How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig Page A

there be that deity in my nature
Of here and everywhere .
    Deity here means “godliness.” So Sebastian is saying: “There is nothing in my nature that is like a god, so therefore I can’t split myself in two and be both here and over there at the same time!”
I had a sister ,
Whom the blind waves and surges have devoured .
    The blind waves and surges are the watery storm that capsized the ship. Equally, devoured is a wonderful word in this context. If Shakespeare had used drowned instead, it would not have filled out the metrical line as well and would not have been as powerful.
    Sebastian continues:
Of charity [out of charity], what kin are you to me?
What countryman? What name? What parentage?…
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even ,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek
And say “Thrice welcome, drownèd Viola.”
    Sebastian is doing a lot of talking here when, logically, he would take one look at his long-lost sister, run to her, and throw his arms around her. But there is something bigger going on. Shakespeare is doing something that all writers try to do effectively: He is pulling the string.
    PULLING THE STRING?
    What I mean is that Shakespeare is stretching out the conclusion for as long as possible until the final revelation. By this time in the story, Sebastian would realize in any normal sense of reality that this person standing in front of him is his sister. He has adored her since they were children. He knows exactly what she looks like. At most she’s wearing trousers and a shirt and has her hair pinned up under a cap. Otherwise it’s good old Viola. But Shakespeare doesn’t let Sebastian verbalize that realization until lines and lines of poetry have gone by. (I have cut the passage down for purposes of discussion. In fact, there are forty-six lines from the moment Sebastian enters until Viola cries I am Viola .) Shakespeare holds it off because we, as the audience, receive a sort of exquisite pleasure by having to wait for it. We see this phenomenon frequently in the movies. We’ve known from the beginning that the two gorgeous leads will end up together, but the writer holds off the final explosion of joy until the last possible second because that’s what romantic comedy is all about. It’s the same with romantic novels. In Jane Austen’s Emma , will Emma and Mr. Knightley get together at the end? Of course they will, but that’s the beauty of a good love story: The author holds off the final partnering until the last possible moment.
    That brings us to the other startling feature of Twelfth Night . It’s a comedy and it’s romantic; but it’s not about a romantic couple. The central love story is about a brother and sister.
    The required “love interest” plot involves Viola and Orsino—but thereis virtually no dramatic tension in their story. Viola reveals that she loves Orsino almost as an afterthought, at the end of their first, short, businesslike scene together (Act I, Scene 4). Likewise, while Olivia is head over heels in love with “Cesario,” we know that Cesario is really a woman and that Olivia has a different kind of romance in mind. However, there is a genuine love story in the middle of Twelfth Night , and it’s the story of Viola and her brother Sebastian.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even ,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek
And say “Thrice welcome, drownèd Viola.”
    As the rest goes even means “since everything else fits together.” So Sebastian is saying
Since everything else fits together, if you were a woman I’d understand everything that’s going on. I’d embrace you and let my tears fall on your cheek and I’d cry “My sister! You’re not really drowned!”
    Once again, Shakespeare says it a little better than I just did.
Were you a woman, as the rest goes even ,
I should my tears let fall upon your cheek
And say “Thrice welcome, drownèd Viola.”
    And now we come to the best part of the passage: the big