Orsino and Olivia
Orsino and Olivia are worth discussing together, because they have similar personalities. Both claim to be buffeted by strong emotions, but both ultimately seem to be self-indulgent individuals who enjoy melodrama and self-involvement more than anything. When we first meet them, Orsino is pining away for love of Olivia, while Olivia pines away for her dead brother. They show no interest in relating to the outside world, preferring to lock themselves up with their sorrows and mope around their homes.
Viola’s arrival begins to break both characters out of their self-involved shells, but neither undergoes a clear-cut change. Orsino relates to Viola in a way that he never has to Olivia, diminishing his self-involvement and making him more likable. Yet he persists in his belief that he is in love with Olivia until the final scene, in spite of the fact that he never once speaks to her during the course of the play. Olivia, meanwhile, sets aside her grief when Viola (disguised as Cesario) comes to see
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Love is generally represented as something sudden and irresistible, something that attacks its victim from the outside in a fashion similar to a disease. Like a disease, love is extremely difficult to get rid of or cure. People seem to suffer painfully from it—or at least they claim to suffer. Orsino describes it as an "appetite" that must be satisfied (I.i.1–3); Olivia calls love a "plague" (I.v.265); Viola sighs that "[m]y state is desperate for my master’s love" (II.ii.35). Because love makes those who suffer from it desperate, it has the potential to result in violence, as in Act V, scene i, when Orsino, thinking that Cesario is Olivia’s lover, threatens to kill him. At this point, the play is only a few delicate steps away from turning into a tragedy—a testament to how violent and terrible the power of love can
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 causes confusion for Olivia, Antonio, Orsino and herself by hiding her true identity. Olivia falls in love with Viola who is disguised as Cesario. Olivia is speaking to Viola in her garden when she says: “So did I abuse/ Myself, my servant, and I fear me, you.” (III.i.115-116).
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
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
He is one who is supposedly love-struck from the elegant and beautiful Olivia, yet she does not feel the same way. Instead, someone else feels the same regarding Duke Orsino: Viola (Cesario). Throughout the play, it is clear Duke Orsino is all about himself, as he places himself at the center of all situations, constantly repeating personal pronouns (Me, my, I) This complicated love triangle egotist Orsino encounters with his lavish lifestyle makes him a perfect form of communication for Shakespeare to share ideas about love and marriage. Some simple themes that Shakespeare communicates are that love is indeed something that occurs first sight, as with Viola, Orsino, and Olivia, but also that it is something one must learn that they cannot control. Viola, Orsino, and Olivia all realize this to a degree, and Orsino ends up changing his love for Olivia to love for Viola (other factors contribute as
This inconsistency is embodied in the Twelfth Night when Orsino is irrational in his pursuit of beautiful Countess Olivia, yet he cedes her without regret or uncertainty. The duke then falls instantly in love with Viola, who was formerly known to him as a man named “Cesario.” Moreover, it almost seems as if Orsino enjoys the pain and suffering that comes with romance. He continues to engage himself in the quarrels of love while he states that it is an undying appetite, yet he can say that love “is so vivid and fantastical, nothing compares to it," implying that love is obsessive and bittersweet. Through this sudden change and obsession of love even through pain, Shakespeare communicates that love is something fantastic, pleasing and passionate, and our desires for these things lead our love lives to be obsessive, incoherent, excessive and unexpectedly
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
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
This is the set up of many situations, such as the meeting of Olivia and Viola in which Olivia falls very quickly in love with Cesario ‘even so quickly may one catch the plague’ this is an example of unrequited love, or the ‘melancholy lover’ a melancholy lover is a lover which suffers from his/her love. The other example of unrequited love is again because of mixed Identities, Viola the other ‘melancholy lover’ in the play, loves Orsino but Orsino cannot return that love because he thinks she is a man so never would think that she loves him, but she also cannot reveal her love to him because she would then have to reveal her true identity, which cannot be revealed until the right time. Cesario/Viola talks about how she knows how Orsino feels because “My father had a daughter loved a man,” Viola talks to Orisno about how her ‘sister’ loved a man that
A person's desires for love is so powerful that they want the loved one all to themselves. This is an act of selfishness seen through Duke Orsino he tells Curio and Valentine his messengers that he was the first one who had fallen in love with Olivia, and that Olivia is refusing him only because of her dead
She became Orsino's best friend and he gives her the task of convince Olivia to marry him. As Viola became the best friend and the servant of Orsino, we can understand how Viola fell in love with him because she came in touch with Orsino. From the beginning of the play we can see how Shakespeare portrays love at first sight when Orsino is telling Viola to speak with Olivia about him, she said "Yet a barful strife!/Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife." (1.5.41-42) Viola is definitely showing us how she feel about Orsino. In fact, what makes me think that Viola is
This passaged showed that Olivia has fallen in love with Viola who she thinks is Cesario. Viola has come across to be cold hearted at times, and I did not expect that she would feel bad about what she has done. You can tell that she is starting to feel guilty for leading on Oliva. At the same time she is also thinking about Orion, and
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:
The way that Orsino poetically speaks to Cesario, gives the audience a hint that Orsino is already starting to have feelings for Cesario that would develop into more if he knew that Cesario is actually Viola.