Question

Which set of lines in these excerpts from Act II, Scene IV, shows that Duke Orsino considers men to be more easily swayed by passion than women?

1) Lines 1-3: 'Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take an elder than herself; so wears she to him, so sways she level in her husband's heart.'
2) Lines 4-6: 'For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, than women's are.'
3) Lines 7-9: 'There is no woman's sides can bide the beating of so strong a passion as love doth give my heart: no woman's heart so big to hold so much; they lack retention.'
4) Lines 10-12: 'Alas, their love may be called appetite,– no motion of the liver, but the palate,– that suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt; but mine is all as hungry as the sea, and can digest as much: make no compare between that love a woman can bear me and that I owe Olivia.'

Answer 1

Duke Orsino considers men to be more swayed by passion than women, as implicitly stated in lines 4-6 from Act II, Scene IV of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night,' where he admits that men's fancies are 'giddy and unfirm,' 'longing, wavering,' and 'sooner lost and won.'

Step-by-step explanation:

The set of lines that shows Duke Orsino considers men to be more easily swayed by passion than women is from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Act II, Scene IV, lines 4-6:

'For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, our fancies are more

giddy and unfirm

, more

longing, wavering

, sooner

lost and won

, than women's are.'

This excerpt directly depicts Orsino's belief that men have fancies which are less constant and more susceptible to change than those of women, highlighting a stereotype of the time about the nature of male passion.