How Does Shakespeare Use Metaphors In Twelfth Night
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Twelfth Nigh is a typical Shakespearean comedy, that consists of rich poetry and metaphors. Shakespeare introduces these metaphors throughout the play. One of the metaphors that he continuously indicates is the metaphor of drowning. The characters drown in love, in sorrow, in appetite, and literally in water. Drowning, in some aspects, represents loss and grief. Shakespeare uses the metaphor of drowning as a figure of speech to compare situations in the play to something that cannot actually take place in order to give the reader a detailed and descriptive idea of what is going on. In the case of Twelfth Night, drowning is used to show a loss of perspective through the submersion of excess.
Twelfth Night is a captivating play about characters who are metaphorically drowning in the surplus of their wants. They are so submersed that they cannot see past their own selfish desires. The metaphor of drowning is one of the central reoccurring themes of the play. The idea of drowning connects the character’s actions…show more content… It is introduced in Orsino’s very first lines. Orsino is dramatically talking about the woman he loves, Olivia. Olivia does not reciprocate his love which causes Orsino to be painfully depressed and have a pessimistic attitude toward life. He asks to be drowned in the music that feeds his somber love, so he will not desire love any longer. “If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it that, surfeiting. The appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall. O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound. That breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more, ’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.”(I.i.1-10) Orsino’s speech is the first and one of the most obvious uses to of drowning as a metaphor. Drowning is used to describe how Orsino feels emotionally and connects this to in his desire for Olivia’s