QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is it a defect in the play that the fool, who has less to do with the plot, is more important than Antonio, who has somewhat more to do with it?  Does it show that the main interest of the play is in comic situation rather than in character or dramatic motive?

VII

THE POETIC FIGURES IN THE PLAY

Observe the various figures used throughout the play, as to whether they are drawn from nature or from other sources; for example, the first speech of the Duke bristles with metaphor.  Note that he speaks of music as the food of love, and bids the musicians play on that the appetite may have a surfeit, images drawn from physical nature; then that the music came o’er his ear like the sweet sound that breathes upon a bank of violets, stealing and giving odor.  We should expect here some continuation in the language of sound; but the Duke continues as if he had said wind instead of sound, and then wind is personified, for it breathes instead of blows on the bank of violets, and it steals their odor and gives it to him,—­the music is so sweet that it seems as if its sounds came laden with the scent of violets to his ear.  Here sound is personified at first as merely breathing, then it takes on moral attributes and steals and gives.  Pick out and explain other figures in the same way.  Which of the characters use the most beautiful imagery?  Are there any who use none at all?

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is there any special fitness in the imagery used to the character using it?  Does the imagery used help you to form an opinion of the characters?

VIII

THE WIT OF THE PLAY

What are the main causes of amusement in the play?  The audience, notice, is not kept in the dark one instant about any of the characters.  Thus one of the sources of amusement lies in the fact that while the audience occupies somewhat the attitude of omnipotence, it has the pleasure of observing the characters of the play living their lives in the purblind way usual to mortals.  Lessing said that a comedy should make us laugh at vices, but the vices must be those of characters who have good qualities also.  Does ‘Twelfe Night’ answer to this description?  Analyze the causes why the fun of the play is funny.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Which of the characters cause amusement as the result of circumstances over which they have no control?  How do each of these cause amusement unconsciously?  Which of the characters cause amusement through a conscious intention of making fun?

THE TEMPEST