Act 1 — Twelfth Night — Eduqas GCSE English Literature C720
Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720
Act 1
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Orsino's lovesick court, Viola's shipwreck and disguise as Cesario, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in Olivia's household,
Viola sent to woo Olivia for Orsino though she loves him herself, and Olivia falling for Cesario.
What each scene establishes about character and theme, with key quotations.
Key quotations: 'If music be the food of love, play on', 'Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken, and so die', 'That instant was I turn'd into a hart', 'My brother he is in Elysium', 'He was a bachelor then', 'Conceal me what I am', 'I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit', 'Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife', 'O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio', 'Make me a willow cabin at your gate', 'Even so quickly may one catch the plague?', 'Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe'.
Form: Orsino's verse in the opening scene against the prose of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, and Viola's move from prose into verse in her first meeting with Olivia.
Context: a countess in mourning who refuses all suitors, and a shipwrecked woman alone in a strange country who disguises herself for safety.
Eduqas's Shakespeare questions don't mark context: the extract question (15 marks) and the whole-play essay (20 marks, plus 5 for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structures) both mark response and analysis of language, form and structure (AO1 and AO2). Use context only in a phrase that supports an interpretation, and say which question each worked paragraph practises.
