Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

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

Olivia tells Viola after listening to her message from Orsino, “I cannot love him. Let him send no more- unless perchance you come to me again to tell me how he takes it” (I. v. 285-287). Evidently, Olivia does not want any part in Orsino, even when he sends his heartfelt poems and messages to her. However, at no point does Orsino ever try to talk with her, and never meets Olivia in person (until around the time he discovers Cesario as a woman named Viola). Shakespeare uses this information to show how a lust for someone without knowing her/his true personality and attitude cannot consider itself genuine love. Even Olivia eventually starts to look into Orsino’s true personality and character, and develops a more genuine and developed love for him than his initial love for her. Claiming that he will remain faithful to Olivia, Orsino instructs Cesario, “Say my love can give no place, bide no denay” (II. iv. 136-137). Shakespeare foreshadows through Orsino that true love stays with the lover, as opposed to desire which has a tendency of having a short term of phase. Just as quickly as it starts, Orsino’s “love” for Olivia comes to a close when he realizes that Viola has true love for him in the

Although Viola faced a lot of confusion and conflicts she was equipped to handle this because she was mostly causing it by cross dressing and lying about who she truly was. But, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andres, servants to Olivia, all decided to play practical jokes on Molvolio. By giving Molvolio a note and disguising it to look like Olivia’s hand writing, they caused Molvolio to make a fool of himself. The note left him directions to behave and dress a certain, this caused ignominious Molvolio to become confused. By being deceitful and conspiring, Sir Toby, Maria, and Sir Andrews colors shined through. Not to mention, Molvolio’s true self became evident after misidentifying the letter. Molvolio became arrogant and was filled with self-importance, but when things became clear and Molvolio discovered the note was not written from Olivia he became embarrassed. He could not move forward, forgive and forget, so he left. This is how misidentification can cause conflicts and cause character’s true selves to shine

In Twelfth Night, the protagonist of the story, Viola, is displayed as a rational, sacrificial, sincere, strong, witty woman, who disguises herself as a man, to become a faithful attendant of Orsino. Viola is one with sacrificial and patient love, willingly loving Orsino, and attending to his every need. Orsino, on the other hand, is shown as an emotional man, who has superficial and transient love for Olivia. This love is very abruptly shifted to Viola at the end of the play, when Viola reveals her true identity. Through this contrast of these two individuals, we can see that Shakespeare makes a distinct different between genders, and allows to draw a contrast between characters to think deeper into their characters and purpose in the story, beyond their surface appearances.

It stands as Olivia loves Cesario/Viola, who loves Duke Orsino who loves Olivia. Each character suffers in sorrow as they cannot have who they desire, because of status, gender or love for another.

There is also the idea that Olivia's power and beauty causes many to fall for her. Orsino, Sebastian, Sir Andrew, and Malvolio all are in love with Olivia, but it may just be the shallow love for money and beauty and not one for true love that causes this. Sebastian agrees to marry her without ever

himself just to suit his outlook on the situation. For example, the play he twists Olivia's words around to make it seem like she likes his yellow cross-gartered tights when in reality she dislikes them. Sir Toby just considers himself and no one else, not even his companions. He ignores Maria's notification about drinking into the night, and he continues to push Sir Andrew and Olivia to court. Even though he believes that Sir Andrew doesn't have a chance. Olivia considers the all-inclusive community around her, yet she furthermore assumes that no man is meriting her brilliance. She assumes that she is "all that," and that no one can organize her. For Shakespeare to incorporate this sort of just a single was most likely to demonstrate that Malvolio who thinks excessively of himself isn't right about Olivia cherishing him.

“The element itself, till seven years’ heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view;”. (1.1.26-27) Although the death of her brother, may have been a tragedy, she vows to mourn by cloistering herself inside with no life outside of her mourning. She is preoccupied with her own feelings of grief (love for her brother), which makes her self-involved and foolish. One can understand that mourning your lost brother is normal okay, but however, doing it for 7 years is preposterous . In Olivia’s situation of love, she is encrusted around the love and lost of her brother. Olivia, spends all of her time at her court, instead of engaging with the world around her due to her outrageous decision. She's also preoccupied with her own feelings of grief (love for her brother), which makes her self-involved and foolish. The play shows how love is a romantic idea, but if the individual is very self-involved, the result will be unpleasant. Olivia had a huge passion for Cesario, becoming more and more desperate for his affection. Since Olivia has sworn off men for 7 years, and trapped herself in her own court she sends her head steward Malvolio to fetch Cesario her love. Olivia attempts to woo the young Cesario by and repeatedly lureings him to come back to her estate by using various tricks and forcing him to love her back. and problems. However Olivia, has some sentimental feelings for someone else. Because

Firstly, he suggest Orsino’s annoyance and anger towards Olivia’s unrequited feelings for him with an aggressive question ‘what, to perverseness? You uncivil lady’. The noun ‘perverseness’ connotes actions that are contrary to what’s right or good and this symbolizes the constant refusal of Orsino’s talks of love from Olivia, revealing that Orsino thinks Olivia not reciprocating his love for her is the opposite what she should do. Further emphasizing this idea is the adjective ‘uncivil’, further indicating that Olivia is being rude and ungrateful for not accepting his love. Orsino’s narcissistic remarks are unsurprising for the audience as during the start of the play he already asserts claims for Olivia’s love in Act 1 Scene 1 in ‘these sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d her sweet perfections with one self king!’ The semantic field of power suggested in ‘king’ and ‘thrones’ depicts him wanting to command her feelings in favor of him. The stresses on the pronouns ‘what’ and ‘you’ builds up

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.

Shakespeare implies that the character Olivia thinks Malvolio is self-centered ‘O you we sick of self-love Malvolio’. Shakespeare makes it clear to his audience that although Olivia trusts and respects Malvolio his opinions, however outside of business Olivia doesn’t respect Malvolio. Shakespeare also suggests that Olivia is sick of self-love through the way she word her question. Also Shakespeare suggesting that Olivia herself is sick of self-love through way her pride of rejecting her suitors. Shakespeare shows clearly that Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and the she expects and trust him in following her instructions ‘Go you Malvolio. If it be a suit from the count … what you will to dismiss it’. Shakespeare shows that Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and she expects and trusts Malvolio to follow her instruction and to cast away suitors, whatever it takes. Shakespeare insinuates the reason why Malvolio thinks he can woo Olivia,

In the later part of the play a different side of him is exposed. Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and his job is to manage Olivia’s house; he is her chief servant. It’s a very responsible job that he takes very seriously. He enjoys telling people what to do.

Maria and the conspirators decide to mislead Malvolio into thinking that Olivia is in love with him. Maria decides to lead him on by writing a letter, but means to be from Olivia. This love letter is meant to instruct Malvolio to do actions that Olivia despises. Maria is able to mislead Malvolio because she has the same print and seal as Olivia. Shakespeare is able to trick the characters and create many portrayals of them.

Meanwhile Olivia's drunkard uncle, Sir Toby; his pawn in the story Sir Andrew Aguecheek, are trying in his hopeless way to court Olivia with Sir Andrew. When Sir Toby takes offense at Malvolio's, the houses Stewart, constant efforts to spoil their fun, Maria engineers a practical joke to make Malvolio think that Olivia is in love with him. She forges a letter, supposedly from Olivia, addressed to her beloved, telling him that if he wants to earn her favor, he should dress in yellow stockings and crossed garters, act haughtily, smile constantly, and refuse to explain himself to anyone. Malvolio finds the letter, assumes that it is addressed to him, and, filled with dreams of marrying Olivia and in hopes of becoming noble he, happily follows its commands. He behaves so strangely that

Through the play each character’s behavior is changed. The biggest change in behavior was that of Malvolio who began to believe in his own delusion. This delusion made him believe that the fair Lady Olivia loved him. His delusional state got him locked up in a shackles and isolated. This state of mind is an effect of love for him. Then the Lady Olivia’s behavior when she is not in love is a melancholy state. She had just lost her brother and her