Orsino is the first character introduced in the play. Wallowing in self indulgent melancholy mood, listening to music, he indulges in his passions for Olivia. This makes him seem unemployed since he has time to think about her, instead of affairs in the state. However there is evidence that he is a good ruler. Further on in the play, the Sea Captain tells Viola about Illyria, explaining that Orsino is a noble Duke in both “nature and in name.” This suggests that he did govern his country well.
He is very fickle. This is detected in the first scene. While obsessing over Olivia he asks for music to play but shortly after he demands “enough, no more.” This implies that he does not really know what his true feelings are; suggesting he is more in love with the idea of being in love. He has never confronted Olivia personally about his “feelings” towards her instead he sends pathetic, hollow, meaningless messages. A tactic he is using which is not winning Olivia over. As he is accustomed to getting his own way, he cannot accept Olivia’s rebuttal. With vanity and self-assuredness that comes with his social status, Orsino can’t understand why she is rejecting him.
This certainty that he can get what he wants is again revealed when he marries Viola. He is of course secured with knowledge Viola loves him, but his way of proposing to her: “Give me thy hand/And let me see thy women’s weeds.” This is not exactly a romantic gesture it also seems more like a demand than a request. Again an unromantic analogy was used when he said Olivia “purg’d the air of pestilence”- basically, he is saying she got rid of the plague. This reveals his lack of experience with love.
Orsino is a man with strong, clear views about what makes a successful partnership- the women should be younger than the man, women cannot love as deeply as men, and men rate physical attractiveness more highly than women. This reveals that he is quite shallow.
Olivia shares the same noble a status as Orsino. She was rather melodramatic when mourning for her father and brother. She decides to mourn for seven years and “water once a day her chamber round.” Olivia also vows to stay in chastity for the seven years and wear a veil at all times. It seems that she is more interested in the idea of mourning, like Orsino and his love. Olivia may be putting on this act to gain sympathy or attention.
She shows herself to be vain when she removes her veil in front of Viola. She is quick to snap out o her melancholy mood when she meets Viola showing her to be forward and determined. In this sense she resembles Orsino, wallowing in melancholy- she knows what she wants and she will do anything to get it. The removal of her veil is the big give away that her “mourning ritual” was with false pretence.
Olivia is quite a drama queen. When Feste is absent without any notification, she only pretends to mind. As Feste concocts an excuse – his task is to give the audience, as well as Olivia some light chatter befitting the comedy of the play. He chooses a logical argument. The witty clown says to Olivia: “I think his soul is in hell, Madonna.” Olivia obviously protests and says her brother soul is in “heaven, fool”. Feste then jumps on this opportunity and calls Olivia the “fool”, “to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven.” He talks truism in the form of nonsense and sets about proving who the real fool is. This is Feste’s ambiguous implication that Olivia is mourning too deeply.
The joke he made was approved by Olivia and it was also an insight to how aware Feste is to the moods around him. He knew his limitations, how far the joke could be taken.
Olivia tolerated cheeky Feste. She is clearly not mean spirited- as her Steward, Malvolio.
Malvolio despises Feste, jeering that he “has no more brain than a stone;” and “decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool.” We know this is far from the truth. Feste is very wise and is much more intellectually superior to Malvolio. He also claims that Feste needs an indulgent audience to be able to perform. Malvolio’s pettiness however, is reproved and Olivia turns against him, “O you are sick of self love, Malvolio” and hints he should be “generous, guiltless and free of decomposition” like Feste. In effect she is telling Malvolio he needs to ‘lighten up’.
Olivia shows many more examples of respect and tolerance for her servants. As mentioned before Feste knows he can get away with his absence, and it never occurs to Maria, Olivia’s gentlewoman, that Olivia could be angry with her for forging her handwriting in the letter left for Malvolio. This shows that she actually quite weak as her servants take advantage of their high regards with Olivia.
Olivia’s fairness is revealed when she tries to find out who has “notoriously abused” Malvolio, and later accepting Fabian’s explanation that, he deserves it. She then joins in with humiliating Malvolio further “Alas poor fool,” even his own employee is calling him a fool.
She does not pull rank over her servants- treating them all fairly and equally whether it being Steward or maid.
Olivia has servants to help run the house hold; however she is perfectly capable of organizing her own affairs efficiently. Sebastian, a little confused with all the unreal happenings that have taken part at his arrival in Illyria. He says she can “take and give back affairs and their dispatch, with such smooth, discreet and stable bearing.”
She proves to be quick witted and sharp. This is evidenced in the speed with which she thinks of sending Malvolio off with the ring as an excuse to bring back Viola. She later marches Sebastian off to get married before he changes his mind.
At our fir viewing of Fest, we acknowledge him as being a ‘free spirit’. He soon impresses us with his eloquence and his clever manipulation with words and makes them one thing but seem like another.
Feste’s main existence in the play is to demonstrate the paradox that wisdom can coexist with madness. Although he’s lowly termed in ranks he was able to trick the Duke. At the beginning of the last scene Orsino greets the clown, who talks in opposite, “Truly sir, better for my foes and the worse for my friends.” This means, that enemies are better than friends because friends lie but enemies tell the truth. After that witty remark which went down with Orsino, “there’s gold.” He got payed by Orsino. Feste tries to be clever and turns the ritual into a counting game, trying to get more money from Orsino. He succeeds, but the third time he was not so lucky.
Feste has the ability to use language to his full advantage, making him an extremely strong character.
Malvolio is one of the best examples of the deception in his character. As Olivia’s senior servant, Malvolio is one of the most complex character in the play. As a steward, he is employed to keep the house in order, which he does so with humourless efficiency. We see him doing little of his job, except for the episode when he rants and raves at the drunken revellers for their noisy form. This highlights his puritanical, killjoy nature which is not well endowered with the rest of the house. Malvolio presents himself as a strict, humourless, self obsessed character that finds it hard to pick up signals that make social interaction and ensure popularity. It is the lack of social skills that Maria exploits for devising a perfect prank.
It is rather sad and pathetic that he falls for the prank so easily with any arousing suspicion, but it shows he is just as human as everyone else and has the same desires. The way Shakespeare presents him, however, makes the idea of him as Olivia’s lover disgusting and wrong. Olivia does not understand what has come over Malvolio but shows her concern: “I would not have him miscarry for the half of my dowry”-this demonstrates it very clearly.
He’s passion towards Olivia is very amusing because someone younger and more dashing would better suit her. He then fantasises about marrying Olivia, thinking it would raise his status considerably. From this we understand he has a vivid imagination and yearns for companionship.
Malvolio religiously followed what the letter ordered him to do, without any hesitation. It orders him to wear “yellow stockings” and “cross-garter” Olivia. This behaviour totally defies his puritanical beliefs and suggests that he was using this as a cover to hide the fact he could not enjoy a laugh and make friends.
The prank that made Malvolio look like a madman was called “notorious abuse” that he was subjected to.
Malvolio was an unreasonable, sober, dull character, Fabian’s explanation to Olivia that he deserved this humiliation as a ‘tit for tat’. He says, “If that the injures by justly weighed/ That have on both sides passed.” This makes Malvolio look even smaller. He would not even be able to look at Olivia in the eye again. His final statement to the whole cast was “I’ll be reveng’d on the whole pack of you!” This is meant to be a menacing threat but is not taken into that context with the others.
Maria is a giggly, gossiping, good- time girl who may well be jealous of Malvolio; a valid motive for concocting the evil prank. She is mischievously clever, imitating Olivia’s handwriting which makes her a good match for Sir Toby. Regardless the fact that they are both very different in terms of status, there has been evidence of flirting between the play. Sir Toby addresses Maria as “my metal of India,” implying she is as precious as gold. They both eventually get married and go away. On Sir Toby behalf a lot of eyebrows will be raised for running of with a maid as he is a knight. It shows that he doesn’t care what others think of him, he does what he wants to.
Sir Toby, Olivia’s Uncle is a drunken blabbering fool. He lives the low life and likes a good time. His purpose to stay with his niece is to protect her from ‘gold-diggers’ and others that would exploit her venerability. However his niece is one of his least priorities. Sir Toby is scheming, clever and happy to exploit a dullard for his own amusement. This is the main reason why he persuaded Sir Andrew to stay, as well leeching money from him. This not a nice characteristic presented by the knight. He is also harsh when for the first time he tells Sir Andrew what he really thinks of him, calling him an “ass-head and coxcomb.” This displays his two faced nature to the audience and the rest of the characters in the play.
His general attitude is summed up in the comment: “I am sure care’s an enemy of life.” He means he has no care in life, it is like an enemy. He is a laid back man likes to enjoy a good laugh whether it results I n someone else being humiliated or miserable.
Sir Andrew is Sir Toby’s side kick. He pays for his and Sir Toby revels, not realising he is being used. He is gullible enough to be coaxed into thinking he has a chance with Olivia.
Although he is a knight- he is not respected even though he has a brave heroic title. It seems like a joke that someone like him can be named a knight. This could be a parody of true stereotypical knights. Compared to other characters he is very low in the character spectrum although his title is quite high.
At the end of the play even his “friend”, Sir Toby deceives him. He is a laughing stock- stealing some of the lime light from Malvolio. Many jokes in the play arise from his inadequate grasp on words. When he was introduced to Maria, Sir Andrew is subjected into making a fool out of himself from the misunderstanding of the word “accost.”
I conclude that there are few strong characters who understand themselves and know what they want; not being cloudy in their judgement.