‘Methought she purged the air of pestilence’
Orsino has convinced himself that Olivia is his soul mate and that they are destined to be together, this only causes him heartache and anger.
Olivia shows some similarities to Orsino. She is quite sentimental herself, especially when her brother dies. When she claims she will mourn for her brother Feste points out the folly of her ways;
‘The more fool, Madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul being in heaven’
He helps the audience to understand the direction of the play and often acts as a commentator. The irony of this is that although Feste plays the fool, he is the wisest character in the play. Olivia can see the impracticality of her seven years of mourning and engages in banter before then remembers her vow;
‘Give me my veil; come throw it o’er my face’
She gives the appearance of mourning but doesn’t act out the physical motions. Her plans for grieving are unrealistic and she instantly has difficulty following them. This resembles Orsino; both the characters put on a charade and exaggerate their feelings. Nevertheless, this does not suggest Olivia is a bad character. She shows another version of love, a disguise to hide the truth suggests relationships are based on less substantial things. However, Olivia also falls quickly in love with Cesario and at times seems quite desperate, when pitied she claims;
‘That’s a degree to love’
This unrequited love is emotive to the audience and the dramatic irony is strong. Olivia is a less abstract than Orsino and requires less dramatic romantic gestures, she is also happy to marry below her social status. This shows she cares more about the person and this may strike a chord with the audience.
Viola is a character the audience tend to appreciate. She displays a less self-absorbed view of love and sees things from others point of view;
‘I pity you’
This sorrow she feels for Olivia shows she is not cruel and is more caring. This can be seen in the soliloquy in act two when Viola realises Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario;
‘Poor lady, she were better love a dream’
She feels sympathy for Olivia rather than worry for her own position and reputation. Viola understands the trouble she has caused yet still feels compassion for others this shows the strength and honesty of her character;
‘Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness’
She shows regret for her actions once she is aware they will cause others pain. This quote also connects appearance and reality. It illustrates that hiding the truth only results in difficulty for all. Viola’s initial lies and the trouble she created have evolved into a much larger web of deceit and she is conscious that the confusion and misunderstanding are all attributed to her. Viola is genuinely kind and a large part of her notion of love is loyalty. She is indignant when Olivia offers her pay for delivering Orsino’s message;
‘I am no fee’d post, lady; keep your purse’
She knows her role and shows complete loyalty to Orsino as she carries out her duties to woo Olivia for him. This also shows unconditional love. Viola’s attitude to love has a powerful influence on Orsino and towards the end of the play this is the view he comes to realise.
There are many different versions of love in the play and the most comic of these is Sir Toby and Maria. They provide an amusing sub plot to the more dramatic play. The dialogue between the two suggests that Maria will have a positive influence on Sir Toby and perhaps calm his nature. The couple are a suitable paring and they offer a light-hearted view on love and relationships. Malvolio is Olivia’s steward and his own ideas towards relationships are much more controversial. He is lead to believe, by Maria, Sir Toby, Feste, Fabian and Sir Andrew that Olivia has fallen in love with him. They use love as a weapon to revenge themselves on him in order to teach him a valuable lesson about arrogance. Malvolio exhibits signs of self-love and self-importance. He is only interested in the conquest and status he would gain, Olivia points out;
‘O, you are sick of self-love’
He portrays vanity and is utterly selfish; Shakespeare uses Malvolio to explore the idea of one-sided love that is purely for gain. Malvolio also appears to have a very disdainful view of love and this is displayed when he throws the ring Olivia has asked him to give to Cesario on the ground and walks off. He is only concerned with things that will benefit him. Sir Andrew is a character the audience feel compassion for. Although he is part of the trick played on Malvolio he does not realise Sir Toby is fooling him, and he is led to believe that Olivia is attracted to him while this could not be further from the truth. Sir Toby is using Sir Andrew and only wants his money. The audience feel pity for Sir Andrew, as he is the only character not to find a fitting match. He is seen as a gullible if not foolish character that is being taken advantage of. This is also another observation of love where trickery plays a large part, again linked to the theme of appearance and reality.
Act two, scene five connects to love through another theme. Malvolio is convinced Olivia is in love with him although she isn’t; the appearance and reality of things are often entirely different. Shakespeare uses this cleverly for dramatic irony and connects it to love whilst tying it to the language that ridicules Malvolio’s behaviour. This exploration of different views of love shows self-love and vanity are not rewarded because there is wrong motivation behind it.
The play features many marriages where people of similar backgrounds find appropriate companions. Once the confusion has been removed the main characters all make suitable matches. The play ends with Orsino and Viola’s marriage, this match is fitting due to the many comparisons he made with Cesario and women;
‘thy small pipe is as the maiden’s organ, shrill and sound’
Shakespeare plays on the dramatic irony and hints that a relationship will form at some stage after all has been revealed. The language in the play insinuates Orsino has been influenced by Viola’s ideas surrounding love. Their marriage offers a sentimental ending to the play that began in hard circumstances. The dramatic irony is constant throughout the play and is present to entertain the audience. This demonstrates Shakespeare’s skill and talent. His expertise is shown fully as he is able to capture the audience’s imagination. The play is improbable in its time frame yet Shakespeare twists the audience to his advantage, letting them recognize it is not real life. This ability allows the play to be engaging and the clever mix of precision stagecraft and script engrosses the audience.
The language in the play is different for each individual; Orsino uses drastic severe language such as ‘fantastical’ and ‘savage’ while Viola uses more realistic language to describe her feelings. Couplets are used frequently, not only at the end of the scenes; this helps to build up the theatrical nature and dramatic emotions in the play. The stagecraft itself is cleverly plotted and Shakespeare manages to keep the characters separated by using messengers to confer between the houses. Feste is the man link and he seems to understand the mystery surrounding the characters and he appears often in the play. The different settings help to differentiate the two camps. Feste’s songs offer more ironic commentary and he ends the play with a song because he reminds us the play is not reality, this emphasises the theatricality. The word play throughout the play also enables the audience to become more engrossed with the spirit of the plot. The main plot is quite emotional and the sub plot assists in sustaining the audience’s interest, it gives comic relief from the intense emotional moments. The play is designed cleverly to allow for these breaks and this has a good theatrical effect.
The characters gain a lot from each other; Viola teaches Orsino loyalty and duty and the audience can see a positive change in his approach to love as she helps him to understand that restraint is vital in relationships. The audience can also presume that Sebastian and Viola have similar tendencies and values so the same principles will have influenced Olivia. The audience can presume that Sir Andrew will find happiness as he moves on from Olivia’s estate and we can hope that Maria will stop Sir Toby’s bad habits. The play contains a variety of emotions and is comical, theatrical and very emotive. The range of feelings creates a powerful and appealing play based on one of the most desirable feelings, love. There are a variety of ideas based on love that feature heavily in the play and one of these is Viola’s constant positive attitude to the different relationships that have evolved;
‘O time, thou must untangle this, not I, it is too hard a knot for me t’untie’
This quote demonstrates that although there are vast amounts of confusion and mystery that need to be resolved, Viola knows that it will be corrected. This optimistic version of love shows that Viola has faith in love and believes all will work out in the end. As Viola predicted the problems are all resolved and the main characters all find love.
The play presents many different versions of love from platonic feelings such as Sebastian and Viola to the lovesick feelings similar to Romeo’s in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that Orsino displays. Like Orsino, Romeo was a character who the audience would feel needed to mature and be more realistic in feelings and language. These totally opposite versions are surveyed and the audience are produced with an array of varied emotions that are heavily connected to love. Personally, I found the play to be incredibly appealing and engaging. The storyline is both humorous and sad, with the comical elements outweighing the more gloomy ones. The play stirs many emotions and immerses the audience in the plot I found myself being drawn to the compassion of specific characters and the emotive language worked well. The play is enjoyable, amusing and cleverly crafted. The plot of the play surrounds the misreading of the characters actions. The difference between appearance and reality is repeatedly shown throughout the behaviour and conduct of the characters. The disguises people use to hide the truth lead to the confusion and mystery the play operates under, creating yet another version of love. This suggests we are possibly extensions of our own emotions and we generate these varied forms of love that have been adapted from one basic type. Shakespeare presents these ideas shrewdly concealed in the framework of the entertaining and humorous play.
By Kira Agass
