In the Twelfth Night there are many different types of love shown. Orsino’s love for Olivia is idealistic. Viola/Cesario’s love for Orsino is much more realistic as she sees the object of her affections on a daily basis and she knows the real Orsino, both the good and bad points. Viola/Cesario and Olivia both have a great love for their ‘dead’ brothers. Olivia shows this when she decides to go into mourning for seven years. Sir Toby and Andrew Aguecheek have a close ‘brotherly’ affection. Malvolio believes that Olivia loves him through Maria’s teasing and so seems to return her affection, but I think that Olivia is correct when she says that Malvolio loves no one but himself, ‘You are sick on self love Malvolio.’ We see that Shakespeare disapproves of Malvolio. He is conceited and full of self-importance. There is a kind of family love between Olivia and Sir Toby as she tolerates him even though he is a drunk. There is platonic love in this play and this is shown through Antonio and Sebastian. This is shown when Antonio takes great risks to help Sebastian.
The play is established in Orsino’s palace. This shows us that Orsino is going to be a main character. Orsino is a melancholy lover and this is shown in his dialogue throughout the whole play. A lot of hyperbole is used within Orsino’s speech. Orsino’s first speech, which is a soliloquy, is to do with the subject of love. ’If music be the food of love, play on.’ This shows that love will be a major theme in the play. It also shows Orsino believes music feeds his passion. Orsino has been created to be interested in love.
Orsino believes he is consumed by his passion for Olivia, he sees her as being the answer to all problems, ‘She purg’d the air of pestilence.’ Orsino exaggerates his love for Olivia; he says he loves her ‘with adoration’s, with fertile tears and groans of love.’ This makes Orsino seem as if he is obsessed with Olivia. The emotions that Orsino feels for Olivia are very strong and he believes he will never feel them about any other woman in his life. In the final scene, the only time Olivia and Orsino are on stage together, he describes her arrival with hyperbole, ‘ now heaven walks on Earth.’
Orsino has been created to have a really high opinion of himself. This is shown, particularly when Orsino says that if Olivia can go to such lengths of mourning for a dead brother then she will be completely obsessed when she falls in love with him. Orsino doesn’t say if Olivia falls in love with him, he says when. Orsino believes it will only be a matter of time before Olivia returns his love. Orsino imagines that he would be the whole world to Olivia, he sees himself as her fulfilment in life. This seems extremely presumptuous. Another example of Orsino’s opinion of himself is when he says that Viola/Cesario should remember him because he is the perfect example of a lover,
‘Remember me; For such as I am, all true lovers are, Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, Save in the constant image of the creature that is belov’d.’
Throughout the play Orsino sees himself as a victim of love. His desires are aggressive and he sees love as being hard and painful.
Orsino presumes that women are inferior to men in every way possible especially when it comes to love. Orsino has a constant image in his mind that men are able to love more strongly than women. Orsino advises Viola/Cesario on the matter of love and tells her that women are only good lovers and partners if they are younger than the man. He also says that women don’t stay beautiful for long, ‘For women are as roses, whose fair flower, Being once display’d, doth fall that very hour.’ Orsino reveals his real reason for loving Olivia to Viola/Cesario despite only knowing her for a short time. He says he loves Olivia for her looks and not for her social status or her wealth. Modern audiences would think Orsino was shallow and a chauvinist.
Orsino believed that no woman could ever love him as much as he loves Olivia. This however is untrue because Viola/Cesario loves Orsino much more than he could ever love Olivia. Viola/Cesario shows this all throughout the play as she tries constantly to woo Olivia for Orsino. We know that Viola/Cesario would love to be in Olivia’s position, ’I’ll do my best to woo your lady: yet a barful strife, whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Viola/Cesario’s love for Orsino could be described as ‘love at first sight’ as she seems to love him from their first meeting. I think Viola/Cesario is drawn to Orsino because she can see that when he loves he is constant. Viola/Cesario makes her love for Orsino quite clear to the audience but Orsino doesn’t read into Viola/Cesario’s speech too deeply. There is some dramatic irony when Orsino comments that Viola/Cesario has quite feminine features. Orsino is drawn to this youth but doesn’t know why.
By dressing as a man Viola/Cesario gains the respect of Orsino, something that a woman could not ever do. Orsino and all the men of his court also treat Viola/Cesario as an equal. However, had Viola/Cesario turned up at Orsino’s court dressed as a woman she would have been treated with disrespect and would have been thought of as an inferior.
Mistaken identity plays a major part in this play. Without mistaken identity the play would not be able to develop. By disguising herself as a man Viola/Cesario gets mistaken for a male, which was her intention and therefore is treated equally by Orsino.
When Viola/Cesario is reciting Orsino’s love messages to Olivia, she adds things because as a woman she knows the things that Olivia will want to hear. Olivia becomes more interested but is still constant in her refusal of Orsino. Olivia is attracted to the young ‘man’ who gives her messages of love from Orsino. She sends a ring after Viola/Cesario to let ‘him’ know she is interested in ‘him.’ Viola/Cesario is stunned and feels pity for Olivia when she realises Olivia is in love with her,'Poor Lady, she were better love a dream: Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness.’ Both Olivia and Viola/Cesario now love someone they can’t have because of a disguise.
Viola/Cesario makes it extremely clear to Olivia that she isn’t interested and her speech is rich in dramatic irony,
‘I have one heart, one bosom and one truth, and that no woman has, nor never none shall be mistress of it.’
Viola/Cesario makes it quite clear that she is not what she outwardly seems to be.
A second mistaken identity leads Viola/Cesario to believe that her brother, Sebastian may be alive. This happens when Antonio sees Viola/Cesario duelling with Andrew Aguecheek.
A third mistaken identity comes when Sir Toby and Andrew believe Sebastian to be Viola/Cesario. This ends up with Olivia also mistaking Sebastian to be Viola/Cesario and asking him to marry her, ‘Would thou’ldst be rul’d by me.’ Sebastian is a typical example of ‘love at first sight’ as he answers that he will marry Olivia even though she was calling him Cesario.
In the Twelfth Night Orsino keeps the same attitude towards women and love throughout the play, until the very end when it changes slightly.
When Orsino found out that Viola/Cesario was a woman, he realises that she has loved him all along and was describing her love for him,
‘Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times, thou never shouldst love a woman like to me.’
Orsino should now realise that women are not inferior to men and that they are able to love as strongly, but there is no reference in the text to show if he adopted this attitude. Orsino has accepted Viola/Cesario as a woman but he says he would like some more proof, ‘He hath not told us of the captain yet.’ Orsino says that when he gets his proof Viola/Cesario will be his wife. There is almost an echo of the hyperbole that Orsino used at the beginning of the play when he says, ‘and his fancy’s Queen.’
The whole final scene is proof that Orsino was a melancholy lover and was in love with the idea of being in love rather than being in love with Olivia. We realise this because Orsino turns his attentions completely onto Viola/Cesario when he finds out Olivia is married to Sebastian and that Viola/Cesario is a woman disguised as a man.
Orsino’s attitude towards women doesn’t really change because he just expects that Viola/Cesario will consent to be his wife. Orsino’s attitude should change because he has seen the lengths that Viola/Cesario has gone to out of love for him. He should now have a lot of respect for women.
