Music in Twelfth Night Essay

At the beginning Orsino has an infatuation with Olivia before even meeting her because tales are told about her beauty. When Olivia and Orsino meet for the first time he says, “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 shows that the Duke’s passion has already grown past healthy levels. This can be seen by him insinuating that his desire needs to be sated which isn't healthy for either recipient. Orsino continues to fervently pursue Olivia throughout Twelfth Night by giving Cesario sickening notes begging Olivia to accept his proposal and to return his love. However the Duke may not be infatuated with Olivia especially, he could be an eager, over-passionate lover. This is proved when near the end of the play when Viola’s true identity is revealed. Olivia reveals her affections for Sebastian and the fact that they already married. Orsino is momentarily in disbelief but then Viola declares her love for him and he realizes all of her advice for Olivia was meant for him. This causes him to declare her his fancy queen and that he wishes to see her in a lady's clothes “Give me thy hand and let me see thee in thy woman’s weeds” (5.1 279-280). His actions and sudden shift in attraction proves that the Duke is perhaps a lonely bachelor who

Though Orsino seems to have his eyes set solely on Olivia, he also looks at “Cesario” with some interest, commenting, “Diana’s lip is not more smooth and rubious, thy small pipe is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound, and all is semblative a woman’s part” (I. iv. 34-37). He recognizes some key features in Viola that pique his interest, but does not show his love for her because she disguises herself as a man. Shakespeare presents him by showing his ability to notice Viola’s masculine and feminine features, unlike with what he does with Olivia which he only looks at the broad characteristics that consist only on her shallowest features. Later on, he goes as far as to propose to Viola, “Meantime, sweet sister, we will not part from hence. -Cesario, come, for so you shall be while you are a man…Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen” (V. i. 407-411). To contrast Olivia’s swift rejection of her own love for Cesario because of “his” gender, Shakespeare presents Orsino as a character who quickly accepts Viola’s love for him, regardless of her current state of gender. However, unlike his stubborn, selfish desire for Olivia, Orsino’s blossoming relationship with Viola transfers his desire into a more selfless aspect of true love.

In the context of other works of the era, the Orsino found in the opening acts is a common character of the time. He woefully mopes around pining for love, without cause or action, because he feels the need to be loved. This side of Orsino sets up the development of his relationship with Viola and provides a comparison for the other couples in the play. Shakespeare used this character type as both a narrative device and a nod that the “common” plays and poems of his day missed the mark on what the true concept of love is.

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.

The play opens with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, expressing his deep love for the Countess Olivia. Meanwhile, the shipwrecked Viola disguises herself as a man and endeavors to enter the Duke’s service. Although she has rejected his suit, the Duke then employs Viola, who takes the name of Cesario, to woo Olivia for him. As the

Music permeates Twelfth Night immediately in Act 1 Scene 2 with Orsino’s opening declaration of love ‘ If music be the food of love, play on’ (lines 1-2), through this he is established and characterised as an extravagant lover, indulging in his hyperbolic passion for a woman who does not return his love. His language is full of romantic clichés such as ‘…was I turn’d into a hart’ (line 21), this metaphor allows Shakespeare to not only intensify the exploration of the genre of

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

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

As this journey ends in these lovers meeting, a counter-argument may assert that Orsino is not truly in love with Viola since he proclaims a love for Olivia only moments before. Throughout the play, however, he actually falls in love with Viola underneath Cesario; he simply does not realize it until the end. Despite Cesario’s identity as a man, Orsino cannot help but adore Viola’s female attributes that shine through the disguise: “Diana's lip / Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe / Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound, / And all is semblative a woman's part” (I.5.34-37). Later, Orsino interviews him about a woman that Cesario has apparently fallen for; little does Orsino know that he himself is the “woman” that Viola as Cesario

It's possible Orsino was relieved when Viola revealed her identity because he was already in love with her when she was disguised as

In the play, Orsino devoted almost all of his waking thoughts to Olivia and his unrequited love for her. But in the film version, he often changes his romantic interests between Olivia and Viola, or other girls in the school. “I'm goin' out with Olivia”, he says casually. However, Viola is shocked and hurt at this quick change of heart and exclaims: “What the hell?! I thought you liked Viola now”. Orsino, confused that a fellow ‘man’ is appalled by his decision, says: “Dude, come on. You're a guy. What would you do if the hottest girl in the school came up to you and asked you on a date”? Here in the film Orsino was previously going to go on a date with Viola, but when Olivia, his original crush, saunters over to make Viola as Sebastian jealous, he ditches Viola to focus his attraction towards Olivia again. As stated, the play version of Orsino never doubted his proclaimed adoration for Olivia as seen here: “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 turn'd into a hart; /And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, /E'er since pursue me” (1.1.37). His everlasting love for Olivia is as obvious as it is potent as her distaste for

Enough no more!” (1.1.6-7). He accentuates his original metaphor by personifying music and comparing it to a breeze that carries the flowers odor with it. Until line 8, Orsino does not mention his love explicitly. Instead, he establishes the feeling of yearning by referring to symbols of love such as music and flowers. Orsino ends his long speech with, “Even in a minute, So full of shapes is fancy./ That it alone is high fantastical.” (1.1.14-15). By stating that love is a wonderful figment of imagination, Orsino reinforces the previous metaphorical and vague language he uses in the beginning of the speech. “That it [love] alone is high fantastical” (1.1.15) also shows that he is a true romantic because he is in love with the concept of love rather than the person themselves. Furthermore, he line, “…Enough no more!” (1.1.7) contradicts with the previous line, “Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,” (1.1.4) which proves that Orsino is very dramatic in character because he constantly vacillates in his actions and desires. He is emotionally unstable at times in the play and thus acquires a dramatic behavior.

Shakespeare presents Orsino as furious and irritated at Olivia’s constant refusal of his love and starts noticing how Olivia is not the perfect woman he claims she is while discreetly implying a shift of his romantic feelings for someone else (Cesario/Viola).

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:

A key interaction occurs between Orsino and Viola regarding the capacity of a woman's love. Orsino speaks to Viola (who is currently disguised as Cesario):