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Figurative Language In Twelfth Night

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2. Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house,
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night,
Hallow thy name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out "Olivia!" O, you should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth
But you should pity me.

The lines 271-279 of Act 1, Scene 5 are spoken by Viola disguised as 'Cesario ' to the Countess Olivia after being sent by Orsino to "woo" Olivia on his behalf. The dialog is exceedingly significant to the overall plot as it establishes Olivia 's love for 'Cesario ' and an inkling to Cesario 's loyalty and love for Orsino. Viola 's description of what she would do if she loved Olivia as Orsino does attracts Olivia attention and affection.
Viola 's lines to Olivia of making "a willow cabin" (1.5.271) at the gate and writing songs of "contemned love" (1.5.273) to sing them "in the dead of night" (1.5.274) conveys an agonizingly desperate love that should be pitied. She wants Olivia to know that the extent of Olivia 's …show more content…

The significance of this aside is to establish a slightly more in-depth depiction of Viola 's grief for the loss of her brother through her statement of "I my brother know yet living in my glass." (3.4.399-401) depicting how she sees her brother when she looks in the mirror. This aside is additionally significant due to how it depicts Viola 's hope that her brother could still be alive after the shipwreck. It is further used to address that Viola is considering that Sebastian could possibly be alive with her statement of "if it prove, tempest are kind, and salt water waves fresh in love." (3.4.403-404). The purpose of Viola 's aside is to illuminate that the image of 'Cesario ' is based off of

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