Shakespeare - Twelfth Night - language

Shakespeare is renowned for the language he used and often invented new words, many of which we still use today. Explore the way he uses rhythm and rhyme and imagery and metaphor in Twelfth Night.

The way we write and speak has changed a lot over the past 400 years since Shakespeare wrote his plays, so don’t be put off if you find Shakespeare’s words difficult.

There is lots of witty word-play in Twelfth Night which adds to the comedy. There are also plenty of references to love and music, starting with Orsino’s famous opening lines 'If music be the food of love, play on'.

Shakespeare used the following aspects of language in Twelfth Night to present his themes and characters:

• rhythm and rhyme
• imagery and metaphor

Shakespeare often uses rhythm and rhyme to show us something about a character’s social status, relationship with other characters or state of mind. In general, characters with a higher status will use blank verse and those of a lower status speak in prose. Sometimes this rule is broken and there is usually a reason for it. For example, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew are of a higher social status but they are drunkards, and this is emphasised by the way they speak in prose.

Sometimes Shakespeare makes his characters seem in harmony by matching their language. We can see this in Act 3 Scene 1 when Olivia asks Cesario (Viola) what he (she) thinks of her. They speak one line of exactly 10 syllables each, and both use short words. This seems to emphasise Olivia’s love for Cesario.

In this play, music and song also feature, at times representing the feelings of different characters, and at others adding to the mood of a scene.

In Act 3 Scene 1, Olivia asks Cesario (Viola) what he thinks of her. Notice how similar their language is.

The imagery and metaphors in Twelfth Night are often connected with love. For example, both Orsino and later Sir Toby refer to the pursuit of love as a formal hunt, showing they see it as being more about the chase and the competition than about true love. Also, Feste and Orsino both use the imagery of flowers to represent beauty and love.

In Act 1 Scene 1, Orsino’s servant asks whether he would like to go hunting.