For my Shakespeare piece, i have chosen Viola's speech from Act 2, Scene 2 of Twelfth Night. i went with this monologue as i know Twelfth Night having studied it previously and seen many different versions of the play, i also enjoy this play so this will help me to explore and have fun with my monologue which should help produce a better performance.
This monologue also contrast to my contemporary as it is humorous, a slightly older age, the character is more sure of herself. In Viola's speech there are themes of love, fondness, affection and confusion which don't appear in my contemporary.
Things that have happened before Viola's monologue;
-She was shipwrecked
-Disguises herself
-Becomes page boy for the Duke, Orsino
-Falls in love with the Duke
-Duke is in love with the Countess, Olivia
-Viola is sent to try and win Olivia over for the Duke
-Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola
-To ensure the disguised Viola will return, Olivia sends her steward, Malvolio, to give Viola back her ring which Viola allegedly delivered from the Duke.
So at this point Malvolio has given back the ring and left the confused Viola alone on stage. At this point she had the sudden realization of the awkward situation she has found herself in.
After reading through the speech several times to get and understanding and feel of the monologue which then meant i was able to start breaking down and analyzing the speech. i started with looking at words that i didn't understand. This is a really important thing to do as it means your understanding of the monologue in creases but it is also an essentially thing to know as it could pivot the whole underlying meaning or emotion of that sentence or section. I underlined the words that i didn't understand and then looked at the definitions of these words, some i had to look at Shakespeare translations to work out what they meant, others i found the definition in a dictionary.
http://www.shakespeareswords.com/Play-Definitions.aspx?IdPlay=21
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_64.html
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_66.html
Starts distractedly- she was distracted which meant she seemed to stumble over her words and not be able to pronounce the properly.
Churlish- Rude, in a mean spirited way.
she sends me this rude messenger (Malvolio) to tell me to come back rather than coming herself
Waxen- having a smooth, pale, translucent surface or appearance like that of wax.
Referring to women's hearts and how they so easily fall in love with someone.
Frailty- the condition of being weak and delicate or weakness in a character or morals.
Referring to how weak women are to fall in love so easily, also linking to waxen hearts.
Fadge- Turn out, end up
How will this turn out?
Dote- extremely fond of
she is fond of me, attracted to me
Thriftless- useless, unprofitable, worthless
Olivia's love for me is hopeless
