Twelfth Night Figurative Language Essay

Excerpt #1 This excerpt comes from Antonio in the third Scene of the third Act of Twelfth Night where he is going in depth about his love for Sebastian. The opening line of this quote is Antonio explaining to Sebastian that he will go to the dangerous Illyria with him out of due to his strong feelings for him and the possible apprehension of Sebastian possibly losing his life. The use of the phrase “My desire” breaks the meter of the line and spreads the line out into 11 syllables instead of the typical 10 and I feel this show how impulsive and passionate Antonio feels about Sebastian. The line “More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth” uses vivid imagery to show how confident Antonio felt in going with Sebastian to Illyria by describing how he had a “sharp” feeling about this …show more content…
While Viola disguising herself as Cesario could be interpreted as an element of the plotline that has suggestive homoerotic meaning, Shakespeare sets in stone that he wants to address homoeroticism, a topic that would no doubt would be controversial in the 17th century, with the obvious attraction Antonio has for another man. Shakespeare could have just shown strong camaraderie by having Antonio’s only reason for going to Illyria with him to be that Sebastian could risk his life by going there by himself. He could have also an ultra-implication of homosexuality by having Antonio just going to Illyria with Sebastian out of pure love. But, in the end, Shakespeare melds the two factors for a paragon of a character that is still a person with tender feelings and a big heart. In the 17th century, being gay was seen as a moral constraint that if publicly displayed could mean in perpetual harassment, threats, and even arrested or murdered. To have Antonio be such a relatable, kind, tender-hearted character in Twelfth Night was Shakespeare laying out his opinion on the elusive

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