In William Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, he focuses on romance and the pain it causes. The story starts when twins Viola and Sebastian are in a shipwreck leaving them stranded in a new country with no resources. Having been separated, Viola takes extreme measures and decides to dress as a man named Cesario in order to work for the Duke Orsino. Having this job, not only does she find herself falling in love with Orsino, she also learns he’s infatuated with a woman named Olivia. While this is happening, Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby, is trying to set her up with his friend Sir Andrew. Olivia, thinking Viola is truly a man, falls in love with her. Sebastian finds shelter with a local man. Upon travelling into town, Sebastian and Olivia meet and …show more content…
In the beginning of the play, Orsino along with members of his court are enjoying the music being played while speaking with one another. Orsino declares that “if music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die” (1.1.1-3). This represents Orsino’s current state in terms of his love. He says that if music is love, play more songs and to play so many to the point where he grows tired of it and stops loving. In this, he reveals his true yearning, or appetite, for love adding on that it’s not being satisfied and he would rather have an excess of love to the point where he no longer wants it at all. This shows Orsino’s lack of romance and desperation for someone to love him. Later in this same conversation, Curio asks Orsino if he’d like to go hunting to which Orsino replies, “why, so I do, the noblest that I have. O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence. That instant was I turned into a hart, And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds” (1.1.19-23). From this, we know that Orsino feels as if his heart is under fire, or being hunted, because of his unrequited feelings for Olivia. This explains his appetite for love because he wishes Olivia felt the same as he did. In these excerpts, we get a get a glimpse into the suffering Orsino …show more content…
When Olivia is first mentioned in the story, her servant Valentine is telling Orsino that because of the death of her brother, Olivia will be mourning for 7 years and is uninterested in love. This is a contrast to when Olivia later falls in love with Viola, who she believes to be a man named Cesario. Cesario is sent by Orsino to go to Olivia and win her heart for him [Orsino]. However, after meeting Cesario and hearing all he had to say, Olivia realizes she’s in love with him even questioning if “even so quickly may one catch the plague” (1.5.301). From this moment of realization, not only are Olivia’s new feelings for Cesario revealed but also her lookout on love. By comparing catching feelings to catching a plague, Olivia reveals she believes love to be a painful sickness. In other words, Olivia immediately regrets her love for Cesario as she knows it will cause her to suffer. Because of her love, she tries numerous times to get Cesario to marry her, always failing because Cesario [Viola] had feelings for another. Later in the story Olivia stops a fight in the courtyard between Sir Toby and Sebastian, who she thinks is Cesario. After stopping the brawl, Olivia askes Sebastian if he’d “be ruled by [her]” (4.2.67-8). To which he replies “Madam, I will” (4.2.69). Believing she’ll be married to Cesario, Olivia brings a
Olivia is easily the largest victim to love and disguise. Olivia quickly falls in love with Viola, who is disguised as "Cesario". Olivia realizes how far
121-124). To recall, Olivia falls in love with the facade of Viola as Cesario. Olivia is then charmed by Viola, who has disguised herself as Cesario, and Olivia thinks Cesario likes her back. In this quote, Cesario states she does not love Olivia, but yet Olivia keeps on pursuing after Cesario. This proving Olivia is in denial of Cesario’s rejection regarding his love for Olivia. This in conclusion, is Olivia living a false reality in which she is being loved back. When in reality Viola doesn’t love Olivia. Olivia decides to keep refusing Cesario's denial of his love to her and persists in going after Cesario because she can not withstand the idea of partition between them two.
However in the fifth act, Orsino is a changed man. He is a person of depth and feeling. While, not completely changed into a man that would be respectable in our society, Duke Orsino has become a reputable person. In this act, Orsino realizes that he will never marry Olivia because she does not want that. “Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times thou never shouldst love woman like to me.” Orsino says to Olivia (5.1.279-280) Upon the realization that his framework idea of love has been squashed, Orsino looks within his heart to find that Viola, the person who has stuck by him in his lowest days, is the woman who holds his heart. He says to her “‘Your master quits you; and for your service done to him, so much against the mettle of you sex so far beneath you soft and tender breeding, and since you called me “master” for so long, here is my hand. You shall from this time be your master’s mistress. ‘“(5.1.237-242) With this statement, he creates Viola his
Yet he still continues to get a “yes” from Olivia. He grows rambunctious and upset when he says.” O’ she hath the heart of a fine frame, to pay the debt of love but to a dead brother” ( Shakespeare page 11 33-34) He lacks sympathy towards Olivia for her problems, but he has time to listen to his own desires. Nonetheless rather grieving with her, he goes and gives her his words of love. Duke Orsino knows that Olivia is unsure and this is an act of selfishness. Furthermore, he craves something he can’t have, Olivia’s love. Love is to crave to the extreme, it’s hunger that lovers hope they can never fully
Despite knowing that Orsino “loves” Olivia, Viola almost immediately falls in love with Orsino. And because Viola is disguised as a man, she cannot show her true feelings for Orsino. After Orsino asks Viola to speak with Olivia and professes his love to her, Viola lets the reader know what she is truly feeling by saying “Yet a barful strife! Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (Act 1, Scene 4, Line 40). This shows that even though she is willing to help Orsino pursue Olivia, Viola ultimately wants to marry Orsino. Viola’s love for Orsino is revealed again at the end of Act 2, Scene 4. Orsino is asking Viola to try harder in the quest for Olivia and he basically says that there is no love more noble or great as his, so she must love him. Viola then proceeds to say that maybe Olivia doesn’t love him; however, there is “someone” out there that does. She says:
From the difference in character and personality between Viola and Orsino, we can see that Viola is displayed as a rational, witty, yet manipulative woman, who loves deeply and sincerely. This is shown from, “If I did love you in my master’s flame/With such a suff’ring/such a deadly life”, as it implies that Viola’s love towards Orsino, is true, and has depth, and other-centred. This is in comparison to Orsino’s love towards Olivia, displayed in his portrayal of love towards her. This can be seen from, “With adorations, fertile tears/With
Orsino's love, however, is a courtly love. He claims to be in love with Olivia but seems rather to be in love with the idea of love and the behavior of a lover. Orsino is a Petrachan lover who chooses an object that will not return his love. Because he is not ready for commitment, he courts Olivia in a formal way. By sending his messengers to her house instead of going himself, he does not have to speak to her directly. Early in the play, Viola realises that Orsino's love for Olivia is denied and that she would also reject all men for a period of seven years. Viola believes that Orsino might not be rejected if he visited Olivia himself and says to him: "I think not so, my lord," but Orsino, not wanting to see Olivia himself and wanting to keep up the role of the disappointed lover, insists that Cesario woo her.
Viola, one of the main protagonists, experiences suffering when she falls in love with Orsino, whom she cannot pursue or express her true feelings for. After a shipwreck, Viola finds herself stranded in the country of Illyria. In order to work for the Duke Orsino, she disguises herself as a man named Cesario, which makes romance with the duke impossible. After spending three days with him, she falls in love. Not only does she have to repress her feelings toward Orsino, but to add to her pain, Orsino assigns her to spend her time trying to persuade Lady Olivia to marry him. Viola says to the audience, “whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife” (1.4.42), because she wishes to marry Orsino.
One can observe Orsino's love for Olivia as obsessive. Orsino’s first words “If music be the food of love, play on,” introduce him as a love-sick character whose mind revolves around a woman who does not return his feelings (I.i.1). Olivia constantly populates his mind and he does not cease his pursuit for her love, even after she expresses distaste towards him. Shakespeare mocks love-sick individuals for acting like fools and putting themselves through misery. After learning of Olivia’s marriage, Orsino realizes he has lost her and lashes out at Cesario. He threatens him by stating “I’ll sacrifice the lamb I do love to spite a raven’s heart within a dove”(V.i.33-34). Shakespeare uses Orsino’s love for Olivia to differentiate between good and bad love. Unrequited love can cause an individual to pursue violent actions in blind rage. Orsino shows how love is consuming, crippling, and hinders the ability to live out life.Orsino believes his love for Olivia is true, but he is actually in love with the idea of love, and believes he can only obtain it from Olivia. Shakespeare tries to inform the audiences that they could mistakenly believe they are in
Excited by Cesario’s appearance, Olivia acknowledges their promise for marriage (5.1 103). Upset by this betrayal, Orsino rages he’ll “sacrifice the lamb” Cesario for this violation of his love (5.1 130). Attempting to cut through the confusion, Cesario admits, gesturing towards Orsino, that it is“after him I love” (5.1 134). In response, an outraged Olivia cries, “hast thou forgot yourself? ,” pleading for Cesario to remain betrothed to her (5.1 141).
The opening speech in the play Twelfth Night is spoken by the unhappy, lovesick Duke of Orsino to his servants and musicians. In the eternally famous opening lines “If music be the food of love, play on…” Orsino asks his musicians to overload him abundantly with melodical love-food that he will totally detest the craving for love. In these lines, Shakespeare presents love as undesirable, something that creeps on people suddenly and it cannot be circumvented. Orsino comment about the connection between romance and imagination further complicates this image. He relates the idea of intense love (“fancy”) in“So full of shapes is fancy / That it alone is high fantastical,” to that of imagination (that which is “fantastical”). Through this link,
According to The English Review, Duke Orsino has “full of devotion to an ideal of love.” He does not understand that love is not straightforward, and if you love someone, they might not love you back. Orsino loves Olivia, but Olivia loves Cesario who is really Viola. Olivia’s love is complicated. She decides to confess her love to Cesario by saying “Would thou ’dst be ruled by me!” (4.1.68). The confusing part of this encounter is that Olivia really says this to Sebastian, Viola’s twin brother, not Cesario. Olivia’s confusion is most likely not commonly found in the everyday world. However, her complex relationship shows how love is not simple. Olivia thought she loved Cesario/Viola, but in the end, she loved Sebastian. Now, Viola’s character shows the pain and complication of a silenced love. She loved Orsino the whole time she was pretending to be Cesario. She says that she would marry Orsino in the beginning of the play when she says “myself would be his wife” (1.4.46). However, she couldn’t act upon this love until her true identity could be revealed. Sounds very simple and easy does it
Malvolio is a social climber, he feels that if Olivia would love him his status would be higher. But because of
At first he pleads for the “excess of it, that, surfeiting” (I.i.2). For, music nourishes the soul; therefore he wants more of it. However, later in the soliloquy Orsino says that because of love, music “tis not so sweet now as it is before” (8). Shakespeare is already showing how Orsino tries to force passionate love for Olivia that it is not as sweet and fulfilling as it should be if it was genuine true love. This theme goes throughout the play and even comically plays out in Olivia’s forged love for Malvolio. Any type of false love in Twelfth Night comes to a crash landing at the end.
Orsino, in regards to Olivia, treats love and marriage as if they are only games to entertain himself with. In act one Orsino plays into the notion that women, in his case Olivia, are up for the taking. A common belief that is found in traditional marriage, especially in the upper class, is that women are essentially prizes for men to win. Orsino plays into this by explaining how much Olivia will love him once he wins her because of the strong affection she has for her deceased brother. He learns that Olivia has decided to make a vow to remove herself from society for seven years to mourn her brother’s death, yet Orsino