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Not only did Viola’s disguise cause a sort of chaos with Orsino, it affected others in Illyria, mainly Countess Olivia. Though Viola’s original purpose for the ruse was to gain knowledge aiding her in her search for Sebastian, she has added other functions to the midst. One function is her job with Orsino acting as a mediator between him and Olivia. Viola never thought she would become a messenger. She was far too consumed with the thoughts and concern for her missing brother. It seems that fate intervened bring Viola to Orsino. The issue arises as Viola continues to deliver messages to Oliva on Orsino’s behalf. Olivia becomes infatuated with Cesario, hinting again at a homoerotic relationship. This was a circumstance Viola did not anticipate. …show more content…
Robert Kimbrough, author of Androgyny Seen through Shakespeare’s Disguise offers a completely different critique on the sexuality in Twelfth Night. Kimbrough interprets the staging for an Elizabethan audience by explaining how boys would have played the female roles, and sexuality would not have been an issue (Kimbrough). This type of thinking is practically impossible for modern audiences. Modern audiences are accustomed to hints geared towards others sexuality. Today’s audience would pick up the fact that Viola is disguised as Cesario, a man; whereas, the Elizabethan audience would have been more oblivious to this. Stephen Greenblatt, one of the most famous new historicist, also explains his opinion regarding sexuality in Twelfth Night. In his article Fiction and Friction, he examines the topic of homoeroticism and how it is definitely an issue in Twelfth Night. He …show more content…
Orsino and Olivia were attracted to Viola because of her disguise. This disguise changes reality for the characters as well as for the audience. The audience is will to allow and accept that Olivia is attracted to Cesario as long as Olivia does not find out Cesario is actually a woman (Greenblatt). In another article by Greenblatt, Invisible Bullets, he elaborates on how Viola’s disguise helped to eliminate bias that audience might have concerning the characters. He states that cultural perceptions are easily changed or destroyed with the use of disguise (Greenblatt). The homoerotic nature would have been overlooked with the Elizabethan audience. Greenblatt states the audience is aware that Olivia and Cesario’s relationship is destined to fail. In the time period, a homosexual relationship is impossible. Once Viola’s disguise is removed, all the romantic problem would be solved. However, she is unable to do so until her ultimate goal is fulfilled. Greenblatt presumes that if her disguise is removed too soon, it would hinder the search for
The play Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare is a 1601 comedy that has proven to be the source of experimentation in gender casting in the early twenty-first century due to its portrayal of gender in love and identity. The play centrally revolves around the love triangle between Orsino, Olivia, and Viola. However, Olivia and Orsino both believe Viola is a boy named Cesario. Ironically, only male actors were on the stage in Shakespeare’s time. This means that Olivia, Viola, and other female characters were played by young boys who still had voices at higher pitches than older males.
Viola's situation is precarious due to the liminality she has experienced throughout the play . She could live freely away from the society's authority behind her transformation, but the liminality she faced caused her troubles in expressing her true feelings. She is in between her femininity and her twin brother adopted masculinity. But soon as her disguised is discarded, she returns to her proper situation voluntarily accepting the role that the society imposes on her: the role of a wife.
In the first act, when Viola shipwrecks off the coast of Illyria, she is rescued by a captain and believes her twin brother has drowned. In the realization that she no longer has male protection and is alone in a male-dominated society, Viola decides to disguise herself as a eunuch named Cesario and serve Duke Orsino. By doing this, she is intentionally deceiving Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio, Sir Toby, and Sir Andrew for her own personal safety.
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.
A supposedly noble Duke Orsino is suffering due to his unrequited love for the Lady Olivia. The Lady Olivia, however, is also suffering due to the recent deaths of her brother and father. Her way of mourning them involves her hiding behind a veil or disguising herself from the truth and refusing male company: 'But like a cloistress she will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine'. Disguise creates confusion when a character named Viola becomes shipwrecked in Illyria, a place previously unknown to her. She has been warned of the dangers of being alone in Illyria and decides that it is best if she disguises herself.
Oliva witness Viola, who she perceives to be her husband, Sebastian, declare her love for Duke Orsino, another man. Olivia thinking that her husband “detests” her, “[calls] forth the holy father,” to verify their marriage (5.1.128, 131). The humor in this altercation stems from the incongruity theory. Olivia does not expect Viola (or Cesario) to act the way she does and her subsequent “freak-out” causes the audience to laugh. Olivia does not change her personality at all in this scene, nor does she use change the way she talks.
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.
Viola, as Cesario, manages to win the favour of Orsino He truly believes that she is a he. Orsino, still convinced of my majesty, believes that he can win the love of a woman, via a proxy. By having Viola merely read the words he has prepared, he thinks that Olivia will fall immediately in love with him. But while Orsino had his head in the clouds about his love, Viola is attempting to conceal from him, her love for him.
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.
Finally, Olivia officially tells Viola (Caesario) that she loves him after Viola delivers another message to Olivia. Olivia tells Caesario that she has been in love with him ever since she first saw him, and that she cannot hold it anymore. She cares not about what her society would think about her for falling in love with a person not from her class. The reader knows that Viola is not interested at all in Olivia since she is in love with Orsino. Lady Olivia’s love for Caesario illustrates a universal truth about life that when someone is in love, he/she will do whatever it takes to show the other person that they love them. They are willing to sacrifice everything they’ve got for their love. In this case, Olivia is sacrificing her social status and reputation.
Although Viola might be able to relate to Olivia's grief at first, her love for Orsino is so great that she cannot understand why Olivia would deny him. When Olivia expresses affectio...
Today cross-dressing is still used as a form of entertainment. In Twelfth Night Shakespeare uses a theatrical tradition of transvestitism in which the actor’s and character’s real identity is covered by clothes, voice, and gesture of the opposite sex, although sometimes the character remained the same gender. (“Clothing.” Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern Worl...
Viola/Ceasario's disguise hides most of her past: the shipwreck, her lost brother, and the fact that she is a woman. Her identity now as a man, is to move on in life and get a job. Her love for Orsino is hidden with her original identity, as though she works for him as his servant. She is a very strong character in the play. "I prithee (and I’ll pay thee bounteously)/ Conceal me what I am, and be my aid/ For such disguise as haply shall become/ The form of my intent. I’ll serve this duke." (1.2.52-55). After the shipwreck and the loss of her brother, Viola decides to move on using a disguise as her shield. Viola’s secret love for Orsino is different than the way Olivia loves Ceasario. Olivia is in lo...
Throughout Twelfth Night, disguise and mistaken identity works as a catalyst for confusion and disorder which consistently contributes towards the dramatic comic genre of the play. Many characters in Twelfth Night assume disguises, beginning with Viola, who disguises herself as a man in order to serve Orsino, the Duke. By dressing his protagonist in male garments, Shakespeare creates ongoing sexual confusion with characters, which include Olivia, Viola and Orsino, who create a ‘love triangle’ between them. Implicitly, there is homoerotic subtext here: Olivia is in love with a woman, despite believing her to be a man, and Orsino often comments on Cesario’s beauty, which implies that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed. However, even subsequent to the revealing of Viola’s true identity, Orsino’s declares his love to Viola implying that he enjoys lengthening the pretence of Vio...
Love however, is the source of much confusion and complication in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night. Men and women were seen as very different from each other at the time the play was written, they were therefore also treated in very different ways. Because of this Viola conceals her identity and adopts the role of a man, in order to better her safety whilst being alone on the island, and to get a job at Count Orsino’s court. In the play Shakespeare uses the gender confusion he has created from obscuring characters identities to explore the limits of female power and control within courtship, and their dominance within society. Violas frustration surrounding her inability to express her feelings to the Count because she is a woman is an example of the limiting rules of courtship which were upheld at the time. (Aside) ‘yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Here she is already expressing her anxiety and emotion at being a woman, and having to keep her emotions hidden from those around her. She longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and in her disguise as Cesario she finds an opportunity to vent her feelings for the Count, but concealed as his words and towards Olivia. Viola is unaware of how her words may sound to Olivia because she is aware of their gender boundaries however Olivia isn’t and soon falls for Cesario. Because Olivia is a Lady and head of the household, and especially how she lacks a father figure, she has a lot more freedom in courtship. Duisinberre comments on this saying, ‘...Viola and Beatrice are women set free from their fathers, and their voice is that of the adult world.’ This is seen when Olivia immediately takes the dominant role in her and Cesarios relat...