Count Orsino appears to be engrossed in the idea of being in love and when he realises Olivia is in love with Cesario his zeal turns to rage and wants to ‘kill what I love – a savage jealousy.’ This is typical of Orsino’s character of amplifying his emotions.
Olivia also represents slightly exaggerated, passionate and sentimental emotions. Her fixation on the death of her brother suggests similar personality to Orsino. The length of time of mourning is unrealistic, and she is simply exaggerating the period of time required to mourn. Her mourning is so inward-looking it has lost touch with reality. Feste the jester, wittily explains to her ‘the more fool, Madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul being in heaven.’
Ironically Feste plays the fool, yet he is the wisest character in the play as he is able to present the audience with a higher knowledge of the plot than that presented by the other characters in the play. Shakespeare characterises Feste to be ‘better a witty fool that an foolish wit.’ He is able to look upon the unfolding scenario with the detachment of an outsider due to his minimal involvement with the action.
Olivia in contradiction to Orsino provides the physical appearance of mourning but doesn’t engage in the mental emotions.
‘Give me my veil;
come throw it o’er my face.’
This implies that Olivia is a character that is passionate and acts on impulse rather than logically. Her intentions of grieving are unrealistic and she instantly faces difficulties, as her mental emotions don’t allow her to carry out the physical act of mourning. Her impulses also attract her to Cesario, who ‘pity’s’ her. Her passionate desperation causes her to consider Cesario’s pity as a ‘degree to love.’ The audience is aware of the dramatic irony of the situation. Olivia’s is prepared to marry below her social status, and displays the zealous attitude she has.
Viola’s love however is true, selfless and deep. She displays honesty, loyalty and integrity towards Orsino even though she is aware that he has feelings for Olivia.
‘Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house,
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night.’
Even when realising Olivia is in love with Cesario she remains empathetic towards her rather than consideration for her own position.
‘Poor lady, she were better love a dream’
Viola’s faithfulness towards Orsino is constant throughout. She carries out the duties of charming Olivia for him; ironically it is Cesario Olivia falls for instead. Her loyalty displays the unconditional love she has for Orsino. Viola’s initial lies create an increasing web of deceit, however when the confusion unravels it is her honesty and integrity that shine through, and Orsino realises this.
The subplot deals with the minor theme of self-love. It also provides a comic relief from the confusion and seriousness of the main plot, and emphasises the comical genre.
Twelfth Night’ addresses the issue of self-love and how its effects peoples lives. Malvolio’s character personifies this error in society. The minor characters intend to humiliate and ridicule Malvolio who is ‘sick of self love.’ He is lead to believe by Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Fabian and Feste that Olivia has fallen in love with him. They use his own self-love as a weapon to teach him a valuable lesson about egotism. He seems too interested in the status he would gain. Malvolio personifies pompous and conceited attitudes in society and explores the idea that self-love is purely for gain.
Other characters that feature in the sub-plot are Sir Toby and Maria. Their relationship whilst comical does display suitable pairing as they both offer similar views of love.
Sir Toby and Sir Andrew’s relationship however relates back to the theme of appearance and reality. Sir Toby is tricking Sir Andrew into thinking that Olivia is attracted to him and shares his feelings in order to spend his money. However once Sir Andrew realises the truth he leaves feeling he has been taken advantage of.
The play uses exaggerated characters in order to create a stereotype for which the audience can easily recognise in society. These characters are intended to explore the underlying themes of the play, which is largely based on the misconception of appearance and reality. Shakespeare relies heavily on the use of dramatic irony in order to convey these themes. The audience is aware of the reality however the characters are misguided by their own emotions.
There are instances in the play where true love triumphs and Viola’s love for Orsino is an example of this. Although she is pretending to be a man and is virtually unknown in Ilyria, she hopes to win the Duke’s heart. In act 1 scene 4, Viola confesses her true feelings for Orsino;
‘Yet a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife’
This subsequently comes true when Viola reveals her true identity.
Platonic is the third type of love expressed in ‘Twelfth Night’ there are great bonds created by friendship, which can withstand external forces, which is clearly seen with Cesario and Orsino.
The ease in which Olivia accepts Sebastian as her husband, and Orsino shifts his affections to Viola, reflects the different attitudes towards love.
Orsino and Olivia are both in love with the idea of being in love that they can easily change their emotions. However, the happy ending in the play could be due to Viola. As she is the character that actually feels unconditional love, it could be Shakespeare’s attempt to show that it does have its rewards. She is also the character with the most positive outlook and has faith in the power of love. She pleads ‘O time, thou must untangle this, not I, it is too hard a knot for me t’untie.’ This in a way shows her belief in time and in good. Viola is aware that her lies has created a web of lies and should be resolved. Her prediction proved accurate, as all the main characters find love.
In other aspects Shakespeare knows that Orsino and Olivia shouldn’t be punished for their perspective on love but shows that they won’t achieve what they always set out to. Therefore, Orsino wouldn’t be with Olivia neither would Olivia have Cesario.
The play’s characters also explore a tabooed subject within society. Although Shakespeare hasn’t written in a profoundly obvious manner, it does appear to the audience that there is an underlying theme of homosexuality.
This is displayed in the relationship between characters of the same gender. Orsino’s fondness towards Cesario does display platonic love, which later evolves into marriage with Cesario’s alter ego Viola.
The romantic attraction that Olivia feels towards Cesario also emphasises the idea of homosexuality, as Cesario is simply a disguise for Viola, who too is a woman.
Antionio could be a representation of the sexual preferences within society, which would be his apparently sexual attraction to Sebastian.
The events of the play is unlikely to occur in its time frame however this allows the audience to realise that it is fictitious, and easily engage in the stagecraft Shakespeare uses. The stagecraft allows a comical relief from the complexities of the main plot keeping the audience entertained.
The language used by each character relates to the attitude they hold towards love. Orsino and Olivia both quite passionate characters and use diction such as ‘excess’ whereas Violas language is much more subtle and filled with realism.
Shakespeare ends speeches in rhyming couplets signalling to the audience the importance of the speech. It also emphasises the theatricality showing that Shakespeare is able to manipulate the language highlighting the fact that it isn’t real.
The stagecraft Shakespeare uses enables him to carefully place characters so that their interactions are appropriate and don’t ruin the build up to the concluding scenes. The scenes of ‘Twelfth Night’ are carefully woven together in order to create tension and humour, and to prepare us, almost subconsciously, for what is going to happen.
Shakespeare has also incorporated Feste cleverly, as he is an unbiased character that provides commentary for the audience that can be easily confused by the action. Feste’s songs are ironic and are used to remind the audience that it isn’t reality.
In Shakespeare’s attempt to explore the theme of love as well as highlighting the main types of love he also successfully educates us on the meaning behind love. Twelfth Night is a play about desire. As it intends to explore the confusion between what people think and what they really want. Love is exclusionary; some people are therefore able to achieve romantic happiness, while others do not. At the end of the play the happy couples rejoice, and those who deserve it achieve romantic happiness.
The end of the play is filled with sentiments much like the rest of it. Shakespeare provides the audience with a blissful ending leaving Malvolio the only character that is plagued with self-love, alone and humiliated. Love, thus, cannot conquer all obstacles, and those whose desires go unfulfilled remain no less in love but feel the sting of its absence all the more severely.
Shakespeare successfully presents various forms of love and explores how the complications of love often stem from various disguises, which may hide one’s true intentions, and it also explores the varying attitudes people have towards love. It illustrates that hardly anyone in the play is impervious to the pull of love in one form or another, whether it is the self-love of Malvolio or the paternal love that Antonio has for Sebastian.
The contrasts between love of oneself and love of somebody else runs through out the whole play.
The play deals with one main theme but also highlights the underlying issues that accompany it. Shakespeare provides an entertaining play with a great deal of moral justice. The deserving characters are rewarded with marital bliss whilst others are humiliated by their own self-interests.
It is based around the theme of appearance and reality. Many of the characters create a disguise built on lies, later to have their true intensions shine through. It leads the audience to consider that one basic theme, love, can hold many forms and the principles we have decide our rewards. It is thoroughly entertaining, yet conveys a very moral issue.
