QUERY FOR DISCUSSION
Are the characters least scathed by the fun for that reason superior to the others?
VI
MINOR CHARACTERS
The fun of the play is capped by the presence of a particularly clever fool whose function of making every one the butt of his wit makes one of the least important of the characters represent the special drollery of the whole play. The only grudge he bears is against the man who does not appreciate fun—who calls him a 'barren rascal.' Describe the passages in which he particularly shines. Of the minor characters the fool is minor only through his station and unimportance in the plot; he really occupies much space in the play and in fact pervades it. How is Antonio connected with the plot? What traits of his does the play bring out? Is his fondness for Sebastian unnatural? How is he concerned in the foolery of the play? Is he necessary to the plot? As the fool represents the merry-making spirit of the play, so Malvolio stands for the dupes of it. Does any one sympathize with him? Who shows the clearest understanding of his faults? (I. v.). What signs are there in the play of Malvolio's being a Puritan? Is there any evidence against it? Is Maria right, for example, when she says, 'The Devil a Puritan he is or anything constantly but a time-server,' etc.? That the character of Malvolio was generally taken on the stage as a portrait of the Puritan, and that Shakespeare must have known it would borrow some of its popularity from being so considered, seems not to be denied; on the other hand, it may hardly seem to be proven that Shakespeare thought he was drawing a genuine Puritan. Show Malvolio's character, his connection with the other characters and with the plot and the foolery of the play, and state the argument for and against Shakespeare's meaning to make fun of him as a Puritan.
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?