Love in Shakespeare's Twelfth Nght

[b]How does Shakespeare present love through the characters of Orsino, Cesario/Viola and Olivia?[/b]

?O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, / That not withstanding they capacity / Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there, / Oh what validity and pitch so?er, / But falls into abatement and low price / Even in a minute.?
Orsino?s opening meditation on his unrequited love for Olivia encompasses all of the major themes of the play; love, self-love, excess, music and entertainment and the sea. The references to love and the sea identify with the major love triangle that takes place through the action of the play. Orsino compares the capacity of his love to the capacity of the ocean in its ability to be infinite and overpowering, and suggests the destructive nature of love, able to completely consume the mind and heart of a person and eventually destroy them, as Malvolio?s suit of Olivia eventually drives him to a presumed insanity. This metaphor also hints of the coming of Viola, and may well be spoken about her, as the personification of Orsino?s self indulgent love is to an extent irrelevant. It is in fact spoken about Olivia, who has taken a seven-year vow of chastity to mourn her brothers death. The idea of the ?spirit of love? expressed the detached nature of Orsino?s desire, its ethereal character.
Although Orsino is seemingly steadfast in his suit of Olivia, by the end of the first scene we realise that it is not her he is truly in love with, rather, he is in love with his own role as the irrational lover immersed in romantic revere. Like Narcissus gazing at his own reflection till he finally wastes away, Orsino is being destroyed by his imaginary love. He boasts of his 'unstaid and skittish? conduct while he displays it as a symptom of his self exulted status of a romantic lover, (demanding music and demanding it stopped). Orsino seems to wax hysterical about being in love, but it rapidly becomes apparent that he is deluded, and in fact in love with himself in the role of the archetypal Elizabethan lover. During the first scene, though it may appear that he is rhapsodising about Olivia, he is actually concentrating on himself. The words ?I?, ?me? and ?mine? occur ten times in this opening passage, and Shakespeare?s use of ?selfsame? intensifies not only Orsino?s description of Olivia, but also the focus on himself. However the repetition of ?O? as an emotional expression make it clear that Orsino is indeed feeling the ?pangs of love?, and persists after the unattainable Olivia even after being told she is entirely such. He listens to sad love songs, writing to her, moaning and crying because he believes that this is the way someone in love acts. The image of love as violent and cruel is taken up elsewhere in the text; Orsino?s love from the start is masochistic, compared to cupids ?golden shaft? and continued with the curiously violent image of ?th?Egyptian thief? when Orsino threatens to ?Kill what he loves?.
Another example of the violent intensity of love are Olivia?s words ?Have you not set mine honour at the stake, /And baited with all th?unmuzzled hounds thoughts / That tyrannous heart can think?? Olivia is referring to the Elizabethan sport of bear baiting. Olivia?s metaphor suggests that she is a bear and her love for Cesario resembles the unmuzzled hounds that tear at her flesh. This violent image is similar to the one that Orsino uses in the opening scene ?my desires like fell and cruel hounds / E?er since pursue me.? he compares himself to Acteon, set upon by his own dogs, again describing the destructive element of his love, his own ?desires? destroying him. Olivia is now feeling what Orsino felt for her, she too is being rejected, and yet she persists in her own deluded fantasy, she is in love and such are the effects of love. The image of Acteon is one of the play?s many classical allusions, these lines again highlight the destructive abilities of love, particularly illusory love. Orsino is also continuing the hart/heart pun on Valentine?s earlier question as to whether Orsino intends to hunt that day. Through his presentation of both Olivia and Orsino Shakespeare appears to be sending up the very nature of love, especially unrequited love.
?Poor lady, she were better love a dream? Viola laments. And she may do, for just as Orsino wallows in ?love thoughts? of his own creation, Olivia is in love with the concept of man, not the reality. Malvolio too falls pray to believing dreams to be real. His personal fantasy of being his Lady?s lover he presumes to have come true when he finds a letter addressed to him stating so. ?Why, thou hast put him in such a dream that when the image of it leaves him, he must run mad.?
The play is dominated by a man who seems to be in love with a woman who does not return his love, and this woman herself is in love with a woman she believes to be a man. Viola?s brother seems to be drowned, and Sebastian believes his sister to have died during the shipwreck. Shakespeare displays though the love triangle confusion as a part of love. Shakespeare uses the comedy behind Viola?s gender transformation to explore the concept that romantic love is not always selective by gender. In the course of the play we are presented with a series of same-gender love situation (Olivia for Viola, Viola for Orsino, Antonio for Sebastian) that parallel the ?legitimate? love relations (Orsino for Olivia, Viola for Orsino, Maria for Sir Toby). The result is a unique comedy that uses gender and disguise to revile one of the plays chief messages; ?nothing that is so is so?.
Why Viola conceals her gender is the cause of much debate, Viola is the main protagonist of the play, the crazed world of Illyria is seen from her perspective. When arriving here she asks the captain ?present me as a eunuch?, perhaps fearful of her virtue, perhaps unwilling to accept the female role of complete passivity just as Olivia is unwilling to submit to Orsino?s advances. The Elizabethan role of women was completely subservient to men; Eve was made of Adam for the sole purpose to comfort him. In this play Shakespeare has created unusually strong female characters, very unlike the two extremes in female character usually portrayed on the stage (either ideal of the virgin Mary, if not they must be witches and/or whores). Through Viola Shakespeare seems to be celebrating the female potential for honour, loyalty and truth.
However at the end of the play he does a good job of putting her back in her place, he commends her for her actions ?so much against the mettle of your sex /?your soft and tender breeding?, yet his marital bond to her seems dependent on her ?woman?s weeds?, or her becoming his wife, not his equal. It is important to note, however, she freely chose this role, it is a personal choice based on her own desires. Perhaps this is Shakespeare advocating woman?s roles as domestic help and mothers, or perhaps this is yet another example of Viola?s boundless love for Orsino. She is willing to sacrifice all she has gained as a man for his love and marriage.
?So full of shapes is fancy that it alone is high fantastical? the essence of these lines is that love can take many shapes and forms, most of which are explored in this play. Not only that but it can also be highly imaginative, or entirely imagined in the case of Orsino. The word ?fancy? is often associated with love in Shakespeare, particularly when love is illusory or deceptive. Orsino?s over romanticised love for Olivia is deceptive in that his love is presented as fancy; he loves with his eyes and only imagines that his love comes from the heart. The notion of fancy, or imagined love sets up the situation for Orsino?s journey in the play. He needs to be cured of his illusory fancies about love to discover what true love really is. But does this happen? By the time the play has spun dizzily to its happy resolution, when all the deceptions are revealed, is Orsino a changed man? He still remains as fickle as at first, having within minutes of swearing his ever-passionate love for Olivia instantly switched his affections to Viola he declares her his ?fancy?s queen?, a phrase fiercely reminiscent of his previous deluded love for Olivia. So he still remains as fickle and ?high fantastical? as ever.
In their first meeting there is little doubt that Cesario recites the words of his master, the concept of ?divinity? being broached quite early, an echo to the way Orsino sanctified Olivia as a ?cloistress?. Cesario is the messenger and a strong distinction is drawn between herself and her master, she is blunt as herself, sometimes verging on rude, questioning Olivia?s beauty ?if God did all?, but poetical when carrying Orsino?s message. Yet Olivia confuses the two adding to the theme of confusion in the play. ?How does he love me?? she asks of Orsino after being adamant she would not hear of his love, a tribute to Viola?s skill at arguing. This quick turn about of feeling is reminiscent of Orsino?s fickleness in love, another sign of Olivia?s increasing passion in the scene. She quickly changes her language from prose to poetry, the language of love to further reveal her growing emotion. She answers to Orsino?s conquest with a list of things she likes about him, his ?estate? and ?fresh and stainless youth, yet these things do not seem to fit in with Orsino?s character, we can assume by ?youth? she is complementing Cesario, and so blurring the line between lover and messenger. Olivia asks what Viola/Cesario would do in she had her master?s passion, Viola answers in her own words, perhaps drawing on her own affection for Orsino, her words are much more delicate and passionate than those constrained by Orsino who crudely echoes the traditional language of the sonneteer who would ?argue? in his love poems that his lady, in refusing his address would be denying the world her beauty - as immortalised by her offspring. The ?willow cabin? speech is that of a typical lover using common imagery of the time and romantic stereo types. This hyperbole could be a dig at Orsino or all the typical lovers of the time. The image of ?loyal cantons? also echoes the mocking love songs within the play?.
Olivia too seems to have changed little by the end of the play. She has taken up a parallel with Orsino, being in love with man, not a man as she first thought. Maybe Viola has awakened her to the pleasures of men, as she may have awakened Orsino. She quickly switches her affections to her husband Sebastian, not the man she has fallen in love with, but to her eyes close enough.
The idea of physical attraction is apparent throughout the play. Orsino?s attraction to Olivia seems to be made up of her appearance and a web of delusion Orsino has spun around himself. ?O when mine eyes did see Olivia first, / Methought she purged the air of pestilence;? in this quote it is clear that Orsino?s love for Olivia is based on his first sighting of her; his love is about seeing rather than a meeting of minds. In his opening monologue Orsino refers mostly to the senses, his senses most importantly, and never to personality or the mind of the one he loves. The common idea is that he is cured of this by Viola, dressed as Cesario viola seduces him into a love based not on physical feeling, but of s spiritual and emotional bond.
However I don?t think this is true, as it seems that Orsino?s attraction to Viola is largely based on looks ?Diana?s lip / Is not more smooth and rubious;? Olivia too identifies with the notion of love at first sight ?Methinks I feel this youth?s perfections?creep into my eyes' she is overwhelmed by the looks and charm of Viola/Cesario. Just as Orsino?s love for Olivia is ?fancy? so is Olivia's sudden and violent emotion towards Viola/Cesario, yet this is also a comic moment for the audience as Olivia breaks her vow of seven year grieving, indeed is completely broken with the honest and extravagant reactions to this ?young man?. This comic edge echoes that of Orsino, as he wilts and whines for love, so is she taken up in a mad frenzy of passion.
Orsino?s obsession with beauty reflects back on himself. I think he knows himself to be getting older, which I think is the main reason for him adopting Cesario as a prot?g?, ?she will attend the better in thy youth?, he says, admitting that his looks have faded. ?Being once displayed fall that very hour?, a line Orsino speaks about women in general, however he could also be speaking about himself, these lines are written in poetry and full of the imagery and language Orsino usually uses to describe the one he loves. Yet, we presume he?s not talking about Olivia, who?s ?beauty truly blent? is praised throughout the play. The only other person Orsino loves at this point is himself, so could these lines be describing his own lost youth? If so he would be comparing himself to a woman, to feeling the emotions of women, another example of gender confusion, even when Orsino himself is laying out the strict rules of gender division.
I think the crux of this play is wasted life and wasted love. The play ends on a sour note ?the rain it raineth every day?, a song sung by Feste lamenting the life of a wastrel and drunkard. Orsino may, if Viola had not arrived, have wasted his life in pursuit of an unattainable love. Olivia may have locked herself away grieving for her brother, a situation Feste has already reproached, ?more fool?to mourn for your brothers soul?. Sir Toby and Sir Andrew drink and dance and do little else, Malvolio?s love was a pitiful joke and his life henceforth wasted away in the darkhouse. Cesario dies when viola takes up her ?woman?s weeds?, the symbol of her femininity and becomes as women were back then, her husbands chattel.