Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 42

MODERN AGE

SPRING 2016

O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me t'untie. (2.2.25, 33-41)

Viola's "I am the man," then, means initially and literally that she
is the "man" whom Olivia thinks she loves. Viola is also a "man"
in that her "state is desperate for my master's love"-as both a
human being and a woman, she might by her nature and character hope for this union. Finally, she says, "I am woman": humorously, it is this last identity that provokes Viola's only bemused
exclamation ("alas the day!"). She acknowledges that only "Time"
can resolve her dilemmas and later describes herself like "patience
on a monument, / Smiling at grief" (2.4.114-15).8

I

f virtue is manifested especially brightly in the isolating circumstances of the Shakespearean design, it is also explored
revealingly in its root word, vir, "man." For Shakespeare, "What
does it mean to be a man?"-that is, "What does it mean to be a
human being who shares a human nature with other like-minded
creatures?"-is usually a philosophical rather than a merely rhetorical question. His custom, as we have seen, is to play on different shades of traditional meaning within the term, often connected to etymology, even while he is manifesting newer-and
frequently darker-psychological senses.
Macbeth and its Scottish hero provide a particularly good
example of what virtue is in this root sense and how that sense
may be subtly distorted. Macbeth becomes increasingly isolated,
not because of the fluctuations of fortune but because of his own
misdeeds. And his sins are not confined to a particular moment of
irrational passion but are the result of conscious deliberation over
many years. His goal is to become "secure" in his power (the witch

42

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Modern Age - Spring 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Modern Age - Spring 2016

Contents
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover1
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover2
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Contents
Modern Age - Spring 2016 - 2
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Modern Age - Spring 2016 - Cover3
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