 4, and all of Act 4, Scene 2) can be characterized as extended moments of dramatic irony.
In Act 2, Scene 3, the audience receives a full description of the scheme that Maria has devised to humiliate Malvolio:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Maria: 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 feelingly personated.
Related Themes:
Act 2, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Men and Women's Love:
The conversation between Orsino and Viola/Cesario in Act 2, Scene 4 is rich with foreshadowing and irony. Having deduced that Cesario is in love, Orsino argues that, since women's beauty fades with age, Cesario should marry a woman who is younger than him. Otherwise, his affection will fade just as quickly, since men are less faithful when it comes to love than women are.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Orsino: For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women’s are.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Myself Would Be His Wife:
At the end of Act 1, Scene 4, Viola comments on the irony of her situation: as Cesario, she is tasked with wooing Olivia on Orsino's behalf, but as Viola, she desires Orsino for herself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Viola: Yet a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.
Related Themes:
Act 3, scene 4
Explanation and Analysis—Yellow Stockings:
All the scenes of Twelfth Night involving the prank that Maria pulls on Malvolio (the entirety of Act 2, Scene 5, the first part of Act 3, Scene 4, and all of Act 4, Scene 2) can be characterized as extended moments of dramatic irony.
In Act 2, Scene 3, the audience receives a full description of the scheme that Maria has devised to humiliate Malvolio:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Maria: 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 feelingly personated.
Related Themes:
Act 4, scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Yellow Stockings:
All the scenes of Twelfth Night involving the prank that Maria pulls on Malvolio (the entirety of Act 2, Scene 5, the first part of Act 3, Scene 4, and all of Act 4, Scene 2) can be characterized as extended moments of dramatic irony.
In Act 2, Scene 3, the audience receives a full description of the scheme that Maria has devised to humiliate Malvolio:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Maria: 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 feelingly personated.
Related Themes:
Act 5, scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Viola and Sebastian:
The fact that neither Viola nor Sebastian know that the other sibling is alive, while the audience knows that both have survived the shipwreck and are in Illyria, leads to numerous moments of dramatic irony.
In Act 2, Scene 1, Sebastian comments to Antonio that he and his sister look very much alike:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sebastian: A lady, sir, though it was said she much
resembled me, was yet of many accounted beautiful.
Related Themes:
