The True Love Between Viola and Orsino, as Compared to Other Relationships in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

409 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare drama literary analysis

In Twelfth Night the relationships are anything but romantic. Shakespeare writes from the male point of view which implies an un-easy split between love and physical charm. In Twelfth night the romance is falsely produced by selfish desire. Duke Orsino and Viola stand out from the other relationships. By questioning the relationships between the other couples, Shakespeare highlights the true love between Viola and Orsino and the fake relationship of Malvolio and Olivia which is truly based on Malvolio’s desire of a higher status , despite his status and his personality , Malvolio tries to impress Olivia by dressing up in ridiculous clothes , which does far from his aim , and repulses Olivia. Twelfth Night consists of a large number of love triangles, however many characters are too indulged in love that they are blind to the untrue, and the weakness of their relationship, they are deceived by themselves and many people around them ( ex. Malvolio is tricked by Sir Andrew, Feste ,Sir Toby and Maria),but there are certain incidents where the love is true and two characters feel very strongly about one another. In the play, Viola and Orsino have the most significant relationship. The way they interact with each other causes the complexity on which the play is all about, their relationship turns from strangers to friends then lovers .In the First Act Viola is not honest with Orsino because she disguises herself as a male servant named Cesario in order to get closer to the duke. Orsino. Orsino quickly trusts Cesario and sends him to Olivia to declare Orsinos Love for her, the girl he most dearly loves. This quick bond is the fast example of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Viola thinks her brother (Sebastian) is dead (after they’re deadly boat crash, where they get separated) when actually he is alive and thinks she is dead, Viola always seems to have a part missing from her which shows her bond with Sebastian is strong, and a part of her but in a brotherly/sisterly way rather than a proper relationship like viola and orsino, At the end of the play they meet and both fall in love , Viola with Orsino and Sebastian with Olivia.

Show More
Related

  • Othello - Compared To Twelfth Night

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    In stark contrast to the dark and tragic "Othello," is one of Shakespeare’s lightest and funniest comedies, "Twelfth Night." The theme of love is presented in a highly comical manner. Shakespeare, however, once again proves himself a master by interweaving serious elements into humorous situations. "Twelfth Night" consists of many love triangles, however many of the characters who are tangled up in the web of love are blind to see that their emotions and feelings toward other characters are untrue. They are being deceived by themselves and/or the others around them.

    Read More

  • Gender Identity And Alternative Sexualities In Twelfth Night, By William Shakespeare

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.

    Read More

  • Twelfth Night Character Analysis Essay

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    The protagonist of Twelfth Night is Viola, the central character in the play, a likeable, resourceful and attractive young woman. At the beginning of the story, Viola is shipwrecked with her brother Sabatian. Fearing that Sebastian is dead, she decides to dress like a man in order to get a job with Duke Orsino. Viola, in love with Orsino, is asked by Orsino to court a woman for him. She finds herself in an unusual love triangle.

    Read More

  • Viola's Disguise in Twelfth Night

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    to get involved in a scuffle, for which Viola is unjustly blamed. Finally Sebastian and Viola are reunited, but only after they have already caused a large amount of chaos and confused everyone. It is only then that everyone begins to discover the extent of Viola's trickery. More disorder is created when Olivia, who Orsino is hopelessly in love with. with, falls for Cesario, who is secretly in love with Orsino.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Twelfth Night

    2141 Words  | 5 Pages

    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 play continues, Cesario falls in love with the Duke, and Olivia falls in love with Cesario, who is really Viola disguised. Maria, Olivia’s servant woman, desires to seek revenge on Malvolio, Olivia’s steward. “To the delight of Sir Toby, Olivia’s uncle, and his friend Sir Andrew, Maria comes up with a plot to drop love letters supposedly written by Olivia in Malvolio’s path. When she does, they observe him, along with Fabian, another servant, as Malvolio falls for the bait. Believing that Olivia loves him, he makes a fool of himself” (Napierkowski 3).

    Read More

  • Male Identity And Sexuality In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    2046 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night the great bard uses humor and mistaken identity not only to poke fun at romantic stories of “perfect love” and the foolish behavior of the aristocrats, but also to reveal man’s anxieties surrounding courtship, gender performance, and love as a whole. The portion of the play I have chosen to analyze are lines 188-256 in Act 5 scene one when Sebastian enters the stage and discovers Viola alive. The siblings give information about themselves to determine each other’s identity before Viola finally reveals herself to be female, allowing the farce to come to an end and the characters to return to their normal roles. Viola then declares her love for Orsino and he accepts her affections. While this scene is certainly

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Sea In Twelfth Night

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    As prescient and insightful as this evaluation may seem after considering the outcome of Twelfth Night’s romantic pairings, it reads as a very shallow perspective rather than any sort of wisdom – to the Duke, love is never permanent, lasting, or constant (just like the nature of the tides, it always changes). Duke Orsino has no concern whatsoever for Olivia’s feelings of grief after the loss of her brother – she is merely an object of his desires at the moment, and as his eventual courtship with Viola proves, he is extremely fickle in his affections. (Even before Viola’s disguise became apparent, Orsino showed some signs of attraction to the male Cesario – this raises a few questions about exactly how far his romantic indecisiveness

    Read More

  • Love In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    1226 Words  | 3 Pages

    Love is an essential human desire. Once it is caught, dramatic, unexpected changes in ones life occur. Protecting the people one loves is a natural instinct that cannot be controlled. William Shakespeare demonstrates this in Twelfth Night through the relationship between Antonio and Sebastian. Furthermore, Viola continues to ensure the happiness of Orsino is met even if that means sacrificing the happiness of herself. Also, love is evident when one pays attention to, and dedicates himself to the small details in other peoples lives. William Shakespeare demonstrates in Twelfth Night the nature of true love through loyal friendship, bold romance and secretive love.

    Read More

  • True Love in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    1979 Words  | 4 Pages

    Unlike the other characters in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", Viola's feelings of love are genuine. She is not mistaken about Orsino's true nature and loves him for who he really is, while the other characters in the play seem to be in love with an illusion. Viola's love for Orsino does not alter during the play, nor is it transferred to another person.

    Read More

  • The Concept Of Love In William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    What is love? In William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night love is nothing more than another disguise. It is an illusion that fools everyone. Orsino, Olivia, Sebastian, and Viola do any of them find love in the end? No, they find nothing more than a disguise, an illusion of love. By analyzing each of these characters, their thoughts and feelings of, and their experiences with love throughout this play, we can determine that in the end, none of them have found true, genuine love.

    Read More

  • The Perplexity of Love Demonstrated in Twelfth Night

    2184 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Twelfth Night, the character Viola, who cross-dresses as a man named Cesario, is used to show how true love is capable of breaking gender barriers. Viola is an amiable character who has no severe faults. The audience can clearly detect that Viola's love is the purest because unlike Orsino and Olivia, her character's love is not narcissistic and does not jump from one person to the next. In other words, her actions are motivated by deep and abiding passion rather than whimsical choices. Viola's main problem, however, throughout the play is one of identity. Because of her costume, she must be both herself and Cesario. Thi...

    Read More

  • Homosexuality In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her attraction for Cesario comes from his gentlemanlike and submissive behavior that she immediately recognizes. Though Orsino is not portrayed as necessarily “masculine” throughout the play, it is the overall declared gender roles in her society that make her feel that she would be dominated in the relationship. The time period of the play also may be a factor in her decisions throughout the play. Many may argue that, after Cesario admits that she is a woman, Olivia’s feelings for Cesario diminish because she is only attracted to men. However, after finding that Cesario is, indeed, a woman, Olivia immediately refrains from showing much emotion and, therefore, never responds in a way to deny her love for Cesario. This reluctant silence is due to the fact that in her society the idea of her being in love with a woman is something that is generally left as unspoken, since it is considered unnatural. According to Bruce R. Smith, a common editor and Shakespeare lecturer, during the Renaissance period, there was no definition to identify a man or woman that was attracted to the same sex (Smith 11-12). Therefore, Olivia has no way of describing or understanding her personal situation, because this issue had never been raised in her society. This, not the lack of attraction to women, is what keeps Olivia from pursuing Viola. Certain aspects of Olivia’s emotions after the discovery of

    Read More

  • Twelfth Night Essay: Appearance vs. Reality

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Shakespeare's, Twelfth Night has many themes, but appearance vs. reality is the theme that illustrates a different picture from two perspectives, there are many characters behind their masks and disguises. Some are hiding love behind these disguises and some are trying to show their love through a different disguise. They both still being servants are using disguise differently. Malvolio, servant of Olivia, falls in love with the trap (the letter) thinking his lady likes him, and to show his love he uses a different appearance to express it. Viola, servant of Orsino, falls in love with him, but secretly, not wanting to express her love for him, because of her disguise as her barrier for that case. Viola/Ceasario is wearing a disguise and secretly loves Orsino. Malvolio, on the other hand, is also a servant but still changes his appearance to express love for the great lady Olivia. This essay will prove that disguises and appearances are symbolic of the characters named Viola and Malvolio and are differently used for both.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    To conclude, though Twelfth Night’s main plot revolves around melancholic romance, what truly makes it a comedy is the erratic mood set by sub-plots to recall that of the festival with the same name. In the play, both Maria and Malvolio, servants to Olivia, show great aspirations to rise high above their social classes. However, Maria, being much more in-synch with the offbeat mood of the household, succeeds easily in marrying a nobleman, while Malvolio, stiff and pompous, just fails miserably. The conclusion to the play, which is contrary to what viewers would ever hope to happen in their real lives, succeeds in bringing enjoyment to all the lower-class people who watched it. Although the play includes many clever paradoxes, it is first and foremost a play created to entertain servants on their fun-filled rare day off.

    Read More

  • The Purpose of the Sub-plot in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

    2034 Words  | 5 Pages

    Twelfth Night or What You Will is one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It has been performed hundreds of times and adapted into a number of modern films. The main plot of the play follows Viola, a girl who is rescued from a shipwreck and enters into the service of the Duke Orsino disguised as a man. Rising quickly in his estimation, Viola begins delivering messages of love on his behalf to Olivia, a noble woman who has no interest in Orsino’s advances. Over the course of the play Olivia falls in love with the disguised Viola, Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Viola’s twin brother Sebastian, who supposedly died in the shipwreck, returns. Following Sebastian’s return the twins are mistaken for each other, leading to both misunderstanding and marriage in the final scenes of the play. Alongside the main plot of Twelfth Night is an almost equally prominent subplot involving Malvolio, a servant of Olivia, who falls in love with her and who falls prey to a prank planned by the other members of the household who despise his abhorrence of fun. In the article “The Design of Twelfth Night” by L.G. Salingar, Salingar examines the plot and structure of the play and addresses the significance of the subplot. The purpose of this essay is to examine both evidence from the play and articles from other authors, with a focus on Salingar, who have written on the subject in order to determine the purpose of the subplot. In his article, Salingar comes to the conclusion that the purpose of the subplot is to provide a comic mirror of the main plot while amplifying the main themes of delusion, misrule and festivity. Salingar presents a solid argument, however he has neglected another lesser but significant element of the sub-plot which illustrate...

    Read More

More about The True Love Between Viola and Orsino, as Compared to Other Relationships in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Open Document