Sunday, February 21, 2010

So apparently the word "time" occurs in 12th Night 22 times. Most of the references to time use the word as a normal noun, but what I found interesting was that every now and then Shakespeare would use "time" as a proper noun. Viola refers to Time as a sort of entity twice and Orsino once.

"What else may hap to time I will commit;
Only shape thou thy silence to my wit."
(Act 1 Sc. 2)-Viola

"O time! thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me to untie!" (Act 2 Sc. 2)-Viola

"When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case?" (Act 5 Sc. 1)-Orsino

When Viola has a problem that she dosen't believe she can solve herself she calls on Time to solve it for her. I thought it was interesting that time was personified this way.

1 comment:

  1. 22 times. wow. that's a lot. I didn't have that kind of luck with my thematic strand.

    Just wondering, does time have any other meaning than the meaning you gave here?

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