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Irony
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:
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.
This scene is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows that "Cesario" is actually Viola—he does not merely resemble a woman, he is in fact a woman in disguise. The scene would have been especially funny for an Elizabethan audience, since Viola would have been played by a young male actor, heightening the homoerotic tension between the two characters.
Orsino's confidence in Cesario's ability to woo Olivia is also ironic. Cesario's youth and femininity do make a positive impression on Olivia, but she ends up falling in love with the servant, not the master. In other words, Cesario is too successful.
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