Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino compares the love of women and men by saying "Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More long, wavering, sooner lost, and worn, Than women's are." Discuss

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Twelfth Night Essay Y10

In the play, Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino compares the love of women and men by saying “Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More long, wavering, sooner lost, and worn, Than women’s are.” He believes that men love more strongly than women and that the man should be the older partner in marriage. When Duke Orsino mentions that the man’s love is giddy and unfirm, he means that women are more constant than men, and that women just look at something and like that thing immediately. When he states that a man’s love is more “longing, wavering, sooner lost, and worn,” he indicates that men love to depth and women just think love is on the tip of their tongue.

Duke Orsino is a lover who loves the idea of being in love, and sees love as the most imaginative and unreal of conditions. As Orsino says to Curio, “So full of shapes is fancy, That is alone is high fantastical” illustrates this. His first lover is Olivia who is of a high status and level in society. Duke Orsino sends a representative, Cesario (disguised as Viola), to pass his idea of love for Olivia and to woe on his behalf. The Duke is partly influenced by the looks of Olivia but is more interested in her position, like if she is equal to him, and her possessions. However, Cesario was his companion for about three months so at the end of Twelfth Night Duke Orsino changes his choice of lover from Olivia to Cesario as Olivia did not love him in the first place. This proves that men like Duke Orsino love with deep emotion but with no deep meaning to it.

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Olivia is a countess who instantly falls in love with Cesario in Act 1 Scene 5 just at first sight. However, Cesario (Viola) is in love with Orsino because of his hierarchy in society. Olivia falls in love with Cesario because of his youthful looks and feminine features. Towards the end of Twelfth Night Olivia fancies Sebastian because of his masculine features and his similar looks to Cesario. Yet, Olivia also finds out that Cesario is actually a woman (Viola) in disguise so she officially loves Sebastian in the end. This points out that Olivia’s love is unreal because ...

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