In Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Shakespeare uses the two households of Olivia and Count Orsino to create two distinct worlds. Shakespeare openly invites a comparison between Olivia and Orsino in making the two so alike. Both are sole rulers of their households, and both in love with a lost cause. However, the two households are governed by two different sets of rules. In Olivia’s court, the diverting and fantastical things overshadow reality, whereas Orsino’s court exists in a down-to-earth universe that follows stricter rules, making happy endings harder to achieve. The Countess Olivia’s world is fantasy masquerading as reality. It is a world where Olivia’s random love is validated and whimsy has license to roam free. In the court of …show more content…
Orsino’s world is like the nonfictional world; it is reality that makes no allowances for personal happiness. Yet, Orsino holds onto the dreams of fantasy, believing that they can pass into reality. Though a romantic at heart, he never forgets other important matters. He attends to Antonio’s imprisonment as the ruler he is, maintaining law and order. At Malvolio’s last lines, Orsino is the one to make allowances for the man, saying “Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace” (TN, V, I, 380). Despite his strong sensibilities, Orsino still manages to love the arts, calling music “the food of love,” sighing wistfully as lovers do and passing time dreaming of a fantasy life of marrying Olivia that is out of reach for him (TN, I, I, i). Perhaps in another play, Orsino would earn the love of his lady. He can speak beautifully, he is kind, of good standing, shares musical and comedic tastes with Olivia, and loves her passionately. Yet, the rules that govern both his world and ours, the sobriety of realism, do not ensure that things work out the way that one would hope. Olivia’s household is the common setting for all comedic plays, a land of unlikely possibilities; Orsino’s household is the audience itself, stuck in a reality where things are not as interesting or entertaining, and where happy endings seem farther out of …show more content…
Viola, while in Orsino’s house, is wishing for the impossible - for her to reveal herself as a woman and marry her true love. In Olivia’s house, however, the impossible, for two women to wed in Elizabethan times, is what almost happens. Viola is distraught by the lack of fiction with Orsino; fantastical reveals and requited love seem impossible in his home. Ironically, when fantastical things happen in Olivia’s house, Viola is obviously disgruntled by the insanity of random fights to the death, and the repercussion of Cupid’s arrows carelessly thrown about. When Sebastian enters the plot, he makes it clear that life in Olivia 's world feels like madness. It should not be the case that he can arrive to a beautiful, rich woman who is already in love with him, and yet he knows he is not dreaming. In the end, being with Olivia earns Sebastian a new title, a wife, and a new estate. Furthermore, where Olivia could have annulled their mistaken marriage, she keeps their ties. Sebastian’s friend - Antonio - is not so lucky as to stumble upon Olivia’s estate. Orsino’s men, find him, which means that no deus ex machina can appear to save him, and no clever joke or ploy will fix his predicament. It is not until everyone is together, when reality and fantasy meet, that he is saved from
Sebastian, the twin brother of Viola who was lost at sea after a shipwreck, and Lady Olivia are the first to marry, but things are not as they seem. During the weeks leading up to matrimony, Olivia fell madly in love with Cesario, who though looks and sounds just as Sebastian, is truly Viola dressed as a man. Sebastian does not realize this as he meets Olivia for the first time. He is amazed that a woman of her statue and beaut...
Complications also arose when viola fell in love with her master, duke orsino, while at the same time had the love interest of orsino, the countess Olivia, trying to woo her. This placed viola in an extremely difficult and complex situation on one hand, she loved the duke and would have liked to do all she could to win his heart. But because she was his servant, she was obliged to serve him and help him win the hand of Olivia. What was a poor girl to do ?
According to Elizabethan society, the center of Olivia’s dilemma with her marriage was ensuring her wealth, not marrying a man she loved (Joseph 170). Social class increases division among individuals in society. This play “ is not the story of a Juliet's or an Orlando's love .., but of the very realistic struggles and intrigues over the betrothal of a rich Countess, whose selection of a mate determines the future” (170). Readers looking past these boundaries created by class and gender, can find striking similarities in emotions characters have for each other. The personal struggles the characters face in this play demonstrate the obstacles that individuals faced because of their gender or place in the social hierarchy.
If you mean well,/ Now go with me and with this holy man/ Into the chantry by. There, before him/ And underneath that consecrated roof,/ Plight me the full assurance of your faith,/ That my most jealous and too doubtful soul/ May live at peace. He shall conceal it/ Whiles you are willing it shall come to note,/ What time we will our celebration keep/ According to my birth. What do you say” (Act IV. iii)? This quote from the play is important because it is showing that Olivia is not afraid to break the gender role standards by asking Sebastian if he will marry her. Even today it is uncommon for women to ask the man for marriage and being that she did, not only is it breaking a strict gender role, but it is showing that as a woman, Olivia is not afraid to ask for what she wants even if it is a not so popular act. Not only is Olivia an extremely strong character in this play, but Viola is also just as strong, if not stronger. Viola’s strength is uncovered right in the beginning of the play when she says to the captain; “There is a fair behavior in thee, captain,/ And though that nature with a beauteous wall/ Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee/ I will believe thou hast a mind that suits/ With this thy fair and outward character./ 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./ Thou shall present me as an eunuch to him./ It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing/ And speak to him in many sorts of music/ That will allow me very worth his service./ What else may hap to time I will commit./ Only shape thou thy silence to my wit” (Act I. ii). These lines of Viola’s from the play do an excellent job of showing just
She does not spew out all the reasons why she loves Othello or say that she is unavoidably attracted to him as she could have. Instead, she picks a practical reason –
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...