What is the tone of the opening 3 scenes of ‘Twelfth Night’?

In the first 3 acts of Twelfth Night Shakespeare skillfully uses three very different characters to illustrate three types of behaviour in relation to emotional pain and suffering. Within the first two scenes of the play, the audience is introduced to two of the main themes of different types of love as well as mistaken identity/uncertainty of gender. Destructive and painful love is portrayed within Orsino character (and to an extent Olivia’s), whilst mistaken identity can be seen in Viola’s decision to disguise herself as a man. The third scene contrasts with this and the first real comedic tone is portrayed with the characters Maria, Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek.

Scene 1’s main focus is the idea of Orsino suffering out of his perceived love-sickness. The first line “if music be the food of love, play on” suggests that love has completely conquered Orsino and is vital to his survival. He goes on to mention ‘surfeiting’ which illustrates the idea of Orsino being so infatuated and reliant upon love that he desires to overdose, and consequently acquire so much love that it ceases to exist. This idea portrays the image of love as being something unwanted and suggests that love comes up on people unexpectedly and isn’t something that can be avoided. The idea of love being a cause of suffering is also reflected upon in the way that Orsino plans to hunt hart’s. The word hart is used as a pun to imply that it’s in fact his heart that is being hunted.
He goes on to use the metaphor of the sea to compare love to. The Dukes capacity for love mirrors the vastness if the sea, but the way in which the sea is unstable and constantly changing and moving makes us question the extent of Orsino’s love and raises the question of its genuineness.
He then finishes his speech with the line “so full of shapes is fancy, that it alone is high fantastical”, illustrating how imagination is more powerful than reality. This evokes the idea of Orsino being in love with the idea of love more than he claims to be in love with Olivia. The way in which Orsino interprets love as being high fantastical portrays love as being something that the human mind creates as a source of entertainment, and that in fact it isn’t real. The idea of him trying to find entertainment is also illustrated in his dramatic statements, and it gives the impression that he is enjoying his misery and is deliberately making a big show of his emotions.

Scene 2 primarily presents the idea of loss and the denial that comes with it. More than once Viola states how she hopes her brother isn’t dead through the line “mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope”, which can be seen as a coping mechanism or a way to avoid the truth. Viola feels lost and useless in Illyria without her brother whom she believes deep down to be dead, however, unlike Orsino in the previous scene, she doesn’t indulge in grief or publicize her suffering, but instead uses her wit and intelligence to analyze what her next move will be. This contrasts with Olivia’s approach to mourning, as she takes on a more radical approach with the captain saying, “She hath abjured the company and sight of men”. Olivia’s way of handling her suffering is similar to Orsino’s in the way that they are open and dramatic with their problems.
In addition we also encounter the theme of disguise as well as an uncertain tone regarding gender and identity within the scene. Viola’s disguise can be seen as something to make her feel safer and ensure her own protection in this new and alien land. This highlights the idea of prejudice against women since Viola feels she needs to disguise herself as a man in order to be taken seriously and feel safe. The fact Viola says eunuch instead of just a regular man indicates a gender uncertainty, however this could simply be because Viola knows that it would make her disguise be more believable.

Finally, the third scene illustrates a big shift in the tone, as this scene is much more comic and less serious than the previous two scenes, and this is supported by the quote “care’s an enemy to life” which portrays the idea that worrying destroys your life. We can see that Sir Toby leads a fun life and acts as though he hasn’t a care in the world. His name alone sums him up to be someone who over indulges and is oblivious to the way his bad behaviour affects those around him.
Maria comes from a Shakespearian tradition of servants who are wittier and smarter than the people around them, and this is shown in the way she mocks Sir Andrew time and time again. It’s clear to see that both Sir Toby and Maria take Andrew to be a fool, yet he doesn’t realize this painful truth. This can be considered as being dark humour, and perhaps Sir Toby likes keeping Andrew around with the sole purpose of mocking him. Sir Andrew doesn’t catch on to Maria’s humour and his misunderstanding leads to him being made into an even bigger fool when he asks “what’s your metaphor” and “what’s your jest”. The comedic tone of the scene is also upheld by the bawdy language and puns, for example “accost”, “buttery bar” and “draw sword”.

Overall, the three scenes show a significant contrast in tone. Whilst the first scene shows Orsino being overly melodramatic and almost masochistic whilst indulging in his invented misery, scene 2 portrays real pain which Viola experiences through the loss of her brother. As well as real pain, real fear at the prospect of being discovered is felt, which leads to her plan for personal safety. Scene 3 is completely void of any emotion and represents the dangers of what can happen without realisation of pain. There is a sense of disregard and unawareness of others feelings, as well as over indulgences of personal pleasures at the expense of anyone else’s feelings. Self indulgence is portrayed in both scenes 1 and 3, however they differ in the way that Maria and Sir Toby just don’t care as opposed to Orsino’s wallowing.
Scene 1 portrays a sense of overt emotion, scene 2 contrasts and shows inverted emotion, and finally scene 3 lacks a sense of any serious emotion whatsoever.