William Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night

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

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

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

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.

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

In Act 5, Orsino delivers a speech to Olivia in order to express his broken heart and pine over his unreciprocated feelings. However, by drawing out the speech with allusions, excessive language, and metaphors, Shakespeare portrays Orsino as an overemotional and romance-driven character. Compared to Orsino’s first

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

This is Viola confessing her true feelings for Orsino. She is telling him that she is the one who loves him the way he loves Olivia. Viola’s love for Orsino is so deep and she has so much desire that it literally hurts her heart. She then continues to say that her father had a daughter who loved a man, yet she is her father’s

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.

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.

Shakespear portrays the women as fragile, with the way they act, and the way others act towards them, Viola is seen as a very emotional woman, who is in mourning for the death of her brother in (1.2.4) "My brother he is in Elysium", but at the same time falls in love with duke Orsino as shown in (5.1.130-131) when she says: "After him I love/More than I love these eyes, more than my life,". While Viola is in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with Viola who, while masquerading as a man is charged with delivering massages of love to Olivia. Olivia's love becomes obvious when in (2.2.21) Olivia, desperate to spend more time with Cesario/Viola sends Malvolio to return a ring to Cesario/Viola which had never been his/hers to begin with. Viola quickly

Viola contributes a great deal to the theme of Disguise versus Identity in Twelfth Night. Viola must bundle up her personal emotions which she has for

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.