Twelfth Night Olivia

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

Romantic desire is struggle ingrained within William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, strained by the nature of homosexual love. The depths of human sexuality are explored in Twelfth Night through the relationships between Duke Orsino and Viola as Cesario, Olivia and Viola, and Sebastian and Antonio. Twelfth Night represents homoerotic love in both radical and conservative ways, while furthermore questioning the boundaries of gender and disguise depicted by the relationships featured in the play. Shakespeare’s work is profound, since the play acknowledges homosexual love without punishment, and challenges if love is truly determined by gender, while also upholding

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 is the heartbreaking tale of a 17-year-old girl named Olivia. Her teenage mother (Lillian) committed suicide just three days after she was born by walking into the Mississippi River in the middle of the night. Olivia's grandmother, who she lives with, suffers with dementia and thinks that Olivia is actually Lillian. Many of the townspeople draw similar comparisons between daughter and mother and it feels like they're just waiting to see if Olivia will suffer the same fate as her mom when she turns 18.

Much of the first half of the Twelfth Night is about disguised identities and general misconceptions about who is actually who. The play opens on a note of melancholy and death, Orsino grieving because Olivia refuses to love him and Viola and Olivia mourning the deaths of their brothers. It is following a shipwreck that Viola disguises herself as a male, ensuring that confusion will be part of the plot. The idea of masquerading as a member of the opposite sex is a familiar device and the “complications, artificial as they may appear, are an essential part of the play’s complete development.” (Travers 308) It is interesting to note that unlike other comedies such as “The Tempest”, Shakespeare does not create an older generation who prevent the young lovers from being together; instead it is the perplexity about gender and that keeps them apart. Sebastian, Viola’s identical twin, is the solution to all of the problems, though his appearance does add to it for a short while. Viola, dressed as Cesario, is mistaken for Sebastian by Antonio, and is asked for the money that he gave to Sebastian. However, this type of confusion adds to the comic nature of the plot as the audience is aware of the concealed identities. Order eventually comes from the chaos, disguises are shed and identities are revealed. The appearance of Sebastian ensures that the marriage will be possible for the main characters; Viola is free to marry Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, although she

At the end of the movie, Duke Orsino is upset that Cesario would betray him like that but it was truly Sebastian, Viola’s brother. Viola finds out that her brother is alive and that he has married Olivia as Cesario. This leads to Orsino being pleased because Cesario is actually a girl. The play ends with Sebastian marrying Olivia and Viola marrying Duke Orsino.

The relationship between Viola's twin brother, Sebastian, and the man who cared for him, Antonio, can be viewed in different ways. Antonio could be just a good friend to Sebastian but it is more likely he is in love with him because of the other gender uncertainty relationships presented earlier in the play. Antonio divulges his feelings in the play with sayings such as, "If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant" and "I have many enemies in Orsino's court / Else would I very shortly see thee there / But come what may, I do adore thee so / That danger shall seem sport, and I will go" (31-32,40-43). This shows the love that he feels toward Sebastian that goes further than just friendship. Antonio is willing to risk his life

In William Shakespeare’s famous play Twelfth Night, he suggests the idea that homosexuality may not be inherently wrong, as sometimes people fall in love not knowing the real gender of their potential lovers. With three groups of people: Sebastian and Antonio, Viola (in disguise as Cesario) and Duke Orsino, and Olivia and Viola (Cesario), he poses the question: are humans naturally sexually fluid and what are the implications of this behavior? During the time this play was written, homosexuality was a controversial topic, was in fact punishable by law and many known homosexuals were often sentenced to death. Shakespeare approached the scandalous subject with a sense of humor and comedy, suggesting that it might not be as serious as people

In Act 1 of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Olivia falls for the reinvented identity of Viola, “Cesario”, the character she embodies along with her physical change. During her appearance earlier in the act, Orsino orders Viola to “unfold the passion of my love”(1.5.27). In the interaction between Olivia and “Cesario”, the actions Viola performs are merely for the expression of her disguise. Even the compliments where Viola refers to Olivia as “radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty” (1.5.169) are part of her cover to seem like a gentleman. Her dialogue about love where she explains how “my lord and master loves you”(1.5.252) and that “if I did love you in my master's flame”(1.5.266) is only told after Orsino orders Viola to describe his love

There are numerous examples of same sex romantic attraction and commitment in Twelfth Night, including situations where characters believe the object of their affection is the same biological sex as their beloved. One example of this is Sebastian and Antonio’s relationship. However, Antonio is attracted to Sebastian, who is of the same sex while Sebastian does not reciprocate the same feelings. Instead, he merely views Antonio as a friend. An example of Antonio’s commitment is during the scene when Sebastian decides to leave his clingy friend behind and tells the truth about his background. Antonio states, “If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant” (II.1.32-33). Antonio cares about Sebastian’s well-being, considering the

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.

In 'Twelfth Night’, gender and sexuality in many ways add to the play’s themes of madness. 'Twelfth Night ' is a reflection of renaissance thought and culture, the renaissance was a transitional period from the medieval to the radical Elizabethan era. The culture of the time was a contradictory one, as from one aspect it was influenced by the patriarchal medieval time, where women were under the rule of men and seen as needing the protection of men, however, from another perspective, the culture was a changing one as women were starting to receive education and many humanists believed that women should be given more rights. The play reflects these attitudes and often challenges the social hierarchy and establishes ideas on gender roles, sexuality and cross-dressing. These factors indeed undermine the expectations of male and female behaviour, and in turn further the play 's theme of madness which has a comedic effect on the audience due to the shock humour it provides.

     Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. In Act 3, scene 1, Olivia displays the confusion created for both characters and audience as she takes on the traditionally male role of wooer in an attempt to win the disguised Viola, or Cesario. Olivia praises Cesario's beauty and then addresses him with the belief that his "scorn" (3.1.134) only reveals his hidden love. However, Olivia's mistaken interpretation of Cesario's manner is only the surface problem presented by her speech. The reality of Cesario's gender, the active role Olivia takes in pursuing him/her, and the duality of word meanings in this passage threaten to turn the

In “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare, Olivia fabricated lies and deceived others to ensure an end to courtship by men she did not want to enter a relationship with allowing that courter to continue his pursuit because she never explicitly rejects his advances toward her.

In the famous comedy Twelfth Night, Shakespeare dabbles with the phenomenon of love. This is seen through his various characters who are forced to deal with the aspects brought on by love. Characters like Cesario, who is Viola dressed as a boy. In the play the characters deal with their problems around love. The three major characters that love seems to impact more than the rest are Duke Orsino, Lady Olivia, and her servant Malvolio. Each of these characters is affected by love and each reacts differently when in love to out of love. Their reactions to love are based on their behavior, their speech, and their relations with other characters.