Twelfth Night Act 4 study guide

[[Scene 1:[[

  • Feste runs to Sebastian to tell him to return to Olivia (he thinks he is Cesario)
  • Sebastian is confused and gives Feste money to make him go away
  • Sir Andrew, Fabian, and Sir Toby show up and Andrew punches andrew
      * Sebastian is super confused and punches him back
        * he then asks “are all the people mad” in Illryia
      * feste goes to tell olivia what happening
  • Andrew and Sebastian engage in a swordfight
  • Olivia comes in and tells toby to back off
  • Olivia apologizes to Sebastian and asks him to come with her back to her house
  • sebastian wonders if he is mad or dreaming, but thinks that since he is also attracted to her, the sleeping version of him wouldn’t want him to end the “dream”

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]]Scene 2:]]

  • maria and toby have locked Malvolio in a dark room to “cure him of his madness”
  • they tell feste to go over there and act as he is some sort of great scholar → Sir Topas
  • Maria exits to go get Toby
  • Feste is please and says that the “Knave counterfeits well”
      * what knave?
  • Sir Topas goes to malvolio
  • malvolio tries to convince him he is not mad
      * sir topas tells him his room is in fact light, not dark in an attempt to make him believe he has gone mad
  • Malvolio begs Sir Topas to test whether or not he is mad by asking him a question.
  • Sir Topas asks, "[W]hat is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?"
      * Malvolio replies (correctly) that Pythagoras argued that the human soul might just as well inhabit the body of a bird.
  • Sir Topas asks what Malvolio thinks of his argument
  • Malvolio, who is a Puritan says that he thinks nobly of the soul and does not in any way approve of Pythagoras' opinion.
      * Sir Topas replies that Malvolio must remain in the darkness then: he will not be let out until he believes that a human soul could just as well inhabit the body of a bird.
  • With this "Sir Topas" leaves Malvolio, who cries out after him.
  • Sir toby starts to imitate his cries
  • Toby tells maria that they have to end this soon because he is already walking on thin ice with Olivia
  • Feste comes back without his disguise
  • Malvolio asks for a pen and paper so that he can ask Olivia to help him

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{{Scene 3{{

  • Sebastian, who is in a room in Olivia’s palace, is trying to make sense of what is happening
      * he wants to confide in Antonio, but he wasn’t at the Elephant Inn at which he was told to meet him
  • Sebastian contemplates on whether he or Olivia is mad
  • olivia enters with a priest and begs Sebastian that they get married immediately
  • she says that they can have another bigger and more public wedding accustomed to someone of her status later
  • Sebastian says yes!
  • the priest leads him and olivia away

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}}Quiz Questions:}}

  1. Character and character relationships (what are they learning)

   
   1. \

  1. Character foils (characters that have opposite traits)
  2. what might emerge in the play about love?

   
   1. love always prevails, no matter the origin or backstory

  1. what is the play saying about love (think about timeline of events and how quickly people fall in love)

   
   1. people fall in love almost instantaneously, and end up setting off a string of events to get their lover to reciprocate their feelings.

  1. nature of disguise and playing roles

   
   1. what does feste believe about these ideas

   when you take off your disguise, it is almost as if you are changing personalities as well

   
   1. would he say we are confined to our predetermined roles? is there flexibility?

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  1. Allusion (think about story of Moses)

   
   1. Moses puts a fog over Egypt, and no one knows where it came from. This is like the darkness malviolo is thrust into because he has no idea the origins or why exactly hey think he is mad

  1. instances of dramatic irony
  2. topics to think about:

   
   1. love
   2. identity
   3. seriousness vs pleasure
   4. disguise

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