Hath stayed upon some favour that it loves”. Cesario admits it is true and says that the mystery woman is alot like Orsino and Orsino immediately thinks she is not worth it. He believes how a younger woman would be better for Cesario as her looks will fade so soon. This shows a real vain side to him and he contradicts himself because before he was going on about how Olivia is perfect in every way and how he cares about her inside and not her wealth and beauty. Orsino suggests to Cesario to find a very young virgin who has just “blossomed”. Cesario sadly agrees; women, often “die even when they to perfection grow”. Orsino tells Feste to sing a sad love song; the theme of the song is about the simple truth of the innocence of love. The song begins, "Come away, come away, death . . ." and goes on to unrequited love of which Viola, Orsino and Olivia are all suffering and the song also expresses the Duke‘s melancholy mood. The song also focuses on Viola, who has recently fallen in love with the Duke. The song relates to Orsino and how he is dying inside of his “love” for Olivia. After Feste makes a comment to himself about Orsino, Feste comments, “thy mind very opal”, about Orsino’s changeable mood. After Orsino pays his debt to Feste and when he and Cesario are alone, Orsino tells Cesario he must return to Olivia and the “sovereign cruelty”. Orsino thinks of his love as “more noble than the world” and that is not her riches that he wants and but her soul that he loves. Cesario grows bold and asks if there was “some lady“ who has “as great a pang of heart“ as he has for Olivia and what she would do if she was rejected. Orsino sees himself as the perfect man. Orsino replies with how women cannot love as deeply as men and can only love superficially, in the “palate”, not in the “liver”. He implies that a man’s love is constant while a woman’s love suffers “surfeit, cloyment, and revolt” This speech demonstrates that Orsino only cares about his own emotions and assumes what ever Olivia feels, cannot compare to his. But there is irony here because he refers to the qualities of a woman’s love which apply to his own infatuations. He claims that women love superficially and their feelings change easily but in fact he contradicts himself again as later in the play he transfers his feelings from Olivia to Viola. In this speech, Orsino’s opinion of love seems to be wrong on almost every count. Cesario becomes bolder and argues that women can be as passionate as men. Cesario then says that “his” father “had a daughter loved a man” with as much passion as he “himself” loves Olivia. Cesario says how she loved so passionately and privately that it became “like a worm i’th ‘bud” and fed on her “damask cheek”. The he says “We men may say more, swear more” but talk is empty. Cesario says she died and he is “all the daughters of” his father’s house. The duke gives Cesario a jewel and he is to present it to Olivia and he is to “bide no denay”, that is to not take no for an answer. Orsino is determined to win Olivia’s love.
We first see Viola in Act 1 Scene 2. The Captain, Viola and some sailors have survived the shipwreck and the Captain congratulates Viola on still being alive and he tells of how he saw Sebastian tied to a mast but he still doesn’t know of he is alive because he saw Sebastian drift off with the waves but still says there is a chance he is still alive. Viola appreciates the Captains concern and gives him some gold coins. Viola asks where she is and Captain replies Illyria and he says the country is being governed by a “noble duke”, “Duke Orsino”. Viola recognises that her father spoke of him and she thinks he is a bachelor. The Captain is not sure whether that is true anymore since there have been rumours that he seeks the love of “fair Olivia”. He also said that she is a virgin and is determined to stay that way. After her father and brother died she blocked men out of her life altogether. Viola is also mourning for her brother, so nothing would please her more than to serve Olivia. The captain, however, says that such a plan is impossible. Olivia will see no one. Viola conjures up and plan to disguise herself as a young eunuch, and she will pay the captain for his aid if he presents her to Duke Orsino. She will sing for the duke, play any number of musical instruments for him and she will introduce herself in his household. Viola and Olivia are in the same situation but are very different women. Olivia is able to indulge in her grief while Viola doesn’t have the time but deeply grieves for her brother but still can function in the practical world. Since Viola has no knowledge of this place and does not know anyone here she must use her wit, her intelligence, and her ability to examine situations and characters.
Act 1 Scene 5 is the first time see Olivia and Viola disguised as Cesario together. Cesario showers Olivia with compliments like “Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty” while avoiding questions referring to “his” status and background. Olivia seems to be intrigued with Cesario. Cesario continues but Olivia keeps being a bit of an annoyance and than Cesario says “I took great pains to study it” but Olivia will hear none of it. Olivia seems to be intrigued and eventually dismisses Maria so she can talk with Cesario in private about Orsino and how he wants Olivia’s hand in marriage. Cesario asks to see Olivia’s face ad Olivia responds with how it is “now out of your (Cesario’s) text”. She unveils her face which suggests that Olivia’s thoughts and feelings are far from sad ones. Cesario responds positively; “Excellently done, if God did all”. Cesario refers to Olivia as cruel if she would carry her “graces to the grave” and “leave the world no copy”. Cesario reassures Olivia of Orsino’s love by stating his very powerful message “he” was given by Orsino, “With adorations, fertile tears, With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire” but Olivia doubts that his love is true. She also says how she doesn’t really know him and he should stop trying to persuade her. These ideas of love are also reflected in Viola’s willow cabin speech. Viola says if she was the “man” trying to persuade Olivia she would make herself a cabin at her gate and write Olivia love songs and “sing them loud in the even in the dead of the night“, and call out Olivia’s name until the hills and air echoed. This was the ultimate confession of love for someone. Viola’s speeches did not reflect her Orsino’s thoughts but her own and she does hint her love for him in that speech. Olivia offers Cesario money for his pains but Cesario rejects it. Olivia remembers Cesario’s declaration: “I am a gentlemen” and is now aware she is falling in love with Cesario. She seems to have forgotten about her vow to mourn for seven years.
In Act 3 Scene 1, Olivia immediately asks for Cesario’s hand and name and he also answers that he is her servant but she objects and Cesario reminds Olivia that he is her servant because Orsino is her servant because of his love for her and Cesario is Orsino’s servant. Olivia wishes his thoughts “were blanks” rather than filled with her. She doesn’t want to hear of Orsino again or of his “suit”. Olivia confesses that the mystery of the forgotten ring was only an excuse so she could see Cesario again. Olivia hints of agonies of love she feels and practically begs for words of love from Cesario She feels herself being “baited” and put under “hard construction”. All Cesario answers with is “I pity you”. Olivia accepts Cesario’s rejection but does not hide her disappointment. How much better for her, she says, if her heart had cast her before "a lion" rather than before "a wolf". Its like she happy that it is Cesario is rejecting her. She says she will push Cesario no further but in her mind she envies the women who will “harvest” his youth. Cesario’s ready to go but before he does he asks if Olivia has any words for Orsino. Olivia suddenly changes her mind and asks Cesario to “stay”. This shows that Olivia is very much like Orsino because she is as changeable as the Duke. “I prithee tell me what thou think’st of me”. Olivia and Cesario both confess that they are not what they seem.
“That you do think you are not what you are.”
“If I think so, I think the same of you.”
“Then think you right: I am not what I am.”
“I would you were as I would have you be.”
Olivia just seems to lose herself.
“Cesario, by the roses of the spring,
By maid hood, honour, truth, and everything,
I love thee so that, maugre all thy pride,
Nor with nor reason can my passion hide.”
Olivia can’t take it anymore and just pours her heart out to Cesario with a beautiful declaration of love. Cesario cannot encourage Olivia because “he” has to keep his disguise and therefore reject Olivia’s declarations again. Cesario tells Olivia that he has “one heart” “that no woman has” and no woman “Shall be mistress of it”. and that he will no longer come to speak of Orsino’s love to her. Olivia still says “come again” in desperation that his heart will change and he will come to love her.
In the last scene, Olivia and her attendants arrive, and Orsino says that “heaven walks on earth”. When Olivia asks Orsino what he wants and then she accuses Cesario of breaking appointment with her. Orsino, frustrated now, turns to Cesario and blames him for Olivia rejecting him and he is ready to “tear out (Cesario from Olivia's) cruel eye” because she keeps glancing at Cesario. Orsino orders Cesario to come with him for “his thoughts are ripe in mischief” . Cesario replies that he goes with Orsino willingly; he would, for Orsino, "a thousand deaths die". He says that he loves Orsino "more than I love these eyes, more than my life . . . all the more, than e'er I shall love wife”. Even though Orsino values Cesario very much, he is wiling to "sacrifice the lamb . . . to spite a raven's heart."
Olivia is perplexed and calls the priest for proof that her and Cesario have been wed. When the priest says they have, Cesario is speechless and Orsino becomes furious. Orsino turns to Cesario and calls him a “dissembling cub” and then he tells Cesario to “take her, but direct thy feet
Where thou and I henceforth may never meet.” Orsino never wants to see Cesario again. Cesario protests but Olivia hushes him. When the key of the solution enters, Sebastian, Orsino is the first to express his astonishment at the identical appearance between Sebastian and Cesario, “One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons -
A natural perspective, that is and is not.” Antonio compares them as “an apple cleft in two” , you can’t have on without the other. Viola says how she had a father and a brother both named Sebastian and her father had a mole upon his brow and Sebastian interrupts saying so did his father, then Viola says how he died when she had numbered thirteen years and Sebastian also agrees that exactly the same about his father. Cesario reveals himself from his “masculine usurped attire” and says that “he” is Viola and she can prove it by taking them to the home of a sea captain who knows of her disguise and is keeping her women's clothes for her. Sebastian turns to Olivia and tells her that she has been "mistook". Had she married Cesario, she would "have been contracted to a maid”. But he gives her good news also. As her husband, he is a bit of a "both maid and man". Orsino turns to Viola and changes his feelings from Olivia to Viola and asks for Viola’s hand in marriage as he realises his “true” love for her.
The play ends on a happy note, with promise of happiness for almost everyone. Twelfth Night is a play of mixed moods. The primary issues of the entire play were disguise and love and they were consistent throughout. The main characters all had their own views of love and each endured the pains and pleasures but they all seem to be happy by the end since the theme of disguise has gone and all had been revealed once Sebastian came onto the scene in Act Scene 1.
