Rather than waiting for his turn to come, Orsino imposes on her during her “seven years’ heat” of “sad remembrance”, sending messengers to seek audience who “might not be admitted”, and uses Viola/Cesario to “leap all civil bounds” in order to gain admittance, making Orsino a manipulator. However, he doesn’t actually love Olivia, he’s besotted with the idea of love, “If music be the food of love, play on, / Give me excess of it”. If he loved her, he’d be the person courting her, rather than his messengers.
Viola, however, would rather conform to time, “Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, / What my estate is.”, she’d rather fit in with the Elizabethan World Picture than go against it, which Orsino is doing. She insists on becoming Orsino’s servant boy, “What else may hap, to time I will commit”, after being shipwrecked in Illyria.
Olivia also goes against the Elizabethan World Picture. She is going against time by prolonging her grief for “a brother’s dead love”. She also commits herself to “seven years’ heat” without seeing men, yet falls in love with Viola / Cesario, going against her own choice, perhaps the world picture reasserting itself. Her “cloistress” life style shows the devotion and love she had towards her brother, which makes Orsino comment “To pay this debt of love but to a brother, / How will she love …” me; if she does that for her brothers love, what will she do for him.
Orsino becomes inconsistent in his actions, “If music be the food of love, play on…Enough, no more”, as do the other characters, pledging by the foundations of time, it ends up becoming distorted, fluidic, to fit in with their own purposes. Olivia, even though she has “abjur’d the company / And sight of men” for “seven years’ heat”, falls in love with Viola / Cesario, and ends up marrying Sebastian; and Orsino, who “loves” Olivia, ends up falling for Viola.
The idea of time becoming fluidic fits in with the image of the sea, with its inconsistencies; the time is first mentioned in Act 1 Scene 4, 3 days from when Viola met Orsino, and ends 3 months later in Act 5.
The images of the sea, and salt water, are associated with all three of the characters, but with differing meanings and results. Orsino compares the sea to “the spirit of love”, and how it has “thy capacity / Receiveth as the sea”, and says that anything of “validity and pitch” that enters the sea “falls into abatement and low price”. It seems a rather negative comparison to make, lowering the value of his love. Yet, it has relevance to Viola, for, involved in a shipwreck, she takes the image of a boy in order to serve to Orsino, “Conceal me what I am”, which in turn, cheapens her, for she is of a higher “estate” than the part she plays; she is fitting in with the Elizabethan World Picture; rather than changing the circumstances, “to crush this a little, it would bow to me” (Malvolio), she is adapting to them, taking “disguise” so that she might survive as a stranger. For Viola, the sea, though destructive in this instance (shipwrecking them, and possibly drowning Sebastian), brings about her love for Orsino, as without its force, they would not have met.
For Olivia, “eye-offending brine” is used to “season / A brother’s dead love”, a more negative statement. The “brine” makes Olivia cry, drawing out her mourning, yet the pun is on “season”, for “brine” is used to keep food fresh, to make it last longer, which she is doing with her mourning; it isn’t so much real mourning, but more like acted. Olivia is going against time in this instance, rather than moving on, which Viola has over the grief of Sebastian, she is prolonging her grief. “season” is also a term for a part of the year, perhaps referring to her discontinuing her grief when the time is right.
All three are acting roles; Orsino talks of his love for Olivia, although somewhat acting a part, for he is more in love with the idea of love; Olivia plays a role in her grief for her dead brother, her tears aren’t heartfelt, but are instead acted out; whilst Viola plays a more physical role, for she acts as Cesario for survival and to take employment under Orsino, where she then falls in love with him, and has to act as if she feels nothing.
The themes of love and time interlink throughout these scenes, and are in part explained by the use of the sea, and salt water, to show certain aspects of love, while time is used in conjunction with the Elizabethan World Picture to show how its in a constant change, and how they conflict between the differing characters.
