Question

What does this excerpt from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night reveal about Duke Orsino?

DUKE: If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.—
That strain again;—it had a dying fall;
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.—Enough; no more;
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

Answer 1

Orsino, the lovesick duke of Illyria, speaks these lines. He introduces the audience to the theme of love as overpowering and fickle. He calls sweet music the "food of love" and wants "an excess of it" so that he can satisfy his appetite for it. However, when the music is no longer sweet, Orsino compares it to the sea. Like the sea, it engulfs everything and debases its value to a "low price." He concludes that love can change from sweet music to an engulfing sea in a matter of one minute. He also suggests that it shifts shape at whim. The fickleness of love reflects Orsino’s own inconstant nature, casting him as self-indulgent and melodramatic. Finally, because Orsino never names the object of his love in these opening lines, the emotional outpouring indicates that Orsino is consumed more by the idea of love than by love for Olivia.

Step-by-step explanation: