William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night Or What You Will

Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night is a critical Elizabethan-era work that explores attraction and sexuality within the relationship between Viola (as Cesario) and Duke Orsino. Her role is one of steadfast love towards Orsino; she willingly courts Olivia on his behalf as Cesario, burying her feelings for him because she cares that he is happy. There is a rigid dichotomy between Viola and Orsino’s passion; where Viola is steady, Orsino is inconsistent. Feste states directly to Orsino that his “mind is a very opal” (2.4.71) which implies he is constantly changing what he wants and is more in love with the idea of love rather than Olivia. Duke Orsino’s evolution from a typical Petrarchan lover to passionate love, through trials of gender confusion

This rejection of love is doubled between Olivia and Orsino. The duke sends messengers to Olivia to declare his love to her and refuses to give up. She has clearly grown tired of this, and when Viola (Cesario) first arrives, she tells her steward to say she is “sick, or not at home” (1.5.104). To complicate matters more, both of the ladies suffer from unrequited love. As described previously, Olivia is denied love from Viola. Similarly, Viola herself is denied love from Orsino. In these ways, the parallels between Olivia and Viola’s relationships highlight that being rejected of love and rejecting love are both universal occurrences in the lives of human beings.

From a child’s first words to a grandparent’s last, the phrase “I love you” is a staple of the human vocabulary. Defined as “a passionate affection for another person,” love takes on many forms throughout life and literature (Merriam-Webster). Through its passionate drama and witty repartee, Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, explores the intricate, and often complicated, realm of interpersonal love. By tracing the intertwining storylines of four unique characters, Shakespeare communicates the futility of self-love, the desperation of hopeless love, and the immeasurable virtue of selfless love. An after-effect of human’s sinful condition, self-love manifests itself in the heart of a lowly servant, causing vanity and conceit. Hopeless love, bleak and austere, causes love-sick nobility to develop deep infatuation for unattainable partners. Lastly, selfless love aids an honorable woman in diligently serving her master. Throughout the entire storyline, all forms of love perform an integral role. In his play, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare demonstrates the complexity of love through the selfish ambitions of Malvolio, the romantic passions of Orsino and Olivia, and the self-sacrificing devotion of Viola.

Even though she is falling for Duke Orsino, she continues to be a man, and help him get Olivia. “My master loves her dearly, and I, poor monster, fond as much on him. Ands he, mistaken, seems to dote on me. What will become of this? As I am a man, my state is desperate for my master’s love.” (Act II. ii) She even delivers love letters from Duke Orsino to Olivia. Her love for Duke Orsino is growing, and the pressure is building up. Although, she keeps staying strong and continues to help him. Another example is in Act II. iv. Viola and Orsino discuss love, and the beauty of love. Viola starts to hint about loving Orsino, her passion and love for him taking over. Even though he doesn’t notice, her determination to be Cesario starts fading. “Too well what love women to men may owe, In faith, they are as true of heart as we. My father had a daughter loved a man. As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman, I should your

What do the words “love,” trickery,” “misogyny,” and “madness” all have in common? They are a few general themes that embody Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Twelfth Night. The story begins when the main character, Viola, finds herself shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria and begins her new life disguised as a man. Complications arise when she gets stuck in a confusing love triangle, and her thought-to-be-dead brother mysteriously arrives with his caretaker. When everything is said and done, all the happy couples celebrate and the Scrooge of the group, Malvolio, stays locked up in his secret little madhouse. This story has been modified for many uses such as the purpose of comprehension, parody, and modernization. I viewed two different versions: the first being the original script with young actors, and the second being a modern parody with young actors. The first version aims to provide accurate representation of Shakespeare’s work, with young actors for education. The second is purely comedic with a modern twist that is more ridiculous than it is realistic. The setting, word choice, and camera effects all contribute as adaptations from Shakespeare’s original Twelfth Night in order to entertain or educate their audience.

In Twelfth Night, twins Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked and end up ashore on the isles of Illyria. Having lost one another, Viola assumes the identity of Cesario her male persona, to safely move about through the kingdom. As Cesario, Viola finds employment in Duke Orsino’s court with the help of the ship’s captain’s. Viola finds herself attracted to Orsino but gets caught between the crossfires for her passions as a woman and loyalty to the Duke. This internal crisis is further intensified by Orsino’s infatuation with Countess Olivia, in which “Cesario” acts as an intermediary between them.

Orsino falls in love with Viola thinking it is Orsino, Olivia with Viola as Cesario and so on. Olivia’s actions in courting Cesario would overturn the traditional gender structure if Cesario was in reality a man, but because of the female gender setting, Olivia’s assertiveness is less provocative and more humorous. They use cross dressing as a way to immediately fix a problem they face. Shakespeare reads transgression in renaissance writing. Olivia is not accepting any guests or new ladies-in-waiting, and that is when Viola decides to cross-dress into Cesario, a eunuch, for the service of Duke Orsino. Viola sees how many problems her actions are causing once she starts using the term pregnant. solidifies the many issues that cross-dressing creates, such as ambiguous moral implications, gender boundaries, questions of criminality. QUOTE Viola also refers to her cross dressing as a protection, or security. So she does not blow her cover. She has so much allowed her initial intent to hide her identity and protect herself in this new land to become the main reason for her act forbidden by law.

In the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Viola is disguised as Cesario, but remains strong in her feelings for love towards Orsino. For example, after Orsino confides to Cesario about his love for Olivia, he tells her to go “address thy gait unto [Olivia](1.4.16)” despite the fact that “whoe’er [she woos], [herself] would be his wife (1.4.46).” Viola has to go set up the grieving Olivia with Orsini, the one she secretly loves and wants to marry. She obeys the wishes of Orsino, silently dying to be with him while watching him swoon for another girl. Viola has a strong will and self control to stand by and watch the one she loves love another and set them up together.

Every major character in ‘Twelfth Night’ experiences some form of love or desire. Shakespeare exhibits intricate love triangles within the play that are only resolved when order is restored. ‘Twelfth Night’ derives much of its comic force by satirising the lovers in the play. Love in the play is generally represented as something that is irresistible, spontaneous and overpowering. Shakespeare portrays it as being dangerous and is compared to disease and suffering. In the first scene of the entire play, Orsino describes music a cure for the absence of love, “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.” This metaphoric phrase establishes love as a theme within ‘Twelfth Night’

William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night can easily be interpreted as a romance play. Given that the majority of the characters in the play in some way or another fall in love, but there are many twists that come with these romantic relationships. Some of the characters fall in love with the same character, others fall in love with a character that loves another, who actually loves another causing a chaotic love triangle. Within every romance a character is tragically hurt, turning the romance play into more of a tragedy. Throughout the play the characters throw around a rigid construction of the term “love,” that of a desire and not an actual feeling. Therefore, again turning the play away from a romance play, but now turning it towards a mocked romance play. The aspect that is manipulated causing all the misinterpretation is the representation of the term love, which is implicated by using multiple characters different scenarios of their love. The main characters reside in somewhat of a love triangle, Olivia, Viola, and Orsino. Love is often aligned with lust, stability, and class. None of which defines love as a sense of true selflessness. In the representation of love the reader interprets no selfless actions done to express their love to one another. Love is shown more as an obsession implied on the thought of love with respect to many alternative motives, which also show a lack of love being understood by the characters. In result, of the various representation of love

In the land of Illyria, Duke Orsino, a nobleman, falls in love with the wealthy and beautiful, Olivia. As the play starts off, Orsino sends his messenger, Cesario, to deliver a message to Olivia expressing to her how much Orsino loves her. Because Cesario is young and handsome, Orsino believes that she will listen to him since she has not listened to anyone since her brother died. Viola begins to fall in love with Orsino after realizing how passionate he is for love and that he would go out of his way to try to express his love to Olivia: “I’ll do my best / To woo your lady. Yet a barful strife! /

Consequently, Viola learns that in the role of Cesario, she had to be quick on her feet and defend the probing questions and statements as to her love and others love for her. Also, she acquired the skill to bide her time, until the time was right, in case she reveal her true self or intentions.  The disguise also prevents Viola from expressing her love for Orsino, it contributes to the dramatic ironies by causing complications of mistaken identity. Moreover, Viola cannot show her love for Orsino, the only way she can express them is in her soliloquies to the reader, this contributes to the dramatic ironies. For example, when Viola conveys to Orsino what Olivia told her concerning love by saying:

The Duke showed his unpredictable nature when he learned that Cesario was a girl. Upon realizing that Cesario was actually Viola, he fell in love with her. Moments earlier the Duke threatened to murder Cesario for Olivia’s love. The Duke is persistent, for four acts of the play the Duke’s love for Olivia was intense. He refused to stop loving her despite her resistance. “Once more, Cesario, Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty” (II.iv. 80-81). The Duke is domineering. He tried to convince everyone that Olivia was possible of loving him. The Duke disregard his employees’ guidance to forget Olivia and he forced them to second his opinion. For example, Cesario told the Duke that he should refrain from his continuous attempts to make advances on Olivia. The Duke responded by making a speech that reinforced his love for Olivia and stated his belief that she could not comprehend the strength of her love for him. The Duke’s behaviour is unorthodox, comparable to Malvolio’s surreal

Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, written by Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, centers around the convoluted and shifting nature of love. The play makes a point that the ways in which love and affection are expressed and interpreted differ amongst the different social classes. Count Orsino and Lady Olivia, representing the upper class of the nobility, demonstrate their love in grand, impersonal gestures, whereas Viola, whose status is slightly lower, does so in a selfless, more authentic manner. This stark difference in how these two classes perceive love is also seen in how quickly the feelings of Orsino and Olivia change for their love interests once someone new comes along. The nobility has little to no sense of what genuine love is, which is seen in both their frivolous displays of affection and how quickly they are able to fall for someone new.