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How Does Shakespeare Reveal The Character Of Orsino

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Shakespeare immediately conveys the character of Orsino when he writes— "If music be the food of love, play on" hinting that he will be the most over the top character that Shakespeare has ever created. This would be unusual for 17th century Shakespeare viewers as they would have expected him to write about happy or funny comedic people. Shakespeare does this to shock and entertain his confused yet utterly amused 17th century audience. Duke Orsinos entire opening speech is filled with words such as "excess," "surfeiting," "appetite” “sickening," and "dying fall," words which show the duke to be sentimentally in love with love, also again expressing how dramatic he is. By ridiculing Orsino through his language choices, Shakespeare is able to show a 17th century duke in another way. …show more content…

Shakespeare does this as he tries to make Orsino different to any other role play duke and by doing this he not only had the 17th century audience hooked but now in the 21st century we are just as hooked in by Shakespeare as they would’ve been. Orsino has seen Olivia once, and the very sight of her has fascinated him to such an extent that his romantic imagination allows him to believe that he will perish if Olivia does not agree to be his wife. Therefore, this romantic, melancholy indulgence is the crux of the play because the duke uses Cesario (Viola) as his bait to get Olivia to be his. He claims he is a true lover, yet he knows nothing or has any experience in the presence of being in love, so also deluded. He has no idea that viola is in love with him even though she has subtly been dropping hints at Orsino. Orsino doesn’t realize that Olivia doesn’t love, him further proofing how self absorbed he

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In his play, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare has his characters participate in the practice of deception and dishonesty of others - after all, the foundation of Shakespeare’s play resides within a lie. One of the major deceptions in the play is executed by the Illyrian countess, Olivia, as she repeatedly claims to need solitude to mourn her brother’s death in order to avoid Duke Orsino and his obsession towards her. This deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole by adding the thematic message, deception and dishonesty is sometimes the better option when it comes to love.     From the beginning of the play, Olivia is introduced as the grieving countess that has recently lost a brother.

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The character of Antonio in Twelfth Night was almost a requirement for the plot that Shakespeare delivered; not only did he provide a gift that connected the two characters of Sebastian and Cesario, but he also provided an example of devoted love. The devoted love that Shakespeare portrayed through Antonio’s speeches and actions provide a striking contrast to the love that Duke Orsino had throughout the plot. Even the gift that Antonio presents in the play is a symbol of his greater love compared to any of the other characters. Shakespeare uses Antonio to oppose the Petrarchan lover theme, as a tool to connect characters and to prove the final message of the play; undying love has no boundaries.

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The question of why Olivia, after dramatically declaring her affections for Cesario, would so quickly jump to Sebastian after finding Viola’s true identity, is likely answered by the societal norms of the Elizabethan era. Cesario and Viola are two halves of one whole; by loving Cesario, Olivia loves Viola too. Upon meeting “him,” Olivia says “Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions and spirit/ Do give thee five-fold blazon” (1.5.297-298). She is attracted not just to Cesario’s mannerisms, but to Viola’s beauty, which shines through her male bravado. The “actions and spirit” which Olivia refers to are Viola’s ability to converse with Olivia woman-to-woman, unbeknownst to the countess.

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She wins a position at the court of young Duke Orsino (Liam Brennan), who is desperately in love with the Lady Olivia (Mark Rylance). The Duke sends his new page to stand before Olivia 's gate and press his case. But there are complications: Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Olivia falls in love

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Vanity, one of Twelfth Night 's major concerns, is displayed throughout the play by characters who are plagued with emotional conditions which prevent them from loving others. The lives of Illyria 's Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia, for example, remain circumscribed by vanity and narcissism. Similarly, Olivia 's steward, Malvolio, remains encumbered by vanity and narcissism, while Olivia 's Uncle Toby shows himself to be selfish, and his drinking partner, Sir Andrew, stands as a caricature of vanity. In contrast, Viola, an outsider shipwrecked upon Illyria 's shore, suffers solely from grief for her sea-drowned twin brother. In further contrast, Olivia 's lady-in-waiting, Maria, displays none of these characteristics, but instead operates as the play

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This raises the question over love’s true meaning and whether what Orsino feels is truly “love,” or something else entirely. Shakespeare in his play Twelfth Night uses Orsino’s feelings to prove that feelings perceived at first to be love may actually be lust. The main difference between love and lust has to do with time. Built and

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The first instance which supports the notion that a lapse of communication is responsible for the unsuccessful nature of heterosexual relationships is the case of Duke Orsino and Countess Olivia’s relationship. Both start the play preoccupied with their own concerns, Orsino is worried about finding love, specifically with Olivia, meanwhile she is busy mourning the death of her brother by refusing to marry anyone for seven years. However, it is Orsino’s obsession with seeking love and how he goes about pursuing Olivia that best exemplifies the problematic nature of a male and female’s relationship. Orsino opened the play by saying of love, “Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, / The appetite may sicken and so die” (1.1.1-3), essentially saying that he so badly craves the feeling being in love gives him, that he would like in so great a quantity that it would end his life.

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In Twelfth Night, Viola and Olivia are the central characters to the play’s plot. Each are young women that take approaches to dealing with the people around them, which are mainly men. There is much trickery that goes on in Twelfth Night, but the ending is for the most part happy. Viola marries Orsino and Olivia marries Sebastian, but the events leading up to this are more or less chaotic. Ultimately, I argue that while Olivia uses her higher social status in order to maintain control of herself and others, Viola resorts to trickery in order to bring about her desires.

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Shakespeare uses Viola (Cesario) as an example of a mechanism that can throw internal conflicts into temporary chaos. Viola willingly faces whatever comes in her way. Her love for Duke Orsino seems too constant and true, unlike the other characters in the play. The temporary chaos of the play is when Viola falls in love with Orsino, who falls in love with Olivia, who on the other hand falls in love with Viola’s disguise, Cesario. This love triangle is very complicated as none of them realize that Cesario is a woman, making this an internal conflict for Viola, as she cannot ‘truly’ love whom she wants.

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As he states that all lovers are, “Unstaid and skittish in all motions else / Save in the constant image of the creature / That is beloved.” (2.4, 20-22). This demonstrates Orsino’s misunderstanding of the concept of love, as it seems that true love means fickle and erratic according to his definition. Furthermore, in disguise as Cesario, Viola also unintentionally exposes the passionate nature beneath the courtly manner and mourning veil of the “virtuous maid” (1.2, 32), as she causes Olivia to fall in desperate love with Cesario.

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