Name: _________________________________________________________________________ Per. ________

Twelfth Night Packet

This Packet is due: ______________________

Packets will be graded on:

Completion (50%): All spaces filled, all questions answered.

Accuracy (25%): All answers correct and/or logically connected to the text

Thoroughness (25%): All answers are complete thoughts; ideas are explored

or explained; complete sentences not required, but one-word answers will

rarely be sufficient.

POINTS POSSIBLE: 80

Score: _____/80

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Shakespeare Background Notes:

1. Where was Shakespeare born, and in what year? When did he die?

2. What kind of schooling did Shakespeare probably receive? What would he have learned?

3. When (and why) did Shakespeare marry? How old was he? How old was his wife? What children

did they have?

4. What happened in the years following his marriage?

5. What is the most famous part of Shakespeare’s will? Why is this?

6. What did Shakespeare’s parents do? What kind of childhood/young adult life did this provide him?

7. When did Shakespeare first appear in London?

8. What reputation did the theater have at the time Shakespeare lived?

9. What was Shakespeare’s theater like? What was it called? Who attended plays there?

10. What two monarchs ruled England during Shakespeare’s lifetime?

11. Shakespeare wrote ______________________ and plays. His plays include three genres:

__________________________ , __________________________, and ______________________.

12. What controversy surrounds all of Shakespeare’s writing?

13. What controversy surrounds Shakespeare’s sonnets?

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Rhyme Scheme

Anatomy of a Sonnet

SONNET 116

A Let me not to the marriage of true minds

B Admit impediments. Love is not love

A Which alters when it alteration finds,

B Or bends with the remover to remove:

C O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,

D That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;

C It is the star to every wandering bark,

D Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

E Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

F Within his bending sickle's compass come;

E Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

F But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

G If this be error and upon me proved,

G I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Quatrain: a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes. Shakespearean Sonnets have three quatrains.

Couplet: two consecutive lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme. Shakespearean sonnets end with one couplet.

Iambic Pentameter: A type of meter consisting of five “iambs.” An iamb is a metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. One line of iambic pentameter therefore consists of ten syllables. Iambic pentameter was considered similar to, but more elevated than everyday speech patterns. NOTE: While iambic pentameter was common for both Blank Verse (plays) and sonnets, Shakespeare doesn’t always stick to it excluseively—he uses variations of it, instead.

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Paraphrase the following sonnet line-by-line. Remember that a paraphrase should capture the gist of a quote; it

need not be word for word. Note the TONE of this sonnet (use your tone/mood handout).

Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red, than her lips red:

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound:

I grant I never saw a goddess go,

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:

And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,

As any she belied with false compare.

1. ________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________________

6. ________________________________________________________________________

7. ________________________________________________________________________

8. ________________________________________________________________________

9. ________________________________________________________________________

10. ________________________________________________________________________

11. ________________________________________________________________________

12. ________________________________________________________________________

13. ________________________________________________________________________

14. ________________________________________________________________________

The tone of this sonnet is:

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

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Shakespearian/Dramatic Vocabulary

Word(s) Definition

Meter

Metrical foot

Sonnet

Blank Verse

Prose

Comedy (Shakespearian

definition)

Tragedy

(Shakespearian

definition)

History

(Shakespearian

definition)

Pun

Irony

Denouement

Farce

Exeunt

Aside

Monologue

Soliloquy

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Character list:

Orsino: A powerful nobleman in the country of Illyria.

Viola: A young woman of aristocratic birth, and the play’s protagonist. Sometimes known as Cesario.

Olivia: A wealthy, beautiful, and noble Illyrian lady.

Sebastian: Viola’s lost twin brother.

Malvolio: The straitlaced steward—or head servant—in the household of Lady Olivia.

Feste: The clown, or fool, of Olivia’s household, Feste moves between Olivia’s and Orsino’s homes.

Sir Toby Belch: Olivia’s uncle. Olivia lets Sir Toby Belch live with her, but she does not approve of his

rowdy behavior, practical jokes, heavy drinking, late-night carousing, or friends.

Maria: Olivia’s clever, daring young waiting-gentlewoman and sometimes friend to Toby and Andrew.

Sir Andrew Aguecheek: A friend of Sir Toby’s and suitor to Olivia.

Antonio: A friend of Sebastian’s.

Reading Questions:

ACT I

1.1

1. Who gives the opening speech? What is he talking about? Give a short paraphrase of the following

lines:

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

2. What is your first impression of Duke Orsino? What is wrong with him?

3. What is Orsino’s servant’s name? Why do you think Shakespeare gave him this name?

4. Why is Olivia in mourning and how long will it last?

1.2

5. Where is the setting of this scene?

6. What has just happened to Viola?

7. Why does Viola want to serve Olivia? What does she finally decide to do? What does she ask her

Captain to do for her?

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1.3

8. Who is Sir Toby and what is his relation to Olivia? What is his attitude toward life?

9. Who is Sir Andrew Aguecheek and why is he there? When he first appears, does he fit the description

given of him by Toby earlier?

10. What does Andrew think the word "accost" means? What does Toby mean when he says it?

1.4

11. Who is Cesario and what is his relation to Duke Orsino?

12. What is Cesario being sent to do? Why has Orsino selected Cesario in particular for this task?

13. What problem does Viola have now?

1.5

14. What is your first impression of Feste (the clown/fool)?

15. From what we see of her up to now, how seriously is Olivia mourning?

16. Explain the meaning of Feste’s line: “Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.”

17. What happens in the conversation between Cesario (a.k.a. Viola) and Olivia? What has happened to

Olivia by the end of the scene?

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ACT II

2.1

18. Who is Sebastian? What do you expect will happen when he goes to Orsino's court?

19. Who is Antonio? Why shouldn't he go to Orsino's court, and why will he go anyway?

2.2

20. What does Cesario learn from her/his encounter with Malvolio?

21. Time is somewhat relative in this play. When should this scene occur? Why doesn't it?

2.3

22. What time is it? What are Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and Feste doing? Why does Sir Toby think he can

get away with it?

23. What is Malvolio's response to them? How does Sir Toby treat him?

24. What is Maria's plan for Malvolio? From what we have seen, does Malvolio deserve to have a trick

like this played on him?

25. What sense of Sir Andrew do you get from the line "I was loved once, too"?

2.4

26. According to Orsino, should the man or the woman be older in a romantic relationship? Does he hear

what Viola/Cesario is saying? How willing (or able) is Orsino to listen to other people's ideas?

27. What issue does Viola/Cesario raise? How does Orsino answer her?

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28. What happens to Viola/Cesario at line 2.4.114? Does Viola almost give herself away? How does she

cover herself in lines 116-120?

29. What is Viola feeling as she/he tells the “sister's” story? Is she trying to make Orsino see who she

really is (consciously or unconsciously)? If she keeps going, will he figure it out?

30. Does Orsino change his behavior during Viola/Cesario's story about "his" sister? Notice that his

questions respond to what she has said. Has he ever truly listened to anyone this way before?

2.5

31. What is Malvolio doing before he finds the letter? What does this tell us about him?

32. Complete the phrase "Some are born great …” What do these lines mean? How does Malvolio react

to reading this?

33. What other instructions does the letter give to Malvolio?

ACT III

3.1

34. What is Viola/Cesario saying about Feste in her soliloquy (Give a 1-2 sentence paraphrase)? How

well does Viola understand Feste?

This fellow is wise enough to play the Fool;

And to do that well craves a kind of wit:

… This is a practice

As full of labor as a wise man's art…

35. What does Viola/Cesario mean when s/he says, "I am not what I am"?

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3.2

36. Why does Sir Andrew want to leave? Why doesn’t he?

3.3

37. What does Antonio give Sebastian, and why?

3.4

38. What does Malvolio look like when he enters? What misunderstanding takes place? How does Olivia

diagnose what is wrong with Malvolio?

39. How do Sir Toby, Fabian, and Maria treat Malvolio? What do they say (at least to him) is the nature

of his madness? How do they propose to treat it?

40. What is the significance of Fabian’s line, “If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it

as an improbable fiction”? Why is it ironic?

41. What is Sir Andrew’s challenge? Would you say it is well-written (hint: look at Toby’s reaction)?

42. Watch the "duel" scene. How eager are Viola/Cesario and Sir Andrew to fight? How are Fabian and

Sir Toby helping matters along? Is the scene funny?

43. What happens when Antonio asks for his purse?

44. What should Viola learn from what Antonio says? Does she learn anything? Does anyone else learn

anything or even recognize what has happened? Has Sir Toby understood anything?

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45. What is Sir Andrew going to do next? Why?

ACT IV

4.1

46. What happens when Sir Andrew attacks the person he thinks is Cesario? Who wins?

47. What happens when Olivia interrupts them? What does she think is happening?

4.2

48. How do Sir Toby, Maria, and especially Feste treat Malvolio? At this point, does Malvolio deserve

the treatment he receives?

4.3

49. Paraphrase Sebastian's response to what has happened:

This is the air; that is the glorious sun;

This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't;

And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus,

Yet 'tis not madness.

50. To whom does Olivia think she is talking? What does she want Sebastian to do? Will he do it?

ACT V

5.1

51. How successful is Feste in dealing with Orsino? Why is the Duke there?

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52. The knots of this story are finally being untangled at this point; what happens when all the characters

are finally brought together? Who realizes what? (BONUS: What vocab word describes this scene?)

53. Based on what Sir Andrew says when he enters, what has happened offstage? What revelation can we

expect soon?

54. What happens between Sir Toby and Sir Andrew?

55. How is Malvolio's situation resolved? How do you feel about him at the end of the play?

56. What weddings will take place, and where? What characters are left out of the happiness?

57. Is Feste's song a fitting conclusion to the play?