Day 4

Twelfth Night Lesson Plan

Discussion of Thought Questions

  1. 1

    When Olivia asks Sebastian to follow her into the house, he says, "Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep. If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep" (4.1.58-59). What does he mean by this? Can anything else be made of this?

    Sebastian is telling the audience that if this situation is a dream, he would like to keep sleeping and for his imagination ("fancy") to prevent his reason ("sense") from disrupting this moment (he would rather is reason steep in Lethe, one of the seven mythological rivers in Hades, which causes complete forgetfulness and oblivion to anyone who drank from it). This moment develops the meta-theatrical elements of the play, as Sebastian's desire...

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