confusion..

Malvolio: "...and yet to crush it a little, it would bow to me.." (II.v.143-145)

- In this scene, Malvolio has just found the letter that was purposely placed for him to find. He believes that it is from his love, Olivia, but in reality it was a counterfeit. Maria has created this counterfeit letter to play a joke on Malvolio to give him a reality check. Maria, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew observe Malvolio while he finds the letter. They find this as a type of amusement and are ecstatic that he fell for it. Malvolio believes this letter to be sincere because he thinks that the handwriting is indeed Olivia's and because it has the wax seal that Olivia uses. The letter had been addressed to "To the unknown beloved". In the letter, it contained her confession of love to an unknown person and foolish tasks for Malvolio to complete, such as wearing yellow stockings. Olivia happens to despise yellow stocks, which was why Maria included that into the letter. In this quote Malvolio is reading the letter aloud. He gets to the part where there are the letters " M.O.A.I". After looking over it a few times, Malvolio decides that it most definitely has to stand for his name. He says "to crush it a little" meaning if he put the letters together, they are each featured in his name. Malvolio branded into his mind that this letter had to be written for him.